Harold I.

Harold I., surnamed HAARFAGER ('Fair-haired'), the first king of all Norway, was the son of Halfdan the Black, the most powerful of the jarls or petty kings of south-eastern Norway. According to the popular story, he loved a high- born maiden named Gyda, but she declared she would not be his wife until he was sole king of Norway; he in his turn thereupon took an oath that he would neither cut nor comb his hair until he had accomplished her bidding. After a severe struggle of some years' duration (863-872) he subdued, first the chiefs between Throndhjem and the Sogne Fjord, and finally the kings of the south-west, whom he defeated in a naval battle near Stavanger. The conquered districts he placed under the rule of his own jarls, or such as were devoted to his service. This led many of the old nobles to emigrate to the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and to Iceland, whence they conducted a series of piratical expeditions against Norway, until at length Harold was constrained to sail westwards and chastise them in their own seas. In his old age Harold divided his territories amongst his sons, and died at Throndhjem, which he had made his capital, in 930, leaving the supreme power to his son Eric, surnamed Bloody-Axe.