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Did the legendary Viking king Harald Fairhair really exist? Historians aren't so sure
Norway's first king might have been someone else entirely.
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The story of Harald Fairhair is well known. The petty king who, in the 9th century, wanted to unite Norway into one kingdom and who refused to cut his hair and beard until it was done. The man who won the Battle of Hafrsfjord in 872 and became Norway's first king.
This story is found in Norwegian schoolbooks, on the royal court's website, and history websites.
But did the man exist? And was he really a king?
No one mentions King Harald
No archaeological discoveries have been able to confirm the existence of a King Harald Fairhair. There are no written sources about Harald Fairhair from his lifetime that mention him or his work.
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At courts and monasteries in Europe, important events and powerful people were recorded in annals.
“We consider these annals reliable because they were written at the time by people with good access to information. These annals mention various Danish kings, and they tell of hordes – named after the people from Hordaland – who attacked the British Isles, but they do not mention a Norwegian Harald Fairhair," says Bjørn Bandlien
He is a professor of medieval and Viking Age history at the University of South-Eastern Norway.
The historians who wrote about him lived long after Harald Fairhair's time. One of them was the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlason in the 13th century, around 400 years after Harald is said to have lived.
A king needs a royal past
Snorri visited Norway twice. He travelled to Vestfold during a time of unrest. The Danish King Valdemar claimed rights to Vestfold and Viken by referring to the Viking Age, when the Danes controlled these areas.
King Haakon IV Haakonsson and Duke Skule resided in Vestfold.
“Snorri might have heard stories about a Norwegian King Harald from the Viking Age. He chose to link this king to Vestfold and then connect Haakon Haakonsson to a long, unbroken line of Norwegian kings going all the way back to Odin,” says Bandlien.
This kind of historical anchoring carried weight in Haakon Haakonsson’s claim to the area.
Snorri's lineage going back in time is no longer considered credible. Several historians, including Claus Krag, also believe it's not true that the kings after Fairhair descended from him.
According to Snorri, Harald Fairhair was from Vestfold. Later historians have placed him in the regions of Sogn, Karmøy, Oppland, and Denmark.
Poems used as sources
Snorri used skaldic poems as sources for the saga of Harald Fairhair.
The skalds were professional poets in the Viking Age. They praised gods, kings, and warriors and told of great battles. The poems had fixed structures and were told orally, some of them retold for centuries until the time of historians in the 12th and 13th centuries.
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Snorri believed the poems were reliable.
“He believed that people at the time would not have accepted poems that invented false battles and events,” says Bandlien.
But Snorri expanded on the short, old poems. He wove in drama, power, honour, well-known people, and events. Powerful Norwegian kings rose to prominence in the sagas.
A country needs a proud past
Then we jump ahead to the 19th century.
At that time, Norway was in the process of becoming an independent nation after 400 years of Danish rule. There was a great need for a proud national past. It was found in the sagas. Historians used them uncritically as historical sources.
The Viking Age – with Harald Fairhair at the forefront – became the core narrative leading up to 1905 and independence from Sweden, according to Bandlien.
“The Viking kings were important in showing that Norway had once been a strong and independent kingdom,” he says.
Critique of the sagas and poems
Over time, historians lost faith in the sagas as reliable sources.
The historian Halvdan Koht in particular changed how they should be interpreted, according to Bandlien.
“Koht believed that the sagas cannot be read as trustworthy sources about the Viking Age, but rather as sources about the authors' own time, which was the 13th century,” he says.
Skaldic poems were nevertheless considered more reliable.
But these have also been criticised as sources, including by Professor Sverrir Jakobsson from Iceland.
We only know the poems through the sagas. Those who wrote the sagas in the 13th century could have rewritten or added verses. The poems are very vague, short, and difficult to understand. It is also uncertain whether they are from the Viking Age, since oral poetry probably changed over centuries.
Estimated that Harald died in 930
The Great Norwegian Encyclopedia states that Harald Fairhair’s year of birth is unknown, but that he died around the year 930.
“These are guesses, but they’re qualified guesses,” says Bandlien.
The year of Fairhair's death is calculated based on when his potential sons succeeded to the throne.
Eric Bloodaxe and Haakon the Good are vividly portrayed in the Kings' sagas. But the two also appear in more reliable sources, such as coins and annals in England.
Because these two men are active around 930 to 950, historians believe their father died around the same time.
“It becomes a matter of probability. Eric and Haakon may have come from a royal dynasty with roots in Norway, but we can’t be sure,” Bandlien says.
Where did Harald rule?
Harald's centre of power has been debated, but most now point to southwestern Norway.
Many archaeological discoveries have been made at Avaldsnes on the island of Karmøy, showing that there was a significant power base there, also during the 9th and 10th centuries. Traces of shipbuilding and large resources are also evident. Karmøy also had a good strategic location on the important shipping route along the Norwegian coast.
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“A chieftain at Avaldsnes would have had a strong interest in securing control over the trade routes from the north and onwards to local markets, the British Isles, and the continent,” says Bandlien.
The profits from trade would make a chieftain rich.
“The chieftain would have had goods like fur and antlers from reindeer, as well as skins, tusks, and oil from walruses, to use as gifts to build alliances, secure loyalty, and maintain a hird,” says Bandlien.
