Tostig Godwinson

Tostig is the exiled English earl whose grudge helps bring down the last great viking king. Brother of Harold Godwinson and once earl of Northumbria, he is driven out of England by his own brother and his rebellious subjects, and comes north seeking an ally to win back his power. He finds Harald Hardrada — and lures the restless Norwegian king into the great gamble of invading England in 1066, promising easy conquest. The gamble fails utterly: at Stamford Bridge both Tostig and Harald Hardrada fall to King Harold Godwinson's army, just before the same Harold marches south to his own death at Hastings. Tostig is the saga's image of the bitter exile who pulls a greater man down with him — the disinherited earl whose appetite for revenge against his brother lured the last viking king to the Yorkshire river where the viking age is so often said to have ended.