Harald Fairhair

King of Norway

putatively c.850 Rogaland or Vestfold

putatively c.932 Rogaland, Norway

NamesHaraldr Hálfdanarson

Legendary first King of Norway "Fairhair" redirects here. For the royal house, see Fairhair dynasty. King of Norway Harald FairhairHarald Fairhair, in an illustration from the fourteenth-century Flateyjarbók.King of NorwayReignputatively 872–930SuccessorEric IBornputatively c. 850 Rogaland or VestfoldDiedputatively c. 932 Rogaland, NorwayBurialHaraldshaugen in HaugesundSpouseRagnhild the Mighty Åsa Håkonsdotter Snjófríthr/Snæfrithr SvásadottirIssue more Eric Bloodaxe Haakon the GoodDynastyFairhair dynastyFatherHalfdan The BlackMotherRagnhild SigurdsdotterReligionNorse religion Harald I Fairhair (Old Norse: Haraldr inn hárfagri; Norwegian: Harald hårfagre; putatively c. 850 – c. 932) is portrayed by the Icelandic sagas as the first King of Norway. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, he reigned from c. 872 to 930. Supposedly, two of his sons, Eric Bloodaxe and Haakon the Good, succeeded Harald, respectively, to become kings after his death. Much of Harald's biography remains uncertain, since the extant accounts of his life in the sagas were set down in writing around three centuries after his lifetime. Indeed, although it is possible to write a detailed account of Harald as a character in medieval Icelandic sagas, it is even possible to argue that there was no such historical figure at all. His life is described in several of the Kings' sagas, none of them older than the twelfth century. Their accounts of Harald and his life differ on many points, but it is clear that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Harald was regarded as having unified Norway into one kingdom. Since the nineteenth century, when Norway was in a personal union with Sweden, Harald has become a national icon of Norway and a symbol of independence. Though the king's sagas and medieval accounts have been critically scrutinised during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Harald maintains a reputation as the father of the Norwegian nation.