Dr. Wayne Bartlett

There were others, I think, who were more important in forging Norway than he was.

It's almost like the Scandinavian version, even if a lot shorter, of the Hundred Years' War, in that it just keeps flaring up and then calming down for a little while and then flaring up again.

And in the end, it never reaches a resolution, really.

This is a war that's ongoing in Harold's time for a decade or more.

And as I said about Sven, he's this really irritating person, the dog who will not lie down, if you like.

Harald keeps winning battles against him, but he's actually unable to win the war because as soon as he leaves Denmark to go back to Norway, Sven, who's escaped, will be back again and they have another go.

So what this war is doing is just sucking resources and energy out of both obviously Sven, but even Harold to a great extent as well.

Unless you can actually catch Sven and completely eliminate him, this is a guy who's not going to go away.

So eventually...

I think the war comes to a kind of rather uneventful halt because basically people are running out of energy and momentum and they just don't seem to be getting anywhere with it.

So at the end of it all, Sven is kind of like the last man standing.

Fenn, despite losing so many battles, stays as the king as Denmark, and Harald focuses more on his core kingdom, if you like, in Norway, until obviously at some stage the possibility of other pickings, particularly in England, come along as well to distract him.

So it's just exhaustion, I think, which leads to a halt to this war in Denmark.

Yeah, and one of the most significant figures here is Harold Gobwinson, Harold now King of England.

His brother Tostig.

He's like in exile.

He's fallen out with Harold Godwinson.

He was the Earl of Northumbria.

And he very much wants to restore his position in England.

And he senses a mutual opportunity in collaboration with Harold Hardrada.