Vikings: Harald the Fairhair, One of the Many

(An illustration dipicting Harald the Fairhair form the 14th century (Right) )

I received no questions about vikings, so I decided to write more about one viking in particular.


Harald the Fairhair was one of many viking kings. His reign lasted from 872 BC to 930 BC. Even though he had sons like Hååken [Ho-ken], his heir was his favorite son, Eirik Bloodaxe. Harald had several wives, one of which was Danish, and one that was named Svanhild, the name of my grandmother. In fact, he had over 7 wives! Half of which I am sure he took by force. He was born in 850 BC in Eastern Norway, and died in 943 BC in Rogaland, Norway, having had lived 82-83 years.

Extra- The ends of old Norse names, and some modern, end in son, sen or dotter. Son or sen always indicates that they are the son of the man with their name in their last name. For example, Thor Gjordsen would mean that Thor is the son of Gjord [Gyord]. Dotter at the name indicates the same thing, only it is for females. Thor's sister, Anetuuve [Ah- Nuh- Too- Vuh], would be Anetuuve Gjorddotter. This is not often seen today, but some people still have one of these names.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flateyjarbok_Haraldr_Halfdan.jpg