This is John Batchelor, continuing conversation with Eleanor Barakloff, her new book, Embers of the Hands,

Embers of the Hands, Hidden Histories of the Viking Age, Battle of Hastings, we all know it very well,

but there were other battles that determined the future of England, and one of them, a man named Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, was slain.

Who was he?

Why was he in England?

Why was he fighting at all for the possession of the country?

What were his ambitions?

Where did he come from? Eleanor Barakloff on

Harold Hardrata, which I'm told means Harold the Hard Ruler. Once upon a time, as Eleanor

explains, he received embers of the hands from the Emperor of Byzantium.

Here's Eleanor Barakoff, much more of this later in the week.

So Harold Hodrida is, I think we might say something of a footnote in sort of the history of Britain.

In that, we know him from 1066 when he's killed by Harold Godwinson, who at that point is King of England at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, which is just outside York. But Harold Hardrador is

king of Norway, and he's had the most extraordinary, rich and dramatic life up to this point. He spent

much of his youth in the Byzantine capital, Constantinople,

where he was one of the emperor's personal bodyguards, possibly even the leader of the bodyguards,

if we're to believe him. And in fact, that kenning, embers of the hands, which I take the title of

the book from, comes from a verse that is

connected to Harold himself. So he does the emperor a great service and he's rewarded with embers

of the hands, which in his case means he's rewarded with gold and silver and treasure. But Harold

Hard Rada, or Hard Raudi, as he is known in Old Norse, it means hard ruler.

He comes back to Norway and he becomes a very successful king.

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