Harald I. (Norway)

Harald Fairhair receives the kingdom from his father's hands (illustration from the Icelandic Flateyjarbók , 14th century)

Harald I. fair-haired , sometimes also hair- beautiful ( Old Norse Haraldr hinn hárfagri ; Norwegian Harald Hårfagre ; Swedish Harald Hårfager ; * around 852, † 933), was the first king of most of the coast of Norway .

ancestors

The ancestors of Harald Hårfagre are unknown except for his father Halvdan Svarte (Halvdan the Black) and his mother Åsa . (After the Oseberg ship was found in 1904, it was initially assumed that the female skeleton found in the burial chamber on the ship could be Åsa.) The list of tribe was constructed late and comes from the endeavor to legitimize rule through noble ancestry to underpin from age. The Icelander Sæmundur fróði had written a Latin work about the Norwegian kings that is lost. His grandson Jón Loftsson used the work in the 11th century for his poem Konungatal . Only Halvdan the Black is mentioned there. The skald Thorbjørn Hornklove also calls Harald "Halvdansson". The Fagrskinna begins with his alleged father "Gudrøð Veiðikonung" (Gudrød the Hunter King). Ari fróði , a somewhat younger contemporary of Sæmundur, was probably the first to trace the line of Haralds far back to the legendary kings of Sweden and Uppsala . These kings were originally called Skilvingers . Ari renamed it Ynglinge and traced it back to the god Yngvi-Freyr , who should have been the main god in Uppsala in ancient times. On the occasion he also made himself into the Ynglinge family. The model may have been Sæmundur's line of ancestry for the Danish kings with around 30 generations, which he traced back to the Skjoldungen , whereby he built himself into this line of ancestors as a descendant.

The ancestral line of the Ynglinge is derived in 20 generations from Odin , Njörd and Freyr . Then follow:

1. Ingjald Illråde
   1. Olav Tretelgjá
      1. Halfdan Kvítbein
         1. Øystein
            1. Halvdan
               1. Guðrøð Veiðikongur
                  1. Olav Geirstaðalv
                     1. Ragnvald Heiðumhære
                  2. Halvdan svarte
                     1. Harald Hårfagre
      2. Ingjald (ancestor Ari Froðis)

The report of the sagas

Little is known about Harald Fairhair. Most of it is praise of the ruler without any historical relevance. Snorri Sturluson says that Harald gathered around him many skalds who wrote poems known to the people. But Snorri can quote very few. It is likely that Harald's son, Olav Haraldsson, gathered the skalds around him in large numbers. Many fairytale traits were used in the sagas, for example in the Ágrip (Old Norse for “summary”) the mania for love that Harald fell into about Samin Snæfrid Svåsedotter.

The Fagrskinna describes Harald ten printed pages, expanding the Snorri to 30 printed pages. In the Fagrskinna nothing more is actually said than that Harald was the founder of the royal house of Norway and the first imperial king. The Skalde Thorbjørn Hornklove is said to have composed the poem Glymdråpa about Harald's fights. The praise poem speaks in eight stanzas of gaping wounds and rivers of blood. Fagrskinna took over the stanzas and related them all to the battle of Hafrsfjord . Snorri uses the poem as a source for several of Harald's battles and assumes that some stanzas have nothing to do with this battle. The problems of interpretation and classification have not changed significantly since then.

Eleven fragments with around 50 stanzas of the skaldic poems about him have survived. They are scattered over eight sagas. These poems are of varying source value, especially since they had been passed on orally for several centuries before they were written down between 1210 and 1230. So the stanzas ascribed to Harald himself should not come from him.

A contemporary skaldic poem Haraldskvæði , also attributed to Thorbjørn Hornklove, reports that Harald was a son of Halvdan , and all sources agree that he was the son of King Halvdan Svarte in the (Norwegian) east country. However, the literary development was to move the family further and further to the west. At Snorri, Halvdan is then King of Vestfold.

