symbolizing the end of the Viking Age in Scandinavia.
His was not the last major overseas Viking campaign but
it was the last, perhaps, with some chance of success,
and the sagas of subsequent kings do not paint the same
sort of pictures of Viking heroes.
See also Cnut; Harold Godwinson; William I
Further Reading
Editions
Bjami Aðalbjarnarson, ed. “Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar.” In
Heimskringla. 3 vols. Íslenzk fomrit, 26–8. Reykjavik: Hið
íslenzka fomritafélag, 1941–51, vol. 3, pp. 68–202.
Finnur Jonsson, ed. Fagrskinna: Nóregs konunga tal. Samfund
til udgiveke af gammd nordisk litteratur, 30. Copenhagen:
[s.n.], 1902–03.
Finnur Jónsson, ed. Morkinskinna. Samfund til udgivelse af gam-
mel nordisk litteratur, 80. Copenhagen: [s.n.], 1932.
Translations
Hollander, Lee M., trans. Heimskringla: History of the Kings
of Norway. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964, pp.
577–663.
Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, trans. King Harald’s
Saga: Harald Hardradi of Norway. Hammondsworth: Pen-
guin, 1966.
Literature
Andersen, Per Sveaas. Samlingen av Norge og kristningen av
landet 800–1130. Handbok i Norges historie, 2. Bergen:
Universitetsforlaget, 1977.
Andersson, Theodore M. “Kings’ Sagas (Konungasögur).” In
Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. Ed, Carol
J. Clover and John Lindow. Islandica, 45. Ithaca and London:
Cornell University Press, 1985, pp. 197–238.
Bló ndal, Sigfús. “The Last Exploits of Harald Sigurdsson in
Greek Service: A Chapter from the History of the Varangians.”
Classica et Mediaevalia 1.2 (1939), 1–26.
Ellis Davidson, H. R. The Viking Road to Byzantium. London:
Allen & Unwin, 1976.
Bjarni Aðalbjamarson. “Formáli.” Heimskringla, vol. 3, pp.
v-cxv.
Indrebø, Gustav. “Harald haardraade i Morkinskinna.” In Fest-
skrift til FinnurJónsson 29. maj 1928. Ed. Johs. Brøndum-
Nielsen et al. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1928, pp.
173–80.
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. 2nd ed. Oxford and New
York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Turville-Petre, G. Haraldr the Hard-Ruler and His Poets. Doro-
thea Coke Memorial Lecture in Northern Studies. London:
University College; Lewis, 1968.
Ruth Mazo Karras
HARALDR HÁRFAGRI (“FAIR-HAIR”)
HÁLFDANARSON
(d. ca. 930/40)
Haraldr hárfagri Hálfdanarson is the king credited with
unifying Norway. According to his saga in Snorri Stur-
luson’s Heimskringla, the fullest account of Haraldr’s
life although not to be taken as accurate in historical
detail, he descended from the Yngling dynasty and came
to the throne of his father’s kingdom of Vestfold at the
age of ten (scholars estimate the date of this accession
at ca. 860–880). Haraldr desired to become king over
all of Norway, and swore a vow not to cut or comb his
hair until he had achieved this goal, hence his nickname.
The story is legendary, and it is doubtful anyone had a
concept of Norway as a unity before his conquest of the
different regions.
The Heimskringla version is based on a lost * Haralds
saga, as is a þáttr about him in Flateyjarbók. Haraldr’s
saga recounts a series of campaigns against various petty
kings and his alliance with the powerful northern Earl
Hákon Grjótgarðarson, as well as his confl icts with the
Swedish king who was his rival for the eastern districts
of Norway. At the battle of Hafrsfj rðr (Havsfjord), now
dated between 885 and 890, Haraldr defeated a coalition
of kings and earls and established his hegemony.
The political signifi cance of Haraldr’s unifi cation of
Norway was not as great as the Icelandic saga litera-
ture implies. Haraldr’s hold upon northern and eastern
Norway was never fi rm. Traditionally, the settlement
of Iceland by Ingólfr Arnarson and others around 870
was attributed to their desire to escape from Haraldr’s
tyranny. However, the battle of Hafrsfj ro ̨ðr cannot
have been fought that early, and the settlers must have
had motives other than fl eeing the unifi ed kingdom.
Many leading Norwegians did fl ee after Hafrsfj ro ̨ðr, to
Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, if not Iceland. Ac-
cording to Snorri, they continued to conduct raids upon
Norway from there until Haraldr strengthened his navy
and put a stop to this Viking activity. But scholars now
doubt whether Haraldr actually made any expedition to
Britain. Many of the original settlers of Iceland came
not from Norway directly, but from the British Isles. To
support the myth of Haraldr’s tyranny as the cause of
settlement, Icelanders probably invented an extension
of Haraldr’s power over the islands.
Snorri’s account of Haraldr’s establishment of a
Norwegian state is most likely anachronistic. Haraldr
was accused of having appropriated the óðal land of all
the farmers, making them his tenants, and of imposing
heavy taxation. The system of taxation and military
organization Snorri describes, however, is probably a re-
fl ection of Snorri’s own time. The accusations of tyranny
may be due to an Icelandic tradition of hostility toward
Haraldr, which allowed Icelanders to hearken back to
a Golden Age of freedom. But society before Haraldr
was dominated by chieftains, earls, or petty kings, and
was not as egalitarian as Snorri indicates.
Haraldr’s unifi ed Norway did not survive his death
(between 930 and 940), largely because he left so many
sons, as many as twenty according to some sources.
Snorri recounts his division of the realm among his
sons and the sharing of his revenue with them beforeHARALDR HÁRFAGRI HÁLFDANARSON