The Last Viking cover art

The Last Viking

The True Story of King Harald Hardrada

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Last Viking

By: Don Hollway
Narrated by: Mark Meadows
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents The Last Viking by Don Hollway, read by Mark Meadows.

‘The Last Viking is a masterful and pulse-pounding narrative that transports the reader into the middle of the action.’ Carl Gnam, Military Heritage

Harald Sigurdsson burst into history as a teenaged youth in a Viking battle from which he escaped with little more than his life and a thirst for vengeance. But from these humble origins, he became one of Norway’s most legendary kings. The Last Viking is a fast-moving narrative account of the life of King Harald Hardrada, as he journeyed across the medieval world, from the frozen wastelands of the North to the glittering towers of Byzantium and the passions of the Holy Land, until his warrior death on the battlefield in England.

Combining Norse sagas, Byzantine accounts, Anglo-Saxon chronicles, and even King Harald’s own verse and prose into a single, compelling story, Don Hollway vividly depicts the violence and spectacle of the late Viking era and delves into the dramatic events that brought an end to almost three centuries of Norse conquest and expansion.©2021 Don Hollway (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Europe Great Britain Military Scandinavia Middle Ages Viking Royalty Norse Norse Vikings

Listeners also enjoyed...

 At the Gates of Rome cover art
Never Greater Slaughter cover art
Battle for the Island Kingdom cover art
Viking Blood and Blade cover art
The Wolf Age cover art
Æthelflæd cover art
The Greatest Viking cover art
Children of Ash and Elm cover art
The Eagle and the Lion cover art
The Anglo-Saxon World cover art
Warrior and Protector cover art
In Search of the Dark Ages cover art
A War of Empires cover art
The White Ship cover art
Demetrius cover art
Defenders of the West cover art

Critic reviews

"Riveting! [Listen to] this [audiobook] and be prepared to see it through to the end. Fascinating and thoroughly engaging!" (Edward Zapletal, History Magazine)

"The Last Viking is a masterful and pulse-pounding narrative that transports the [listener] into the middle of the action." (Carl Gnam, Military Heritage)

"The story pulls you in, and doesn't let go." (Stephen Harding, New York Times best-selling author of The Last Battle)
All stars
Most relevant  
loved this. learnt so much about Byzantium empire of the time too. hardrada was truly a flawed but amazing man.

gutted when finished. a truly amazing man. 👏Sean.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don Holloway has mixed and matched all the available sagas about Harald in a compelling and easy to listen to way. It helps to have the fabulous Mark Meadows narrating. I look forward to more tales from the author and narrator!

A great way to re-tell the sagas

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Yes, the events may be debatable, as made clear in the book, but what a story!! Up there with the best audiobooks I’ve listened to.

A gripping adventure

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A history I knew nothing about except his name. As long as you don't expect to keep up with all the family trees etc it's an absorbing listen and very enjoyable.

excellent narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book is full of assumptions and hearsay. Decades are missing too. If you want to know about HH. Read the original sources.

True story?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
struggled to finish this lengthy 'saga' of the Vikings. learned new things about their times in the East and Constantinople and a disappointing final flourish of the events of Stanford Bridge which I had expected to be the main thrust of the book.

disappointed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.