Stamford Bridge (England)

Stamford Bridge, in Yorkshire, is the field where Harald Hardrada and Tostig fell to Harold Godwinson in 1066 — the battle often taken to close the viking age. Lured into invading England by the exiled Tostig, the last great viking king of Norway met Harold Godwinson's army here; offered by his rival just 'seven feet of English ground, or as much more as he is taller than other men', Harald fought and fell, and the great northern gamble fell with him. Weeks later Harold himself would die at Hastings. Stamford Bridge is the corpus's image of the end of an age — the English river-crossing where the last viking king's reach for England ended in a grave, the hinge of history where the old Norse world broke against the new, the year everything changed.