Harald’s small warband surrounded the convent while a couple of warriors went a short way up the road to intercept any escapees and warn of any rescuers. Then the main band went in, seeking supplies, loot, and their pleasure with the nuns, in all of which they were fully satisfied. Sure enough a horseman burst away, and sure enough he was brought down and captured. The nun who’d acted like the boy rider’s mother was repeatedly raped and murdered during the incident and the fifteen year old Ranulf de Lannion’s resolve to destroy Hardrada was born.

Burr follows General, and later King, Hardrada and de Lannion’s progress through the Rus, Miklagard and Norway. Hardrada’s battles are fierce, he operates a seek and destroy policy on all who oppose him, pillaging, raping and exterminating his way around the eastern Mediterranean with the strategic and tactical support of his invaluable secretary Ranulf.

de Lannion’s long wait for revenge comes to its inevitable climax in September 1066 at Stamford Bridge, when he tricks Harald into entering a surrendered York with his army but without armour and the vikings are surprised and destroyed by Harold Godwinson.

Historically this matches what little I know about Hardrada: his exile from Norway, his rise to become one of the most senior Generals in the Byzantine army, his exploits there and later in Norway and of course his invasion of Britain with an army twice the size of William’s just weeks before The Bastard invaded in the south. Fertile grounds for novelists here, and the motivations suggested for Tostig I hadn’t heard before.

It’s an easy read: a story of passion and lust, cold revenge and hot battles. But, despite all the sex, battles and fighting it’s not a gripping or involving novel. The tale is told dispassionately and with a detached, observational style, in sharp contradiction to the storyline. In the end it’s all a bit of a letdown.

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