My dad and Harald Fairhair

I’m writing this from my dad’s living room. He is 82 years old today, and we’re having a low-key celebration. Two of his sisters visited him earlier today, and now it’s just him and me. He made me dinner, we’ve eaten cake, and he has opened his presents.

We’ve talked, and it’s been nice and laid back. Some topics have already come up more than once, but that’s how it is, and it’s of no consequence. His physical shape is impressive, and he has no problems living on his own.

Eighty-two years old is also the age Harald Fairhair is said to have reached. Which was highly unusual in the Viking age.

Seventy years on the throne

Harald ruled Norway for roughly seventy years, depending on which source you trust. According to the sagas, he began his quest to unite Norway as a young man in the late 9th century and continued ruling well into old age. In his later years he divided parts of the kingdom among his sons, though not always peacefully. Several of them fought each other for power, and the old king had to step in more than once to restore order.

Even in old age, Harald remained a powerful figure. The sagas describe him as a ruler who still commanded loyalty and fear long after most men of his generation were gone.

A hard king

Harald Fairhair was also known as a strict ruler. His hard reign is often cited as one of the reasons so many Norwegians left for Iceland during this period. According to later Icelandic sources, some chieftains chose exile rather than submit to Harald’s growing power.

Historians debate how much truth there is to this. The migration to Iceland likely had many causes: land hunger, internal conflicts between chieftains, and the promise of independence in a new land. But there is little doubt that Harald’s campaign to unite Norway under one crown changed the balance of power across the whole region.

Uniting Norway was not a peaceful process. Harald defeated rival kings and jarls in a series of battles, the most famous being the Battle of Hafrsfjord, fought around 872 AD. After his victories he placed loyal men in charge of the regions and demanded taxes and allegiance in a way earlier petty kings had rarely managed.

In other words: building a kingdom required hard methods.

Back to the books

If you haven’t read the story of how Harald, as a young man, vowed to become king of all Norway — and how he eventually achieved it — that’s our novel Harald Fairhair. When King Halvdan the Black dies in 860, he is succeeded by his ten-year-old son, and rival kings immediately move against the boy’s weakened realm. It’s a great place to start if you haven’t read any of our books.

It also continues the story from the Viking Ventures series, where an older Ulv becomes the main point-of-view character. And if you’ve read the Shieldmaiden series, you may remember that Harald is Tora’s grandfather. The events in Harald Fairhair shape the political landscape Tora grows up in — reading it might even give you a deeper understanding of her as a character.

As for my dad: he’s outlasted a Viking king’s lifespan with room to spare, and he did it without fighting a single battle at Hafrsfjord. I think that counts as winning.