_Harald the Fairhaired (860-930)--Norway United_
Harald was only ten years old when he succeeded his father. Many of
the chiefs thought that it would be an easy matter now to divide the
country between them, but Guthorm, a brother of Harald's mother, who
was at the head of the government and commander of the army, soon
subdued them.
When Harald had become old enough to marry, he sent his men to a girl
named Gyda, a daughter of King Erik of Hordaland, who was brought up
as a foster-child in the house of a rich _Bonde_ in Valders. Harald
had heard of her as a very beautiful though proud girl. When the men
delivered their message, she answered that she would not marry a king
who had no greater kingdom than a few _Fylkis_ (districts), and she
added that she thought it strange "that no king here in Norway will
make the whole country subject to him, in the same way as Gorm the Old
did in Denmark, or Erik at Upsala." When the messengers returned to the
king, they advised him to punish her for her haughty words, but Harald
said she had spoken well, and he made the solemn vow not to cut or comb
his hair until he had subdued the whole of Norway and had become the
sole king.
Harald immediately gathered an army and went northward over the Dovre
Mountain, and after several battles conquered the whole of Trondelag,
the common name of all the districts about the Throndhjem (Drontheim)
Fjord. Here he procured ships, sailed southward along the coast and
conquered one district after another in the western part of the
country. Finally, the remaining kings gathered their men and ships and
met Harald in naval battle in Hafrsfjord, a little inlet in Jæderen,
near the present city of Stavanger. The battle was fierce and long,
but Harald finally gained the day. After this battle, which occurred
in 872, King Harald met no opposition, and was acknowledged as king of
the whole of Norway. Shortly after the battle the king attended a feast
given by Ragnvald, the Earl of More (Morejarl), and the latter cut the
king's hair, which had not been cut or combed for ten years, and gave
him the surname, the Fairhaired. Harald shortly afterward married Gyda.
King Harald deprived the peasant-proprietors of their allodium or
udal-right, and compelled them to pay land dues of their possessions.
Over every _Fylki_ or district he placed an earl (_jarl_), who was
to administer justice and collect the taxes, of which he retained
one-third as salary. In case of war the earl was to serve the king with
sixty warriors. Each earl had under him four _herses_, each of whom had
a royal estate of twenty marks annual income to manage, and was bound
to support twenty men-at-arms.
Many of the proud peasants objected to the rule of Harald and to the
payment of taxes. They wanted to be independent, as before, and left
the country. Many of them settled on the Faroe Islands and the Scotch
islands, and in the summer they would make viking cruises and harry the
coasts of Norway to revenge themselves on the king. To stop this Harald
sailed westward one summer with a fleet, fought the vikings and took
possession of Shetland and the Orkney Islands, and placed an earl in
charge of them. Many of the fleeing Northmen then sailed northward with
their goods and men and settled in _Iceland_, where they established a
free state, which existed for nearly 400 years.
Earl Ragnvald (Morejarl) was King Harald's dearest friend, and the king
had great regard for him, but he did not allow that to excuse a crime
committed by his son. Ragnvald had a son by the name of Rolf, who was
so stout and strong that no horse could carry him, and therefore he was
called Gange-Rolf, or Rolf the Walker. He went early on viking cruises
to the shores of the Baltic Sea. One summer, on his return from one of
his expeditions, he made _strand-hug_ in Viken. (Strand-hug was a foray
for cattle to provision the viking ships.) Harald had declared this a
great crime, and when he heard what Rolf had done, he called an extra
session of the Thing, and had Rolf declared an outlaw in all Norway.
Gange-Rolf, however, did not remain in Norway, but sailed westward
to the Sudreys, the present Hebrides, and afterward joined the army
of vikings, which, in the year 885, went to France and plundered the
country around Paris and the province of Bourgogne. The Frenchmen made
a compromise with the vikings, and for some years they spared the
French coasts, but later Gange-Rolf returned with a great number of
vikings, and finally compelled the French king, Charles the Simple, by
the peace of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte to cede to him and his successors a
large province, which he peopled with Northmen, and which, therefore,
was afterward called Normandy. The French king also promised to let
him marry his daughter Gizela if he would adopt Christianity. This
Rolf agreed to, and he was baptized in the year 912, being christened
Robert. He ruled his new country well, and died in the year 931. From
him descended the mighty earls of Normandy, who in time conquered the
kingdoms of England and Naples.
King Harald had many sons, and as they grew up they created a great
deal of disturbance in the country. They had come from such different
stock on the maternal side, and had been brought up so far from
each other by rich peasants in different parts of the country, that
brotherly feelings were little known to them. They became jealous of
each other, and also jealous of the many mighty earls. They drove some
of the earls from their estates, and even killed some of them. Thus
two of the brothers set out one spring with a great force to attack
Ragnvald, Earl of More, surrounded his house and burned him with sixty
of his men.
Hoping to avoid further domestic disturbances, Harald called together a
_Thing_ at the Eidsiva Thing-place (the present Eidsvold), and summoned
to it all the people of the Uplands. Here he gave to all his sons the
title of king, and proclaimed a law that his descendants in the male
line should each succeed to the title and dignity of king; but his
descendants by the female side were to become only earls. He divided
the country among his sons, but his dearest son, Erik, who was his son
by the Danish Princess Ragnhild, and thus of royal birth on both sides,
was to be acknowledged as their overlord. This the other brothers
did not like, and the result was bloody conflicts. Erik first killed
Ragnvald Rettilbeine, the ruler in Hadeland, because he was said to be
a sorcerer. Next he attacked his brother Biorn, who generally lived at
the trading-place Tunsberg, and who was called Biorn Farmand, or Biorn
the Merchant, because he cared little for war, but more for trading
expeditions. As he refused to pay tribute to Erik, the latter attacked
and killed him, and plundered his house. King Biorn lies buried in the
Seaman's Mound (Farmandshaugen) at Sæheim (in the present Sem's parish)
in Jarlsberg. Halfdan the Black, who ruled in Throndhjem, resolved to
avenge his brother Biorn's death, and collected a great force of men
and ships. Erik sought the aid of his father Harald, who also equipped
a fleet and took up a position at Rein-plain on the north side of the
Throndhjem Fjord; but now friends of both interceded in order to bring
about a reconciliation. In Halfdan's army there was a clever man called
Guthorm Sindre, who had formerly been in the service of Harald, and
was a great friend of both. He was a great skald (poet), and had once
composed songs about the father and the son, for which they had then
offered him a reward. He would take nothing at the time, but was given
the promise that, some day or other, they should grant him any request
he should make. He now went before King Harald with words of peace,
and made the request that the kings should become reconciled. And the
Saga adds: "So highly did the king esteem him that, in consequence of
his request, they were reconciled."
When Harald the Fairhaired was eighty years old, he became very weak
and unable to bear the burden of the government. Then he brought his
son Erik to his royal high-seat and gave him the power and the command
over the whole land (930). Three years later King Harald died of old
age. He was buried under a mound at Hauge, near Haugesund in Ryfylke.
The gravestone is still to be seen. At the grave a large monument in
memory of Harald was erected in 1872, one thousand years after the
battle of Hafrsfjord.