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Did a King Haakon I actually exist?
All we know for certain is a name and the title of prince.
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Haakon I – known by the epithet "the Good"—is a figure of uncertain historicity.
What do we know about him—and was he actually King of Norway?
The only thing we know for certain is that a king's son named Haakon is mentioned in an English source, according to Professor Bjørn Bandlien at the University of South-Eastern Norway.
There is no mention of who his father or brothers were, where in Norway Haakon came from, or what he did in England.
There are no archaeological finds confirming that Haakon actually lived. Nor are there any Norwegian written sources from the 10th century.
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Yet, a story about Haakon I exists. It appears in history books and online encyclopaedias.
According to these accounts, Haakon was born in the year 920. He was the son of Harald Fairhair, the brother of Eric Bloodaxe, and was fostered by the English King Athelstan. He hailed from Western Norway and became King of Norway.
You can also find books and articles (in Norwegian) stating that Haakon was the first king to attempt to Christianize Norway and that he reformed the military system.
Where does all this information come from?
The Viking Age as seen from 13th-century Iceland
A saga was written about Haakon I, and other sagas and poems mention him.
Until a century ago, historians placed great faith in the sagas as sources for Norway’s history. They then lost confidence in the sagas’ veracity.
"No one regards them as primary sources anymore," historian Halvdan Koht said of the sagas in 1913.
The sagas were written in Iceland centuries after the Viking Age and perhaps reveal more about the 13th century than the era they depict. Today, the sagas are no longer used as reliable sources about the Viking Age for determining who was king and when, what they said and did, or how events actually unfolded.
Yet even if we were to accept the sagas at face value, it remains difficult to form a clear picture of Haakon I.
In some sagas, he is a Christian; in others, a pagan. In some, he rules alongside his brother Eric Bloodaxe; in others, they are adversaries. In some, he is King of Norway; in others, merely of Western Norway. Norwegian sagas state that he was the foster son of the English king, yet English sources make no mention of this.
Calculating probabilities
Faced with few and contradictory sources—many written long after Haakon’s estimated lifetime—modern historians must calculate probabilities, Bandlien explains.
The starting point is essentially a name and a title: the king’s son Haakon.
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The next likely step is that a Norwegian king’s son may have spent time at the court of King Athelstan.
"We have a wealth of information and excellent sources regarding Athelstan’s court, his army, and the environment there," says Bandlien.
If Haakon was indeed at the court, it is likely that he observed and learned from the court.
Ifs, maybes, and possibilities
“He may have been inspired by the beliefs and ideologies at the royal court, by English law, and by how they organized their military,” says Bandlien.
The prince from pagan Norway may well have heard of Christianity.
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If Haakon returned to Western Norway and became king there, he might have wanted to introduce what he had learned.
“The next step, therefore, is to look for evidence of Christianization from the same period,” says Bandlien.
And that evidence has been found— at Veøy in Møre, in Telemark, and along the coast—though none can be definitively linked to Haakon I.
An unfortunate mishap
There is also a skaldic poem commemorating Haakon I, known as Adalsteinsfostre (Athelstan’s foster son). Bandlien says the poem is believed to have been composed shortly after Haakon’s lifetime.
However, the poem portrays the attempt to introduce Christianity as an unfortunate mishap.
“Haakon is a heroic king, after all, so he is welcomed into Valhalla by Odin, who gives a wry smile and says, ‘Well, you gave it a try and put your faith in the other one, but we’ll welcome you anyway,’” says Bandlien.
Haakon is also credited with reforms to the military levy system known as the leidang. In effect, this required the country’s inhabitants to provide warships and crews with weapons and provisions as levied by the king.
“The sagas may exaggerate somewhat when they describe his efforts regarding Christianization and military reform, but it is possible that he contributed to changes in the latter area, as well as to the shaping of the major governmental assemblies,” says Bandlien.
King of Western Norway?
But how is Håkon linked specifically to Western Norway?
Historians do this by ruling out other alternatives.
"There are no sources—neither skaldic poetry nor sagas—linking Håkon to Trøndelag or Vestfold, which were the other major power centres. Therefore, the power centre at Avaldsnes is a likely alternative, a view also supported by the sagas," says Bandlien.
Bandlien says the scarcity of contemporary sources regarding the Viking kings is often downplayed.
"The body of sources is complex, and the extent of the uncertainty is often glossed over," he says.
Historians' job is to piece it all together, he says.
"What kind of information and sources do we actually have, and are they credible? What constitutes a hypothesis, and what is merely a calculated probability rather than actual proof? It is essentially our task to scrutinize this."
Given so much uncertainty, do we actually have an eighth King Haakon now?
"I believe there was a King Håkon who was, at the very least, king of Western Norway. So yes, the current king can adopt the number eight," says Bandlien.
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Translated by Nancy Bazilchuk
Read the Norwegian version of this article at forskning.no
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