Right: Varangian Guardsmen, an illumination from the 11th century Skylitzes Chronicle. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. Source: Wikipedia. In the Public Domain, click to enlarge.

Throughout the eleventh century the Varangian Guard’s reputation of being exceptionally well-compensated soldiers drew new recruits from throughout the Viking world seeking fortune and fame. One of these new recruits was a man of royal birth, Harald III Sigurdsson, later known to history as the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada (“Hard-ruler” or “Stern-ruler,” r.1046-1066 CE). Exiled from his homeland after his countrymen’s defeat at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030, Harald joined other Viking refugees and travelled east to the land of the Rus in 1031.  There, these men found immediate employment as mercenaries with Jaroslav “the Wise” (r.1016-1054), son of Grand Prince of Kiev Vladimir I (r.980-1015). That year Jaroslav invaded Poland with a large army in order to recapture territory. The campaign was successful, and Harald remained in the service of Jaroslav until 1034, fighting along Kiev's southern frontier against the Pechenegs. Harald, not yet twenty-years-old, was paid handsomely for his services. There is evidence that the Kievan Varangians during that period were offered twelve-month contracts and paid in either coin or in kind (usually furs). Despite the riches available in Kiev, Harald was drawn farther south to Byzantium and service in the emperor’s elite guard.

In June 1034, the twenty-three-year-old Harald journeyed down the Dnieper River to the Black Sea and then on to Constantinople. The thirteenth century Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlison (1179–1241) explains in his saga Heimskringla of his arrival in Constantinople "with a large following," indicating Harald was the commander of a contingent of five hundred Varangian troops, some of whom may have come to Russia with him after the defeat at Stiklestad. Snorri also relates it was in 1034 Harald and his Varangians joined the Byzantine navy, a logical first assignment for newly recruited Northern mercenaries known for their seafaring expertise.

Piracy was a major problem in the Mediterranean in the eleventh century, and the Byzantines needed capable captains to protect their shipping. Harald and his men probably crewed a light and fast Greek warship called an oitsiai, each of which carried a complement of one hundred and ten men, including fifty marines. Those fast ships were smaller than the Greek dromoi, which had crews of over two hundred and were capable of using the incendiary "Greek Fire" projected by siphons on their decks. Harald and his men patrolled the Aegean Sea and may have also been stationed off the Sicilian coast to protect the sea lanes between Italy and North Africa. There is evidence, this time from the saga Flateyjarbok, that Harald and his men grew wealthy through the capture of Arab ships. The Byzantine emperor only demanded the sum of one hundred marks for every pirate ship taken, and Harald and his men kept the surplus plunder.

Right: The memorial stone on Harald Hardrada Square in the old town east of the center of Oslo. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Attribution: I, C. Hill. Source: Wikipedia. In the Public Domain, click to enlarge.

In 1035, Harald and his company are believed to have participated in a Byzantine military expedition into the heart of Asia Minor, Armenia and Syria, an area referred to by the Vikings as Serkland (from the Norse Serkir, often translated as Saracen), a generic term for Muslim regions. Numerous Arab cities were taken, and Harald may have caught the eye of influential Greek commanders because, a year later in 1036, he and his warriors were admitted into the new Byzantine Emperor Michael IV's (r.1034-1041) Varangian Guard.

It was about that same time the sagas tell us Harald journeyed to Jerusalem, though many of the old stories alternately describe that event as either a gift-giving pilgrimage or an invasion of the Holy Land. Probably neither version is true. On becoming emperor, Michael IV had signed a 30-year peace with the Fatimid caliph of Egypt, Mustansir-Billah (r.1036-1094), opening up trade and securing the right for the Byzantines to renovate the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, then under Muslim control. Harald and his company were dispatched to escort the Greek architects, masons, craftsmen, and high-ranking pilgrims on their journey to the Holy City.

In 1037, wanting to expand Byzantine influence into the western Mediterranean, Michael sent an impressive invasion force, including three hundred Norman heavy cavalry from Salerno and an elite contingent of Varangians, to wrestle strategically important Sicily from the Muslims. Harald distinguished himself in this campaign by seizing a beachhead for the landing of the main Byzantine force. The sagas also record that he and his men captured at least four fortified cities on the island, taking one by ruse. However, Harald was not always victorious. In 1041, he and his men were dispatched to southern Italy as part of a Byzantine expedition to halt the expansion of Norman influence in that region. There he fought against many of the same Norman mercenaries he had fought alongside only a few years earlier. The Byzantines lost two battles in 1041, at Olivento and at Montemaggiore, but Harald distinguished himself in the campaign. Later that year he joined the emperor in another campaign, this one against the Bulgars who menaced the empire's northern border. After that he returned victorious to Constantinople with the title Bolgara Brennir or "Destroyer of Bulgars." He also enjoyed a promotion, this time to the rank of Spatharokandidatos, a command position within the Varangian Guard. Soon afterward, however, Michael IV died, and Harald and the Guard lost favor with new Emperor Michael V, the nephew and adopted son of Michael IV. He charged Harald with defrauding the crown and imprisoned him. Michael V proved a poor emperor and, when he exiled his co-ruler, the Empress Zoe (r.1028-1050 and Michael IV's wife), his subjects rebelled against him, and he was deposed. The sources tell us Harald was freed before the deposition, though one account describes a bold escape, while another account explains he was released by Empress Zoe's new husband and later Emperor Constantine IX (r.1042-1055) in order to secure favor with the Varangian faction in the city.

With order restored in the Byzantine capital, Harald asked Constantine for permission to leave the court and return to his homeland, but his request was denied. Undaunted, he decided to leave Constantinople anyway, mostly in August when the annual trading fleet from Kiev was preparing for its journey upriver. Harald was said to have slipped away by stealth, and the sources relate a truly unusual escape. He and two handpicked crews took two Varangian galleys, heavily laden with the treasure of years of service, and rowed them out to the large chains that blocked the harbor entrance. Just before his ship's bow hit the chain, Harald ordered the crew aft in order lift the bow out of the water, so the chain slid under the vessel's keel. Harald then ordered the crew forward, shifting the weight of the galley until it slid off into open water. The second ship attempted the same maneuver, but its keel broke while suspended on the chain and most of the crew was lost. Harald escaped into the Bosporus and set sail north toward the Black Sea. After over eight years of serving the Byzantine Empire, Harald and his men sailed up the Dnieper and returned to the court of Grand Prince Jaroslav in Kiev in the fall of 1042 having amassed the greatest personal fortune ever owned by a Viking mercenary. From there, Harald would return to Scandinavia and, using the wealth earned as an imperial axe-bearer, reclaim his Norwegian throne in 1046, well-served by his experiences as a Varangian in the service of Byzantium. 

Right: Medieval Constantinople. Topographical map of Constantinople during the Byzantine period. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Source: Wikipedia. In the Public Domain, click to enlarge.

Suggested Readings:

Primary sources

Friis-Jensen, Karsten, and Peter Fisher, eds. Gesta Danorum. Oxford Medieval Texts, 2015. 

Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. Translated by Lee M. Hollander. University of Texas Press, 2010.

Secondary sources

Devries, Kelly. The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066. Boydell & Brewer, 2003.

Griffith, Paddy. The Viking Art of War. Greenhill Books, 1995.

Marsden, John. Harald Hardrada: The Warrior’s Way. The History Press, 2011.