Eric Bloodaxe The Viking: 'I Shall Die Laughing'

By John Sadler Eric Bloodaxe (or Brother-Slayer) might well claim to be the last of the Vikings, his career a real-life episode of Game of Thrones, his life a true Norse saga, the realities teased out by the author from sparse chronicle sources and enigmatic, often contradictory sagas. The whole picture nevertheless encapsulates the very tenor and essence of the Viking Age. Saga sources tell us that by the age of twelve Eric was already a fearsome warrior, leading murderous raids against the Balts and Scots, building his reputation and harvesting resources to pay his hird. He would be needing both if he was to rule. In a bloody civil war with several of his half-brothers, he defeated and killed them to rule Norway, but his personal dominion became increasingly oppressive and despotic. Forced into exile in Orkney, he became an overlord there and a pirate. As ruler of Northumbria, he would die at the battle of Stainmore in 954 at the incredible age of sixty-nine. In retelling the story of Eric Bloodaxe, John Sadler analyses the rise of the House of Wessex, the Norse kingdom of Jorvik, Athelstan and the battle of Brunanburh.

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