191. Later he would claim that his father was also descended from Harald Fairhair. While certainly possible, this is most likely an invention to strengthen his dynastic ambitions.
192. In the attack, Olaf allegedly had his men attach ropes to London Bridge and row upstream, pulling the entire structure down. Although it’s highly unlikely, this episode has been suggested as the origin of the nursery rhyme.
193. At the time, canonization was usually a local matter. Olaf’s championing of Christianity in one of the more benighted corners of Scandinavia won him the admiration of Rome.
194. His harsh treatment of the rebels earned him the nickname ‘the Bulgar-burner’.
195. Physically, Maniaces was a man that the Viking Harald could respect far more than the diminutive emperor. One Greek chronicler claimed that the general’s appearance was “neither gentle nor pleasing, but put one in mind of a tempest… his hands seemed made for tearing down walls or for smashing doors of bronze.”
196. William would win lasting fame – and his nickname – by defeating the emir of Syracuse in single combat. One of his brothers, Robert Guiscard, would lead an attack on Constantinople, another, Roger, would conquer Sicily and found a powerful Norman Kingdom.
197. A later Norse Saga claims that the real reason was that the Empress Zoë - now in her mid sixties - had fallen in love with him. When he spurned her advances, she threw him in prison.
198. According to the Vikings, he bypassed the great chain guarding the imperial harbor by positioning his crew at the back of his boat. When the front of the vessel had cleared the chain, he rushed everyone to the front, tipping it over the barrier.
199. Harald’s wealth clearly impressed the Danish king, Svein Estridsson. In particular, one of the coins Harald brought back – the (now quite rare) gold Byzantine nomisma of Michael IV – provided the model for the Danish king’s money. He released a silver penny that was an exact copy of the Byzantine coin.
200. One account claims that the banner itself was the cause of the civil war. When asked by the Danish king, Svein Estridsson, what his most prized possession was, Harald responded that it was the Land-Waster because he had never lost a battle while holding it. This failed to convince the skeptical Svein, who casually remarked that he would only believe it if Harald attacked a real enemy like Magnus and won three times in a row to show it wasn’t a fluke.
201. Magnus, known as ‘the Good’, wrote down the laws of Norway on a parchment which - due to its color - is called the Grey Goose. It is a surprisingly enlightened collection of edicts ranging from weights and measures to succor for the sick and the poor. It was transmitted to the rest of Europe through the Hanseatic League and became the basis for much of modern European sea law.
202. In time, Oslo would become the national capital.
203. Supposedly the bridge was blocked by a single giant Norseman who held the entire Anglo-Saxon army at bay, building a defensive wall with the corpses of the forty men that he had dispatched. He was finally killed by an enterprising Englishman who floated underneath the bridge and stabbed the giant from below, mortally wounding him.
204. Two raven banners are depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.
205. “Bekk” in Old Norse means stream, “by” comes from the word for farmstead.
206. Wednesday for Odin, Thursday for Thor, and Friday for Frey.
The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings Page 25