The Icelander Sæmundur fróði , the father of Icelandic historiography, apparently did not trace Harald's lineage back further than to his father Halvdan, at most to his father Gudrød Veidekonge (his work written in Latin has been lost). A work by his grandson Jón Loptsson Noregs Konungatal from the end of the 12th century summarizes his grandfather's work. It starts with Halvdan. For the first time in Ynglingatal , whose author and time of origin are controversial, the family of the Vestfold kings, the last of which was the cousin Haralds Ragnvald Hederhög, was traced back to the legendary kings of Uppsala, which Snorri then took over to Heimskringla .

Sæmundur fróði and the contemporary scholars around him made the later Norwegian kings Olav Tryggvason, Olav Haraldsson and Harald Hardråde descendants of Harald Hårfagre. With that they had established a long continuity of rule. But we don't know how many sons Harald really had. The numbers vary between eleven and 20. But even the lowest number is considered too high. Harald soon became a legend, and it makes sense to associate him with many women in different parts of the country, some of whom are legendary figures themselves. Many later kings tried to trace their ancestors back to Harald to legitimize their rule. The Hákonarmál by Øyvind Skaldespiller offers a clue that has a certain probability . It is a memorial poem for Håkon the Good from the beginning of the 10th century . It says there that when he came to Valhalla he was greeted by eight brothers. Assuming that Håkon lived the longest of all the brothers, Harald must have had nine sons. The names are hardly known. Only four or five are known: Erik, Håkon, Ragnvald, Bjørn and Halvdan (possibly two different with the latter name). The fact that Harald had a son Bjørn does not mean that it is the fabulous Bjørn Farmann named in the descendants table above.

The fact that Harald chose his son Erik as his successor is attributed in the sagas to the fact that his mother was a king's daughter, namely Ragnhild the Mighty of Jylland.

There is also contradiction in relation to the mother: Sæmundur only reports that Halvdan married Ragnhild, the daughter of the King of Sogn , and that Harald was her son. Fagrskinna and Snorri are not satisfied with that. They report that Ragnhild was Halvdan's first wife. But she and her son Harald died soon afterwards. Thereupon Halvdan married another Ragnhild; this came from the legendary Skjoldunger Ragnar Lodbrok . Their son Harald was Harald Hårfagre. In addition to his Ynglingen descent, he was assigned another glorious line of ancestors.

More recent views suggest that the descent of Harald von Halfdan and the Ynglingen was a later construction from the 13th century to connect him with Vestfold and to reject the influence of the Danes in the area around Oslo and the claims to the area. It is also believed that he came from the powerful Karmøy family, since his center of power was Avaldsnes on Karmøy.

Snorri also reports that Harald refused to take care of his hair until he subjugated Norway. After the battle at Hafrsfjord, he had his hair combed for the first time and was then nicknamed "fair hair". Here you can find the motif that can also be found in Gregory of Tours and in the Old Testament : Samson's strength lay in his hair, and the Merovingian royal dignity was also linked to their head of hair. It can no longer be decided whether this was a ubiquitous view and therefore Harald actually did not shave his hair, or whether this was a later learned ingredient in his life picture. The epithet is not used in contemporary skaldic poetry. In addition to the Heimskringla , this designation also occurs in its original, the Ágrip . This has come down to us in a copy, but here it looks as if it is an incorrect copy for the Old Norse expression afaraudga , which means "the extraordinarily rich and fortunate". But this expression does not occur in the skalds either.

The conquests

See also : History of Norway

Harald's suitors come to Gyða

Snorri reports that Harald Fairhair came up with the plan for his conquests because this was the condition for being able to marry Gyða Eiriksdóttir. The real reason, however, comes from Snorri's answer to Harald's advertisement: “It seems strange to me that there is no king who wants to submit to Norway as sole ruler like King Gorm [the old man, † after 935 ] with Denmark and King Erich [Eymundsson, † 882] with Sweden. ”The example of the Franconian Empire had a powerful effect.

