by John Marsden
9. Thorstein’s surname translates as ‘knorr-maker’, from the trading ship type known as a knorr.
10. Jacqueline Simpson (ed.), The Olaf Sagas, p. 381.
11. By ‘the Finns’ is meant the Lapps, who are also a Finno–Ugrian people.
12. Turville-Petre, Haraldr the Hard-ruler and his Poets, p. 10.
Varangian
1. Known in Russian as Povest’ Vremennykh Let, a title literally translated as ‘Tale of the Years of Time’.
2. Franklin & Shepard, The Emergence of Rus, p. 201.
3. Blöndal & Benedikz, The Varangians of Byzantium, pp. 54–5.
4. Her eldest sister, Eudocia, had long since become a nun, thus effectively renouncing her claim on succession.
5. Blöndal & Benedikz, The Varangians of Byzantium, p. 75.
6. Ibid., p. 66.
7. Pritsak, ‘Varangians’, in Pulsiano (ed.), Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, p. 689.
8. Gravett, Norman Knight: 950–1204 AD, p. 60.
9. Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth, pp. 84, 160.
10. Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium, p. 222.
11. Blöndal & Benedikz, The Varangians of Byzantium, pp. 80–6.
12. Ibid., pp. 97–8.
13. Harald’s actual phrase is ‘gold-[arm]ring Gerðr’; Gerðr being the name of the wife of the god Frey and used as a skaldic kenning to mean ‘goddess’ in the complimentary sense of the term when applied to a mortal woman.
14. ‘Greek Fire’ is thought to have been distilled petroleum thickened with sulphurous resin, which burst into flame on contact with enemy vessels and continued to burn on the water.
15. Franklin & Shepard, The Emergence of Rus 750–1200, p. 216.
16. Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth, p. 225.
Hardrada
1. Jones, A History of the Vikings, p. 404.
2. Ibid., p. 401.
3. Ibid., p. 407.
4. Davidson, The Viking Road to Byzantium, pp. 221, 228.
5. If Stein’s figures are given in ‘long hundreds’, as they probably are, then 150 Norwegian and 300 Danish ships would represent 180 and 360 respectively in modern reckoning, although such precision is of little bearing here.
Stamford Bridge
1. DeVries, The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066, p. 238.
2. Jones, A History of the Vikings, p. 403.
3. DeVries, The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066, p. 230.
4. Ibid., p. 211.
5. Ibid., p. 204.
6. Broadhead, Yorkshire Battlefields, p. 41.
7. Turville-Petre, Haraldr the Hard-ruler and his Poets, p. 17.
8. DeVries, The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066, pp. 278–9.
9. There are different forms of translation of these words, but this (from DeVries, p. 284) is the most accurate.
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