Between 872 and 900
Harald Fairhair and Hafrsfjord
The Battle of Hafrsfjord is fought between 872 and 900, by most scholars’ reckoning in the 880s. The traditional year 872 comes from a count back from the Battle of Svolder in Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla, made in the 1830s, and Norway celebrated a thousand years as a kingdom on that basis in 1872. The only source from Harald’s own time is Haraldskvæði, a poem attributed to his court poet Þorbjörn hornklofi, which tells of his victory at Hafrsfjord over Kjotve the Rich and Haklang.
Harald Fairhair and his father Halfdan the Black in the initial that opens Harald’s tale in Flateyjarbók, written in Iceland between 1387 and 1394Wikimedia Commons, Jón Þórðarson and Magnús Þórhallsson, Public domain (Flateyjarbok Haraldr Halfdan 2.jpg)
Snorri, writing more than 300 years after the battle, gives the fuller story. The kings of Hordaland, Rogaland, Agder and Telemark gather ships and men against Harald, who sails south along the coast and collects forces from every district. The allies meet north of Jæren and go into Hafrsfjord, where Harald is waiting. After a long fight King Eirik of Hordaland and King Sulke of Rogaland are dead, the berserk Thor Haklang has fallen on his ship, and Kjotve the Rich flees.
Harald Fairhair in the Battle of Hafrsfjord, painting by Ole Peter Hansen Balling, 1870Wikimedia Commons, Ole Peter Hansen Balling, Public domain (Ole Peter Hansen Balling Harald Hårfagre i slaget ved Hafrsfjord.jpg)
In the sagas the battle completes Harald’s conquest of the south-west and makes him the first king of all Norway, and many of those who will not submit emigrate to Iceland. Most historians now see the unification of Norway as a process that took centuries, and some argue that the Harald Fairhair of the sagas did not exist. By the sagas’ account he dies about 932, and his sons Eric Bloodaxe and Haakon the Good follow him as kings.
Sverd i fjell, three bronze swords by Fritz Røed raised on the shore of Hafrsfjord in 1983 in memory of the battleWikimedia Commons, TomasEE, CC BY 3.0 (Sverd i fjell - panoramio (1).jpg)
Sources
- Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, Saga of Harald Fairhair.
- Þorbjörn hornklofi, Haraldskvæði (Hrafnsmál).
- Bruce Lincoln, Between History and Myth: Stories of Harald Fairhair and the Founding of the State (2014).
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