Hammer of the Gods: King Olaf's Viking Conquest - Hardcover

by Don Hollway (Author)

Weaving together Norse sagas and Anglo-Saxon chronicles to vividly depict the violence and spectacle of the Viking age, Don Hollway brings the legendary Olaf Tryggvason to life.

Hammer of the Gods tells the extraordinary saga of Olaf Tryggvason - warlord, wanderer, king, and crusader - whose life rivals the most legendary figures of Viking lore. Born in exile and hunted from birth, Olaf survived slavery, betrayal, and shipwreck to become a fearsome warrior across the Viking world from the icy fjords of Norway to the courts of Kyiv, the slave markets of the Baltics, and the battlefields of England and Ireland. His rise would shake the foundations of Norse society, forge new kingdoms, and ignite a holy war against the old gods themselves.

In an age of axe and flame, when the Viking world stood at the crossroads of pagan traditions and the spread of Christianity, Olaf emerged as the fiercest adherent to the new faith - a sword in one hand and a cross in the other. Drawing on a vast array of early medieval sources from Icelandic sagas and skaldic verse to Byzantine and Anglo-Saxon chronicles, Don Hollway brings the world of Olaf Tryggvason vividly to life cutting through 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 history of a great Norse king whose story shaped the fate of a civilization.

Author Biography

Don Hollway is an author and historian. His first book, The Last Viking, is a gripping history of King Harald Hardrada which was acclaimed by bestselling author Stephen Harding, by Carl Gnam of Military Heritage magazine and by Michael Dirda in The Washington Post. He is also a classical rapier fencer. His Battle for the Island Kingdom (Osprey, 2023) was shortlisted in the Military History Matters 2024 book awards. He lives in Pennsylvania.