Sign of the Raven

Last Viking #3

by Poul Anderson

The 3rd in a series about Harald Sigurdharsson (Harald Hardrada) the Lightning of the North.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical

Paperback

First published June 1, 1980

About the author

Pseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley.

Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]

Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.


Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sign of the Raven brings Poul Anderson’s Last Viking trilogy to a powerful end. Though I enjoyed the earlier two books, something was lacking. There was a remoteness to the character of Harald Hardrede that left me never fully captured by the first two volumes. This third and final book changed all of that.

In this book, Anderson finally arrived at the great set piece of Harald’s life - his great invasion of England in 1066, and his final battles at Fulford and Stamford Bridge. It brought out the best in his writing. Harald and all the characters bloomed into life, and the drama of the story fully engulfed and captured me. It is a fitting retelling of the end of the Viking Age and the last and greatest of the Vikings, and it is worth reading the entire trilogy for the rewarding payoff this final volume delivers.

[Carl Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Last Viking” Series

One does not need to familiarize oneself very much with Poul Anderson’s works before learning that he had – and sometimes freely and indulged – a serious “Viking obsession”. For those who like slight old-fashioned fantasy or historical fiction set in the Viking Age, this is a good thing.

“The Last Viking” series was published as a trilogy of three separate paperbacks in 1980. In fact, these were co-written with Poul’s wife, Karen Anderson, though her name does not usually appear in the credits on published versions. No individual book exceeds 300 pages, making the series as a whole still shorter than a modern fantasy or historical fiction novel.

Together, “The Last Viking” series recounts in fictionalized form the life and times of Harald “Hardrada” (i.e., the “hard-ruler”) Sigurdarson (Old Norse: Haraldr harðráða Sigurðarson), king of Norway in the early/mid-11th century AD. The Andersons were not the first modern authors to tackle this subject nor were they to be the last.

Harald himself was a colorful, complicated figure whose eventful career took him from Scandinavia to Byzantium before it ended in England. The main source for his life is his saga within the Heimskringla compendium of sagas of Norwegian kings (where it is perhaps the most readable for a modern audience), though the Andersons make a point of having dug into other medieval Danish, Byzantine, German, and English sources to round out their own take on Harald’s tale. This is, overall, not a bad thing, though they sometimes seem a little too beholden to their sources, cramming anecdotes or references to anecdotes – not to mention a fair bit of historical background into expository dialogue or plain info-dumps. One sometimes feels that there is perhaps more than enough detail for books of these lengths; or, alternatively, the books needed to be longer to provide adequate scope to the material. These are, moreover, mid-20th-century (more than even late-20th-century) novels, but with deep roots in the historical novels of previous generations. Though not going “full William Morris”, the Andersons use archaic or archaizing terms freely (many modern readers may need to reach for a well-stocked dictionary) and cleave system for Anglicizing Old Norse names that may occasionally cause even the silent reader to stumble.

On the other hand, at their best, the narrative and descriptions are rich with evocative prose, and there’s little doubt that the authors (presumably Poul, especially) have a deep feeling for their subject and setting. If one has a taste for Viking-Age adventure helmed by a driven, somewhat flawed, but always compelling protagonist in somewhat stentorian but often vibrant language, then the Andersons will deliver for you in “The Last Viking” series.

The Sign of the Raven (The Last Viking, #3)

The third book in the series, The Sign of the Raven, covers the final few years of the life of Harald Harðráða from c. 1061 to 1066. That this book has approximately the same number of pages for its 4 or 5 years as each of the other books uses for a decade and a half should let you know that Harald’s last years were not uneventful ones.

The historical Harald would have been nearing 50 at this point – a more than respectable age for an early medieval warrior-king. Harald though, is not content to rest. Indeed, he is not really content in any way. His family life is a bit of a mess, as he alternately quarrels and reconciles with both his formal wife, Elizabeth, and his concubine Thora. He struggles to understand his children by both. His eldest sons, Magnus and Olaf, are problems in different ways. Olaf is quiet, reserved, and unprepossessing, and thus a bafflement to the larger-than-life Harald. In contrast, Magnus is forward and brash, which Harald perhaps understands better, though those qualities in a teenager untampered by years of experience are their own headache. Another headache is Norway itself, which he holds tightly thanks to years of working to eliminate enemies and rivals – though his methods in doing so have won him perhaps at least as much enmity as respect. Meanwhile, his long years of campaigns in Denmark have brought him no closer to winning its crown, and circumstances (not least the grumbling of his Norwegian levies) ultimately force him to come to terms with his Danish rival Svein. Also having come to nothing was his curious exploratory expedition into the Arctic, with which the preceding book closed. What’s an aging and frustrated king to do?

You might buy a compensatory Ferrari – but Harald plans to conquer England.

In Harald’s childhood and youth, England was part of the Danish King Knut’s “North Sea Empire”, which besides England and Denmark also included Norway (and, at least briefly, parts of Sweden). Though the chain of logic will seem convoluted to many modern readers, Harald considers himself heir of his own nephew Magnus, who considered himself the heir of Knut’s son Harthacnut – and thus with as good a claim on the English throne as pretty much anyone else.

