Eric Bloodaxe The Viking : 'I Shall Die Laughing'

Eric Bloodaxe embodies the savagery of Norse legend, a life of struggle and murderous violence. This, the first biography, explores the legend and the reality.

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, realities being teased out by the author from sparse chronicle sources, enigmatic and often contradictory sagas. But the whole picture encapsulates the very tenor, essence and history of the Viking Age. Saga sources tell us that by the age of 12, Eric was already a warrior and a fearsome one, leading terrible raids against the Balts and Scots, building his reputation and harvesting resources to pay his hird. He’d 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 rule became increasingly oppressive and despotic. Forced into exile in Orkney, he became an overlord there- and pirate. As ruler of Northumbria he would die at the battle of Stainmore in 954, at the incredible age of 69.