The last viking netflix

My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reading copy of Don Holloway's book, The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada and the End of the Norsemen.

I think that I come to this book from a perspective that Holloway's book doesn't anticipate: I study the history of the English language, so the military events of 1066 in England hold significant importance for the course of the history of the English language.

Holloway doesn't indulge in pointless "what-ifs" regarding the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and I respect and appreciate that. The one question that I wish he would have addressed more explicitly was the issue of communication--what languages, exactly, was Harald Hadrada using as he served in the Varangian guard in Constantiople?

Were all the Vikings speaking Old Norse of sufficient mutual intelligibility that they never encountered moments of misunderst