Snorri also reports that after this condition, Harald swore to Gyðas not to shear his hair and not to comb it before he had appropriated “all of Norway, taxes, income and rule”. Therefore he soon got the name Haraldr lúfa ("Strubbelkopf"). After he had overcome the last resistance, he took a bath on the occasion of a visit to Jarl Røgnvald Eysteinsson in Møre , cut and combed his hair and was then nicknamed "fair hair" by the Jarl. He was able to record a particular gain in prestige at home and abroad because he succeeded in bringing up one of his younger sons, Haakon , with King Æthelstan of England.

Harald I fought many battles to gain control of all of Norway, the most famous of which was probably the battle of Hafrsfjord in 872 . The number is calculated from the information from Ari fróði and the sagas. Other researchers assume the year 900 or shortly before. The rule "over all of Norway" is likely to be due to the late rulership of Snorris for the Harald family and not correspond to reality. Harald's domain is considered to be limited to Vestlandet and the southern coast around Lindesnes to the border with Grenland on the Oslofjord . Today it is also assumed that Harald started his conquests from Sogn and the battle at Hafrsfjord was the end of it. Even if this diminishes the importance of Harald as the unifier of the Norwegian Empire, he still remains the initiator of this process.

At Hafrsfjord he was defeated by the greats of Vestland , led by King Erik of Hardanger , as well as King Skúli of Stavanger , the King of Agder and his son of Telemark and Sørland, also chiefs, of whom Kjotve and Haklang are called. In Denmark there is a rune stone that was made for a Haklang. It is not certain whether it is the same person.

Despite reports of a great victory, Harald cannot be ascribed to "unification of the empire". The term imperial was not even used by Snorri in his Heimskringla (around 1230). There it only says: "After this battle, King Harald found no more resistance in Norway." And a little later: "King Harald was now the sole ruler of all of Norway." Later the Heimskringla claims that he had distributed his sons as sub-kings all over Norway. This statement arises from the desire of the local Jarle in the 12th century to trace their line back to Harald.

According to the Faroe Islands saga , his lust for power led to a wave of emigration to the Faroe Islands and above all to Iceland . But the real conditions at his time are likely to oppose this. The Landnámabók about the settlement of Iceland does not know anything about it and gives other reasons.

In the year 880, according to the Heimskringla and the Annals of Ireland, Harald is said to have conquered the Orkneys and installed Røgnvald Eysteinsson ( Mørejarl ) as the first Jarl.

Domestic changes

Snorri reports on the domestic political changes:

"Haraldr konungr setti þann rétt alt þar er hann vann ríki undir sik, at hann möðist óðul öll, ok lét alla bœndr gjalda sér landskyldir, bæði ríka ok úríka. Hann setti jarl í hverju fylki, þann er dœma skyldi lög ok landsrétt ok heimta sakeyri ok landskyldir, ok skyldi jarl hafa þriðjung skatta ok skylda til borðs sér ok kostnaðar. Jarl hverr skyldi hafa undir sér 4 hersa eða fleiri, ok skyldi hverr þeirra hafa 20 marka veizlu. Jarl hverr skyldi fá konungi í her 60 hermanna af sínum einum kostnaði, en hersir hverr 20 menn. En svá mikit hafði Haraldr konungr aukit álög ok landskyldir, at jarlar hans Höfðu meira ríki en konungar Höfðu fyrrum. En er þetta spurðist um Þrándheim, þá sóttu til Haralds konungs margir ríkismenn ok gerðust hans menn. "

