Are there any biographies out there on the life of Harald Hardrada?

by Silcy

Hiya! I'm just curious about whether or not any biographies exist that cover the life of, 'The last great Viking' Harald Hardrada. I've tried searching on my own, but I'll admit that I'm not the best at looking for academic sources. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

rimeroyal

I can't find any books that focus exclusively on Harald Sigurdsson (aka "Hardrada"), no, but there are a few sources that will get you started in the right direction. These are the English references Claus Krag includes in his (relatively short) bio of him in the ODNB.

  • E.A. Freeman, The history of the Norman conquest of England, vol. 3 (book, over a century old, but not useless)
  • F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (book)
  • S. Blöndal, "The last exploits of Harald Sigurdsson in Greek service," in Classica et Mediaevalia, 2 (1939) (journal article)

Also possibly useful:

  • Oleksandr M. Fylypchuk, "Harald Sigurdsson and the Russo-Byzantine War of 1043" in Slovene (2014) (journal article)

Good luck!