The first volume in an epic trilogy featuring the most fabled warrior in Norse lore: the lusty and powerful Viking king and conqueror Harald Hardrede

Here begins the glorious tale of the last of the Viking kings. At seventeen, Harald Sigurdharson—one day to be called Hardrede—tastes the bitter nectar of blood and battle for the first time, and from that day forward he will forever crave the intoxicating brew of war. Though he knows it is his destiny to conquer and to rule, he is still young and the throne he covets is beyond his grasp. In the meantime, the wide world beckons. Setting out from Norway after a great series of mercenary adventures in Sweden and Russia, the now towering seven-foot-tall Harald arrives at Constantinople on the Golden Horn. In the heart of an empire choking on its own intrigues and excesses, as a member of the Varangian Guard—the foreign warriors entrusted with the safety of the Byzantine Emperor—and a tireless suitor to an enticing beauty from a powerful clan, Harald carves out his legend in flesh, bone, and blood. But his true path stretches to the other side of the world, for he must ultimately return to Norway, his homeland, to claim his royal birthright.

An acclaimed Golden Age master of fantasy and science fiction, the remarkable Poul Anderson now turns to epic historical fiction, drawing from the pages of Norse legend to spin the breathtaking yarn of Norway’s most glorious hero, the fabled eleventh-century conqueror-king who could not be bested in battle or sport.