“King Harald now gave justice and laws to the whole country to which he had submitted to himself: He made all free peasant estates his own and had taxes paid by all peasants, from the rich as well as the poor. He put a jarl over every district, who was to uphold the law and order in the land and to collect fiefs and taxes for the king. The Jarle should have the third part of the duties and taxes for their table and their meals. Each jarl should have four men or more under him, and each of them should receive 20 marks for his maintenance. Each Jarl was supposed to deliver 60 men of war to the king, but each Herse 20. So Harald had increased the taxes and duties that his Jarle had more wealth and power than the kings before. When they found out about this in Drontheim, many distinguished men sought out King Harald and became his vassals. "

- Heimskringla - Harald's saga hins hárfagra chap. 6 translated by Felix Niedner

This expresses the initiation of the unification of the empire. The unification of the empire was more than the sole rule of a king over a country. The development went towards a system change in the exercise of power.

The fact that Harald gave the people “justice and laws” is certainly a back projection from the author's time. Because during Harald's lifetime the king had no general legislative power. However, he was able to issue orders about the state and government organization. But even the disputes among his sons after his death and especially the later civil war shows that the succession to the throne was not subject to the regulatory authority of the first kings. But the local classification of things should go back to him within certain limits. Harald certainly upgraded the existing gulathing . It is true that Haakon the Good was the first to report that he passed laws on the gulathing, but the main gulathing estates - Firdafylke, Sygnafylke and Hordafylke  - were already combined into one thing before 930 and during Harald's lifetime. This merger required a pacification of the region.

The expropriation of the free peasant estates ( Odal ) on a large scale was part of the consolidation of the royal rule. Harald claimed a feudal upper property, and all free men received their property as a fief from the king. This process was assessed very differently by historians and is still under discussion. It is disputed whether Harald only confiscated the goods of his enemies or of all subjects, as the source shows. If it was only the goods of the enemy, then the levy was a tribute, like the Danegeld later in England. But if he confiscated all goods and reissued them as fiefdoms and also levied taxes, then he had to provide a service in the sense of giving and giving in return. This then consisted of the external defense against Vikings. The latter is currently the predominant opinion. This is also supported by the later Hirðskrá from the 13th century:

"... atkonongr hafe i sinu vallde at söma þann mæst af sinni faður læifð oc fræia þann sem hann finnr se (r) hollaztan [...] þui at hans æign oc oðall er allt landið."

"... that the king has it in his power to honor him above all from his paternal inheritance and to raise him whom he finds most devoted to him ... For the whole land is his own and his odal."

- Hirdskraa § 13 in: Norges gamle Love indtil 1387 Bd. 2 Christiania 1848. S. 403 translated by Rudolf Meißner

The wording that the whole land of Odal is the king, in its almost incidental mention as a well-known fact, suggests that it is a very old and well-established idea.

The unification myth

The Reich Collection myth has been handed down in several source texts, all of which depend more or less on the Ágrip . Special mention should be made of Snorris Heimskringla , the Flateyjarbók and the Historia Norwegiæ . It is about the position of the Sami within the Norwegian Empire and the relationship between the two peoples.

The myth of Halvdan Svarte

According to the idea of ​​the Norwegians in the Viking Age and the early Middle Ages, the Sami lived in the inaccessible interior of the Scandinavian peninsula and thus outside the orderly world. The ordered world was Midgard , the interior belonged to Utgard , where chaos reigned and giants ( Jötnar or Jöten), trolls and dwarves lived. The seeds are often referred to as jotnar or dwarfs in the sources.

In the Heimskringla it is reported in the story of Halvdan Svarte that Halvdan, Harald's father, once spent Christmas Eve in Hadeland (now part of Oppland ). When the feast was about to begin, the entire feast was suddenly gone. King Halvdan had a spellculp seed seized, but despite the torture could not get anything out of him as to the disappearance of the feast. His son Harald, the future king, freed the seed and fled with him. He came to a seed chief and spent the winter with him. This chief had made the feast disappear. After Halvdan's death, the chief dismissed Harald so that he could take over the government in Norway. After the Flateyjabók, gold and valuables were stolen from the king after this episode. The thief, a seed called Jötunn, is caught and put in irons. The seed chief sent Harald back before Halvdan's death so that he could save the seed. Harald frees the seed by breaking the iron fetters with a sword that the seed he had saved earlier had given him, and goes away with it again. This Jötunn is called Dovre and lives in a cave in Dovrefjell . Harald spends five years here. Then Dovre informs him that Halvdan has died and instructs him to unite Norway and promises him to support him invisibly.

