Hollway, Don Hammer of the Gods

King Olaf's Viking Conquest

The book tells the extraordinary saga of Olaf Tryggvason warlord, wanderer, king and crusader whose life rivals the most legendary figures of Viking lore. Born an exile and hunted from birth, Olaf survived slavery, betrayal and shipwreck to become a warrior feared throughout the Viking world, from the icy fjords of Norway to the courts of Kiev, the slave markets of the Baltic and the battlefields of England and Ireland. His rise would shake the foundations of Norse society, forge new kingdoms and spark a holy war against the old gods themselves. In an age of axes and flames, when the Viking world stood at the crossroads between pagan traditions and the spread of Christianity, Olaf emerged as the most passionate adherent of the new faith with a sword in one hand and a cross in the other. Drawing on a wealth of early medieval sources, from Icelandic sagas and skaldic poems to Byzantine and Anglo-Saxon chronicles, Don Hollway brings the world of Olaf Tryggvason to life and pierces the legend to reveal the man behind the myth. For readers of Bernard Cornwell and lovers of Viking history, Hammer of the Gods is the epic story of a great Norse king whose fate shaped the destiny of an entire civilisation.