Harald Hardrada

Exile, mercenary, Viking king. Harald Hardrada, 'Thunderbolt of the North', fought his way from Norway to Byzantium, from the streets of Constantinople to the battlefields of Sicily. He married a princess, blinded an emperor, and nearly conquered England.

Today, Dr Wayne Bartlett joins us to tell the astonishing story of the last great Viking, a man who shook the medieval world before meeting his end at Stamford Bridge in 1066.

Wayne's book is called "Thunderbolt of the North: Harald Hardrada, Viking King".

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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