The current English king, Edward the Confessor, is old, ailing, and without an heir. Unsurprisingly, Harald is not the only one eyeing the soon-to-be-vacant English throne. The eldest son of the powerful English Earl Godwin, Harold (with an “o”, not to be confused with our protagonist, Harald with an “a”!) is locally well-placed. He lacks any real descent from the traditional English royal line, but legally the English kingship is elective rather than actually hereditary. Another claimant (also unrelated) is Duke William of Normandy, who considers the English throne to have been promised to him by Edward – and who coerces a promise regarding this out of English Harold when William has him in his power. But, ultimately, everyone knows that possession of the English throne has little really to do with blood, promises, or even the electoral powers of the English nobility. It is a matter of who can take it – and then keep it.

Harald of Norway plans to be the one to do so. At his age, and in his situation, what has he to lose, after all?

Most of the book concerns the immediate background to the events of “1066 and All That”, covering the interactions between Harold Godwinsson and his brother Tostig, William of Normandy, and of course Harald of Norway himself. To make a long story short, Harald sails from Norway and raids down the east coast of Britain from the North, landing his army properly near York (always the center of Norse ambitions in England) and defeating the local English forces. Unexpectedly, the English army under Harold Godwinsson arrives some days later, and the Norwegian army is caught off-guard. Norwegian Harald’s story began for us in the first book with the cataclysmic Battle of Stiklestad, in which his brother St. Oláf was slain and Harald forced into the foreign exile that would shape his personality and subsequent career. That career now ends with his death in the cataclysmic Battle of Stamford Bridge, which moreover sees the devastation of the Norwegian army at large. Harald’s sons Magnus and Olaf limp back to Norway with those who remain – and the narrative largely ends at this point. The book formally ends with a flash-forward to the son of one of Harald’s companions visiting the widowed Elizabeth in Russia, where she has become an abbess, and they muse over what might have become, had Harald prevailed or lived.

Other than briefly recounting the outcome of the struggle for England – in which the English army, weakened in its victory against the Norwegians at Stamford Bridge, is itself defeated by the Normans, with English Harold slain and William taking the throne – the Andersons have little to say about the future of Norway post-Harald. The focus of their novels is very much on the man himself. Yet one feels that the reader might be interested to know something of this, as it reflects on both Harald’s triumph and tragedy. Though his efforts to build himself an absolute monarchy in Norway – which included the monetization of the economy and fending off the political influence of the Church – earned him a difficult reputation amongst those living through them (or dying in them), these seem to have paid for son(s). Though Magnus Haraldsson died of an illness only three years after his father, Olaf (known as kýrri, “the Peaceful”) went on to reign until 1093. Olaf Haraldsson himself did much to continue strengthening the power of the monarchy and the stability of the kingdom, though the seeds his father had sewn in these regards probably bore Olaf considerable fruit.

Harald himself would retain a complicated legacy in medieval Norse literature (and subsequent Scandinavian historiography). While elements of folkloric hyperbole would creep into his medieval biographies, the historical Harald’s genuinely wide-ranging and (melo)dramatic career justly makes him the stuff of legend. He was clearly recognized as a “complicated” figure, no doubt from within his own lifetime onwards: at once charismatic and admirable, as well as Machiavellian – but also fallible. The Andersons’ “The Last Viking” trilogy seems to see them not just willingly complicit in Harald’s myth but also as painting the flaws of the man to help a modern (or at least a mid-/late-20th century!) audience contemplate the complexities of a figure who, fairly enough, has exercised a certain fascination for nearly a thousand years.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the last in the trilogy and I think the best. The climactic battle scene is the best one ever put on paper in fantasy fiction.

[Michael Drakich · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a note, I read all three books of the series before writing this review.

This series is an interesting juxtaposition of fantasy and actual history. Prior to reading these books, I had actually reviewed what historical facts I could garner on the main character Harald Sigurdsson to use in my novel, Lest The Dew Rust Them, so the major facts in the novel are exact, while clearly, the minutiae details are fabrications by the author. Because all of the major facts are true, do I consider the novel an historical fiction or an actual historical? I am somewhat torn between the two distinctions.

I would recommend this series to any history buff who would appreciate a personal embellishment to the facts.

This last book wraps up Harald's life until his ultimate demise at The Battle At Stamford Bridge. I was deflated by the author's depiction of this final battle. The facts are well recorded in history yet I felt it was shortchanged in this accounting. This was where he died! I needed more in the way of an emotional showing and greater detail. As a result, my review of this novel is only three stars and of the entire series, a three-star review as well.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

So the trilogy concludes. I have to admit, although this wasn't bad, I felt like Anderson was really drawing out the ending. You could tell that Harald was heading for his demise a long way off - tons of omens, Thora is suddenly counselling caution. There are long scenes of Harald with both his wives. There are long scenes of nothing happening. Harald isn't someone whose death is a great tragedy - he spent his life killing, pillaging and burning innocent people, so now I'm supposed to care that he goes the same way? He led a brutal life, and then someone killed him. So let's not drag it out. The ending of this book felt really padded.

Otherwise, the book wasn't bad, and Harald was a little more palatable than in the middle book, but I think Anderson could have cut this one short, and made it into a duology rather than a trilogy, and it would've been better.

[Bradley Mork · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like tales about Vikings you'll like this.

[Maggie]

Bx,Rokp

[Sverre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reviewed under Book 1 'The Golden Horn'