The Battle of Stamford Bridge, retold
You might know this story. In January 1066, the English king, Edward the Confessor, died without an heir. The next day, Harold Godwinson was crowned king.
The problem? Two other men believed the throne was theirs. One was William, Duke of Normandy. The other was Harald Sigurdsson, King of Norway, whom men called Hardråde, or “the hard ruler.” Both men wasted little time, and in the fall of that year, came to England’s shores to claim the throne.
The first to arrive was Harald Hardråde with 300 ships…
History’s outline
The English and Norse armies met on the field at Stamford Bridge, not far from York in late September. We have the outline. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in its various manuscripts, tells us that the English caught the Northmen “unawares.” That “for a long time of the day, [they] continued fighting,” and “there made great slaughter.” We read, too, that there stood on the bridge over the River Derwent a Northman who held the English at bay until a spear took him down. And that, after Harald Hardråde and his English ally, Earl Tostig, fell, the Northmen fled and returned home in twenty-four ships. Today, it is considered by many to be the end of he Viking Age.
But what was it like to be on the field that autumn day? To stand in the press of shields and bodies? To smell the fear of men as spears flew and axes fell?
A story retold
Now, to commemorate the battle’s 960th anniversary, I was lucky enough to be asked to join a host of fantastic authors in bringing the battle back to life. The new anthology is titled Stamford Bridge 1066: A Viking Anthology, and it’ll be out at the end of September.
Told from multiple perspectives by authors who specialize in this period, the anthology recounts the stories of kings and reeves, heroes and priests – even trees – who lived through that event and saw firsthand the triumphs and horrors that unfolded.
A group of talented authors
I am deeply grateful to Ole Åsli and Tony Bakkejord for organizing, editing, and contributing to this anthology. Without them, this book would never have come to pass.
I am also incredibly honored to join the bevy of authors Åsli and Bakkejord gathered for this retelling. They are among the finest writers of historical fiction today. In alphabetical order, they are:
- Åsli & Bakkejord
- Theodore Brun
- Angus Donald
- Will Dowling
- Peter Gibbons
- Matthew Harffy
- Justin Hill
- Tim Hodkinson
- M. Thomas Kingsley
- Giles Kristian
- Mark Oxbrow
- MJ Porter
Advanced reader copies (ARCs) now available
Pre-orders are coming soon. In the meantime, for those interested in receiving an advance reader copy for review, please email me at eric [at] ericschumacher.net, and I can provide a link.
