Thorkell the Tall (Old Norse: Þorkell inn hávi) was one of the most famous Viking warlords of the early 11th century—so famous that later writers couldn’t resist turning him into a near-mythic giant. He was a Jomsviking leader in tradition, a veteran of brutal Baltic and North Sea campaigning, and a man who kept switching sides when it suited him, which is exactly how many elite commanders survived the era. In English history he appears as a nightmare with strategy: a key commander in the Viking