The myth about Harald

In the Flateyjabók, Harald is portrayed more clearly than in Snorri as the foster son of the Sami.

An essential strategy of Harald is the marriage of the daughters of the minor kings and chiefs of Norway. According to the Ágrip , Harald had 20 sons with many women, without the women being named. Only one son is said to be a magician and a son of Snøfrid Svasisdotter. In the Heimskringla the women and their children are listed who all grew up with the families of the respective women. Here it becomes clear that the marriages should establish alliances with the chiefs. In this way Harald founded a new dynasty. The first successor was Erich Blutaxt . His tribe died out with Harald Gråfell . His successor, Håkon the Good , another son of Harald, had no sons. Olav Tryggvason , a grandson of Olav Haraldsson, also had no sons. For Olav the saint , scholars in the 12th century assumed that he was the descendant of Harald Hårfagre. His son Magnus the Good had no son either. They were all descendants of mothers belonging to the families of Norwegian chiefs. The Sami people were left out.

The myth with Snøfrid is based on this fact. The king is in Oppland, an area on the border between Midgard and Utgard, for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Svasi, a Sami king, comes and asks him to come out (in the sources Svasi is sometimes referred to as the Finnish King, i.e. King of the Sami, sometimes as Jötunn, sometimes as a dwarf). He takes Harald to his Gamme . There he meets Snøfrid, Svasi's daughter. At the sight of her Harald falls for her on the spot, which is attributed to a spell of Svasi. He wants to sleep with her immediately, but the father makes it a condition that he legally marry her beforehand. Harald agrees and stays with her until her death after three years. During this time she gives birth to four sons. One of them is Sigurd Haraldsson Rise, from whom Harald Hardråde , half-brother and successor of Magnus the Good, descends. He had rich male offspring. So the seeds raised the young son of King Harald and made sure that he received the throne after his father, and they also helped him invisibly in the unification of the kingdom. In the end, according to the learned royal genealogy, the descendants of Samin Snøfrid sat on the Norwegian throne. This genealogy with a Samin as ancestral mother must have already had the approval of the royal family when it was written.

After Snøfrid died, Harald stayed with the corpse for years in deep mourning until a companion wanted to change its clothes. Then the king noticed the decay and was cured of his madness. When he woke up, he was so angry that he cast his sons from Snøfrid. Only after encouraging his friend, the skald Þjóðólfr, did he take it up again. In this episode with maddened love and subsequent hate, the ambivalent relationship between Norwegians and Sami is also reflected: simultaneous magical attraction and fear.

The pattern of this myth is clearly modeled on the pattern of the marriages between Asen (in Midgard) and Jöten (in Utgard). The Ase Freyr marries the daughter of the giant Gymir , Gerda from Jötunheim . Both Snøfrid and Gerda are marked with the same attribute “sólbjǫrt” (sunset). Like Freyr, Harald immediately became blind with love. The sex of the Ynglingers was derived from this couple . The powerful family of Jarle von Trøndelag and Lade derived from Odin and the Jötin Skade . In the myth about Harald, the Utgard woman takes the place of the Jötinnen in the myths of the gods and serves not only to determine the relationship between two peoples but also to legitimize the rule of the royal family.

progeny

According to the sagas, Harald had many children with different women, how many exactly is unknown. However, it must be taken into account that much later many families wanted to trace back to Harald in some way, so that fictitious connections cannot be ruled out.

