AD1041. After successfully avenging the death of his father, Halfdan and the crew of the Sea Wolf seek adventure in strange new lands, far from their Scandinavian home.
They join the fleet of Harald Hardrada, the legendary Viking commander, sailing back to Constantinople from the battlefields of Georgia.
There they join the Varangians, the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors populated almost exclusively by Viking warriors. But Constantinople has changed during Hardrada’s long absence.
The Emperor, Michael IV, is ailing visibly, and powerful factions in his court are setting their plans in motion ahead of his inevitable demise. While courtiers scheme, elements even within the Varangian Guard are picking sides.
Gunnhild, the seer among the Sea Wolf crew, has struck out on her own in the big city. Unable to join the all-male Guard alongside her friends, she establishes herself in a small side-street near the port as a healer and soothsayer, offering cures to the sick and glimpses of the future to the desperate, or the conspiratorial.
But in all her visions she sees a wolf, a boar and a golden bear fighting together to support the Byzantine throne. The Norns aren’t finished with them yet.
The Bear of Byzantium by SJA Turney, the second in his Wolves of Odin series, is published on 10 February, 2022.
Find out about the background to Blood Feud, the first book in this series, in Simon’s feature Vikings in Georgia: history or myth?
Simon has written several features for Historia, including:
A review of the Nero exhibition at the British Museum
A game of gods: religion in a changing Roman world (with Gordon Doherty)
The Templars and the reconquest of Spain
The Women of the Knights Templar
