He was one of Britain’s best known popular historians.
But despite the death of Desmond Seward aged 86 in April 2022, the last book he wrote before his passing continues to be of interest, and surely found its way into many a Christmas stocking over the festive season.
What’s the book about?
The Greatest Viking: The Life of Olav Haraldsson, tells the true story of a ruthless Viking warrior who named his most prized battle weapon after the Norse goddess of death.
Olav Haraldsson and his mercenaries wrought terror and destruction from the Baltic to Galicia in the early 11th century.
Thousands were put to the sword, enslaved or ransomed.
In England, Canterbury was sacked, its archbishop murdered and London Bridge pulled down.
The loot amassed from years of plunder helped Olav win the throne of Norway, and a century after his death he was proclaimed ‘Eternal King’ and has been a national hero there ever since.
Conversion to Christianity
Despite his bloodthirsty beginnings, Olav converted to Christianity and, in a personal vendetta against the old Norse gods, made Norway Christian too, thereby changing irrevocably the Viking world he was born into.
In Scotland, he is known for forcing the population of Orkney to convert to Christianity.
Told with reference to Norse sagas, early chronicles and the work of modern scholars, Desmond Seward’s book paints an intensely vivid and colourful portrait of the life and times of arguably the greatest Viking of them all.
“This is the life of a Viking hero who became Norges evige Konge, ‘Eternal King of Norway’,” wrote Seward.
“He was Olav Haraldsson, who reigned at the beginning of the first millennium, and we know more about him than about any other Viking.
“For Norwegians, he haunts their landscape, even more important to them than Arthur is to the British.
“But unlike Britain’s ‘once and future king’ he really existed, and like Arthur and Excalibur his story begins with a sword, taken from a burial mound instead of a stone.
“Unlike Arthur, his life was ended by an axe that became his symbol.”
21st century interest
Seward explained how each year Haraldsson’s shrine at Nidaros attracts more and more pilgrims.
Part of his spell lies in the contrast between his lie as a peculiarly ferocious Viking and as the man who made Norway Christian.
Demon haunted and god haunted, he emerges from the company of Odin and Thor into the High Middle Ages – the world of illuminated manuscripts, Romanesque sculpture and Gregorian chant.
“When a very young man he was dramatically successful in raids along the Baltic, in France and Spain, above all in England,” said Seward.
“Yet he also doomed the Viking way of life to extinction by ensuring that Norway abandoned its ancient gods.
“What is seldom taken into account is how strong was the hold of the old pagan deities on the Norse people, which makes his achievement in overthrowing them all the more remarkable. Understandably, he made many enemies.”
Legacy of Desmond Seward
Desmond Seward wrote professionally for over 50 years and was the author of over 30 books of history and travel.
Those books ranged from a study of the Hundred Years’ War to a comparative biography of Napoleon and Hitler.
Many have been translated, into 12 languages, including seven into Mandarin.
Born in 1935 in Paris where his father was an industrialist – managing director of Timken-Française S.A. – his was an Anglo-Irish family who had been wine merchants at Bordeaux since the 1870s.
It was a background that instilled a lasting love of France and the French.
Seward was a founder of the Association de Lassaye, dedicated to preserving a 15thC château at Lassaye-les-Châteaux in Mayenne owned by French cousins.
He was educated at Ampleforth and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge – where he was an exhibitioner in history.
While believing there is no substitute for a first hand study of primary sources, he was also convinced that readability and accessibility are an essential part of the historical process.
In 1991, in a book of essays on Brooks’s, co-edited with Philip Ziegler, he unveiled the true identity of the model for the great anti-hero Widmerpool in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to The Music of Time.
In 2019 Seward produced what was regarded by some critics as one of his best works, The King Over the Water, a history of the Jacobites.
Where to get The Greatest Viking
The Greatest Viking: The Life of Olav Haraldsson by Desmond Seward, published by Birlinn, is out now priced £22.
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