The Kings of the Sea: A Historical Novel of the Viking Age (The Saga of Hasting the Avenger Book 3)

The historical foundation of The Kings of the Sea opens with the catastrophic sack of Nantes in June 843 AD, a watershed moment signaling the collapse of the Carolingian defensive infrastructure. Contemporary Frankish chroniclers described the event as “apocalyptic,” recording that Northmen pirates sailed up the Loire with sixty-seven ships to slaughter the clergy and laity during a major religious festival. This pivotal strike was facilitated by the city’s hollowed-out defenses following the Battle of Messac, where the Frankish Count Renauld had been killed just one month earlier by a coalition of Bretons led by Nominoë and the defector Lambert II. Persistent historical accounts of collusion suggest that the Breton leadership effectively “softened” the Frankish bulwark, allowing Norse warbands to decapitate the Carolingian administration of the March and create a power vacuum that the Bretons sought to fill.

To secure his growing power, Hasting assembles a formidable alliance of sea kings, a coalition that tests its coordinated strength in the 844 AD raid on Seville. This Iberian campaign serves as a strategic “rehearsal” for their ultimate objective: the historic 845 AD Siege of Paris, an ambitious maneuver aimed at striking the heart of the Carolingian Empire. During this period of expansion, the narrative follows the alliance to Ireland, where they encounter the warlord Turgeisius. Historically, Turgeisius is documented in the Annals of Ulster as part of a Norse group establishing a dominant presence in the Irish Sea, a mission frequently met with fierce local Irish resistance. These maneuvers illustrate a sophisticated “nodal system” of expansion, in which Viking leaders operated not as mere pirates but as strategic political actors capable of altering the geopolitical map of Europe.

The narrative aligns with rigorous contemporary records, moving beyond later legends to draw on the Annals of St. Bertin, the Annals of Angoulême, and the Royal Frankish Annals. A central figure in this historical web is the Andalusian envoy al-Ghazal, whose embassy to the Northmen offers rare insights into Viking social hierarchy and courtly life. Al-Ghazali’s testimony suggests a culture with clear diplomatic protocol and social hierarchy, which helps explain why medieval leaders believed they could negotiate with the Vikings. The diplomatic engagement reinforces the idea that the Vikings were emerging political actors with their own territorial interests and trade networks, rather than a disorganized force of nature.

Finally, the narrative explores the economic underpinnings of this Viking “state-in-waiting,” specifically the “Salt Hypothesis.” Control of coastal salines, such as those at Noirmoutier and Guérande, provided a durable economic foundation that enabled the transition from seasonal pirates to permanent, territorial actors. By occupying these strategic “white gold” nodes, the Vikings effectively held the local Carolingian economy hostage, since salt was fundamental to medieval commerce and food preservation. This economic leverage, combined with military triumphs in Seville and Paris, allowed Hasting and his allies to maintain a structural reality in the West. The story thus captures the moment when the Norse presence shifted from coastal harassment to a permanent geopolitical fixture that would haunt the Carolingian dynasty for generations.