Sigtrygg Silkbeard

Sigtrygg Silkbeard was a Norse-Gaelic king of Dublin who ruled for much of the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. His alliances and rivalries drew him into the struggle culminating at the Battle of Clontarf, and his long reign also saw Dublin develop as a Christian and commercial centre.

Cecelia Holland’s The Kings in Winter places Sigtrygg Silkbeard within a narrative shaped by court politics and dynastic power, military command and battlefield decision-making, and family, marriage and personal loyalty.