Eric Bloodaxe was a tenth-century Scandinavian ruler whose biography is difficult to reconstruct because later Norwegian sagas and contemporary English evidence do not always align. Saga tradition makes him a son of Harald Fairhair and presents a violent struggle among royal brothers for control of Norway, while English sources securely place a king named Eric in Northumbria. He was expelled from Norway and became one of several competing rulers who tried to control York during the unstable middle decades of the tenth century.
Eric held power at York in two short episodes, conventionally dated 947–948 and 952–954, as Northumbrian elites shifted allegiance among Scandinavian kings and the West Saxon dynasty. In 954 he was driven from York and killed at Stainmore, after which King Eadred brought Northumbria more firmly under English royal authority. Later sagas greatly elaborated Eric’s family conflicts, exploits and formidable wife Gunnhild. His historical importance lies less in a securely known Norwegian reign than in the final phase of independent Scandinavian kingship at York.
In Tim Hodkinson’s The Bear’s Blade, Eric Bloodaxe’s followers raid the coast under a warrior known as the Bear, who carries a blade believed to give its bearer unmatched skill. In Tim Hodkinson’s The Raven Banner, the search draws Einar through Norse settlements and the competing claims of rulers including Eric Bloodaxe. Eric Bloodaxe is treated fictionally in Tim Hodkinson’s The Serpent King, Cecelia Holland’s The Soul Thief (the Life and Times of Corban Loosestrife), Cecelia Holland’s The Witches’ Kitchen (the Life and Times of Corban Loosestrife), and Tim Hodkinson’s The Wolf Hunt.