• with Gyda Eiriksdottir :
  • Ålov Årbot ∞ around 890 Thore den Tause, i.e. the silent Møre -Jarl, brother of Rollo , Count of Rouen ( Rolloniden )
  • Rørek Haraldsson
  • Sigtrygg Haraldsson
  • Frode Haraldsson
  • Torgils Haraldsson
• with Åsa Håkonsdottir:
  • Guttorm Haraldsson
  • Halvdan Svarte Haraldsson
  • Halvdan Kvite Haraldsson
  • Sigrød Haraldsson
• with Ragnhild Eiriksdottir :
  • Erik Blodøks
• with Svanhild Øysteinsdotter:
  • Bjørn Farmann
  • Olav Haraldson
  • Ragnar Rykkel
• with Åshild Ringsdotter:
  • Dag Ringsson
  • Dag Haraldsson
  • Gudrød Skirja
  • Ingegjerd Haraldsdotter
• with Snøfrid Svåsedotter:
  • Sigurd Haraldsson Rise
  • Halvdan Hålegg
  • Gudrød Ljome
  • Ragnvald Rettil Legs
• with Tora Mostertong
  • Håkon the Good (Håkon Adalsteinsfostre)

The kings who introduce the sagas as the descendants of Harald (the reigns in brackets;? Means dubious descent)

1. Harald Hårfagre (872? –932)
   1. Erik Blodøks (930-934)
      1. Harald Gråfell and the sons of Erik (961–965 / 970)
   2. Håkon the Good (934–961)
   3. ? Olav
      1. Tryggve
         1. Olav Tryggvason (995–1000)
   4. ? Bjorn Farmann
      1. Gudrød
         1. Harald Grenske
            1. Olav Haraldsson (1015-1028)
               1. Magnus the Good (1035-1047)
   5. ? Sigurd Rise
      1. ? Halvdan
         1. Sigurd Syr
            1. Harald Hardråde (1046-1066)

literature

• Snorri Sturluson: Snorri's Book of Kings (Heimskringla). Vol. 1. Translated by Felix Nieder. Darmstadt 1965.
• Eldbjørg Haug: "Kongsgårdstid". In: Eldbjørg Haug (ed.): Utstein Kloster - og Klosterøys historie. 2005. pp. 55-86.
• Kim Hjardar: Harald Hårfagre og slaget ved Hafrsfjord . In: Per Erik Olsen (Ed.): Norges Kriger. Fra Hafrsfjord to Afghanistan . Oslo 2011. ISBN 978-82-8211-107-2 . Pp. 10-17.
• Claus Krag: Vikingtid og Rikssamling 800–1130 . In: Aschehougs Norges history. Vol. 2. Oslo 1995
• Else Mundal: Kong Harald hårfagre and samejenta Snøfrid. Samefolket sin plass i den norske rikssamlingsmyten. In: Nordica Bergensia 14 (1997), pp. 39-53.
• Fritz Petrick: Norway. Regensburg 2002.
• Sverre Bagge: Harald Fairhair (anord. Hárfagri), King of Norway († approx. 930) . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , Sp. 1930.

Web links

Commons : Harald I. (Norway)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ Kim Hjardar, endnote 3.
2. ↑ Kim Hjardar p. 11.
3. ↑ Haug, p. 58.
4. ↑ Petrik, p. 32; Thuesen, p. 37.
5. ↑ Eldbjørg Haug 2005, p. 56.
6. ↑ Heimskringla , chap. 19th
7. ↑ Heimskringla , chap. 20th
8. ↑ Heimskringla , chap. 33.
9. ↑ Haug, p. 68.
10. ↑ Haug p. 64.
11. ↑ Mundal p. 47 f.
12. ↑ Mundal p. 51.
13. ↑ Mundal p. 50 and Lofotr Vikingmuseum.Retrieved September 26, 2012.

predecessor	Office	successor
-	King of Norway around 870–933	Erik I.