Harald Fairhair may have been such a local chieftain. And with power and wealth, others, perhaps lesser chieftains, would want to associate with him or take resources from him.
Was there a battle at Hafrsfjord?
Snorri describes Harald Fairhair's victory at the Battle of Hafrsfjord as decisive for uniting Norway into one kingdom.
Bandlien points out that there are neither confirmed archaeological finds nor contemporary written sources that can verify that this battle ever took place.
The most important source for the battle is the skaldic poem Haraldskvadet.
“Snorri most likely reconstructed the events and background of the battle from skaldic poetry, but the verses themselves are short and difficult to interpret,” says Bandlien.
Even though the evidence is lacking, he believes it's not unlikely that a major battle took place.
“It might also have been a naval battle. Several things suggest there was a conflict between people from Agder, Sogn, and Ryfylke,” Bandlien says.
Was Haakon Jarl Norway's first king? Or Harald Hardrada?
Norway did not exist as a unified country at that time.
“The Battle of Hafrsfjord was certainly not about uniting Norway into one kingdom. If there was a battle, it's more likely that it had to do with control over the trade routes along the coast ,” says Bandlien.
Adam of Bremen was a German historian who lived shortly after Harald's estimated lifetime. He is considered an important source for Scandinavian history, but he does not mention Harald Fairhair. Instead, Adam writes that Norway was ruled by chieftains until Haakon Jarl from Trøndelag became Norway's first king. Haakon ruled from around the year 970.
Professor Hans Jacob Orning at the University of Oslo points to Harald Hardrada as the one who united Norway into a single kingdom. Hardrada was king from around 1045. Orning also writes that Hardrada is likely the ancestor of the Norwegian royal house, not the older Fairhair.
Did Fairhair have many wives?
According to the saga of Harald Fairhair, he had many wives. Perhaps as many as 20.
Bandlien believes that families in the area around Karmøy would have been interested in linking their daughters to the powerful chieftain there.
“But polygamy was rare. It was common for a man to have one wife and several concubines. The concubines were often from good families and created alliances even though they were not formally married. This avoided the complications of dowries and bride gifts, while still allowing them to connect themselves to a leader who had more power than they did,” says Bandlien.
Did he refuse to cut his hair and beard?
Snorri tells us that Harald proposed to Gyda, who was the daughter of the king of Hordaland. But she would only marry him if he conquered all of Norway. So he vowed not to cut his hair or beard until he succeeded. That earned him the nickname Fairhair.
“We consider the story about the hair to be a literary device used by Snorri and other saga writers. They wanted to tell a good story,” says Bandlien.
The story might even have been taken from a different Viking altogether. Harald Hardrada, who lived in the 11th century, was also called Fairhair.
“When Snorri created the figure of Harald Fairhair based on sparse historical sources, he may have incorporated stories about other great Vikings,” says Bandlien.
From powerful men to important mechanisms
In the 1970s and 1980s, another shift occurred in historians' views on the sagas and the Viking Age. The focus moved from kings and powerful individuals to social structures and the rules of society.
“Today, historians are more concerned with past societies, cultures, and politics. How some gained power and resources while others did not. We look at the mechanisms behind alliances and power struggles,” says Bandlien.
Archaeological material is assessed alongside historical sources. What emerges in the Viking Age is a landscape with powerful chieftains in alliances and networks. Harald Fairhair may have been such a chieftain.
Archaeological findings indicate that there was a centre of power in Western Norway with connections to the British Isles. So it's possible that Eric Bloodaxe and Haakon the Good came from there and were sons of a Norwegian king. According to Snorri, that king was Harald Fairhair. But we only have his word for that.
“Those of us who work with the Viking Age have to piece together clues and assess what's likely,” Bandlien says.
"What do you personally think?"
“The most important thing for me as a historian is that there was a chieftain, who may have called himself king, who had his centre of power at Avaldsnes and who may have had ambitions to expand his realm. Was his name Harald Fairhair? Well, we can certainly call him that,” says Bandlien.
References:
Hårfagreætten (The Fairhair dynasty), local history wiki, Norwegian local history institute / National library.
Jakobsson, S. Erindringen om en mægtig Personlighed (Recollections of a Mighty Person), Historisk tidsskrift, 2002.
Koht, H. Lecture at the Norwegian Historical Association on November 24, 1913, Historisk tidsskrift, 1912-14, no. 5, volume 2.
Krag, C. Rikssamlingshistorien og ynglingerekken (The Norwegian kingdom and the Ynglingar), Historisk tidsskrift, 2012. DOI: 10.18261/ISSN1504-2944-2012-02-02
Orning, H.J. Harald Hårfagre fra Vestfold? (Harald Fairhair from Vestfold?), Norgeshistorie.no, 2015.
Orning, H.J. Ut av Danmarks skygge? (Out of Denmark's shadow?), Norgeshistorie.no, 2015.
Pedersen, U. & Sigurdsson, J.V. Samlingen av «Norge» (The collection of "Norway"), Norgeshistorie.no, 2015.
Rikssamlingsprosessen (The process of unifying a kingdom), 2022.
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Translated by Ingrid P. Nuse
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
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