the district. The increased dues and the grants of land made by Harald rendered the position of one of his earls more lucrative than that of king under the older system; and it shows to what a paramount position the old aristocracy must have attained, that numbers of the herser and holder could not reconcile themselves to the limitation of their independence, but quitted the lands which were their real title to influence, rather than submit to the new order. But the little kingdoms only made futile attempts at combination, except in the western districts of Agde (comprising the modern Lister and Mandal and Nedenæs), Rogaland and Hordaland. Here was the home of the “western Vikings” who for nearly a century had owed wealth and fame to their raids on the British Isles. Attack by land was impossible, and Harald had to gather men and ships for three years before he could meet the fleet of the allied kings at Hafsfjord. The battle (872) resulted in a victory to him, and with it all opposition in Norway was at an end. An expedition to Scotland and the Scottish isles (c. 891) dispersed enemies who could harry the Norwegian coast, many of them taking refuge in Iceland; and the earldom of the Orkneys and Shetlands became an appanage of the Norwegian Crown. For the moment the whole country was under a single king, but Harald himself destroyed his work, in accordance with old custom, by giving about twenty of his sons the title of king, and dividing the country among them, only qualifying this retrograde step by installing his favourite son Erik Blodöxe as over-king (930). Moreover, Harald had established no common Thing for the whole of his kingdom. Norway is naturally divided into three parts, and each of these remained more or less separate for centuries, even having separate laws until the second half of the 13th century. The Frostathing district (so called from Frosta near Trondhjem) included the eight Trondhjem fylker, and also Naumdal, Nordmöre and Raumsdal. The Gulathing district consisted of Söndmöre, Firdafylke, Sogn, Valdres, Hallingdal, Hordaland and Agde, and met at Gula in Hordaland. The third, the Eidsivathing, met on the shores of Lake Mjösen, and included the Uplands and also the “Vik,” i.e. all the districts round Christiania fjord, until St Olaf established the Borgarthing at Sarpsborg as a centre for these latter. The king’s council was composed of the local lendermænd, and thus varied with the district he happened to be visiting, an arrangement that had its advantages, since the local chiefs were acquainted with the laws of their district, though it was another hindrance to unification. It was only in 1319 that a permanent council was formed, the Rigets Raad.
Harald died in 933. Erik Blodöxe (Bloody-axe) only managed to rid himself of two rival over-kings, Olaf and Sigfred, his half-brothers, for on hearing of his father’s death, another son, Haakon (q.v.), called the Good, who had been brought up at Æthelstan’s court, came to Norway with a small force and succeeded in ejecting Erik (934), Haakon the Good. After Haakon’s death in 961 at the battle of Fitje, where his long struggle against Erik’s sons and their Danish allies terminated, these brothers, headed by Harald Graafeld (grey-cloak) became masters of the W. districts, though the ruling spirit appears to have been their mother Gunhild. Earl Sigurd of Lade ruled the N., and the S. was held by vassal kings whom Haakon had left undisturbed. By 969 the brothers had succeeded in ridding themselves of Sigurd and two other rivals, but the following year Harald Graafeld was lured to Denmark and treacherously killed at the instigation of Earl Haakon, son of Sigurd, who had allied himself with the Danish king Harald Gormssön. With the latter’s support Earl Haakon won Norway, but threw off his yoke on defeating Ragnfred Erikssön at Tingenes in 972. The S.E. districts were, however, still held by Harald Grenske, whose father had been slain by the sons of Erik. Haakon ruled ably though tyrannically, and his prestige was greatly increased by his victory over the Jomsvikings, a band of pirates inhabiting the island of Wollin at the mouth of the Oder, who had collected a large fleet to attack Norway. The date of their defeat at Hjörungavaag, now Lidvaag, is uncertain. But finally the earl’s disregard of the feelings of the most powerful “bonder,” or landed proprietors, worked them up to revolt, and, in 995, there landed in Norway Olaf, great-grandson of Harald Haarfager and son of the king Tryggve of the Vik whom Gudröd Eriksson had slain, and whose father Olaf had been slain by Erik Blodöxe.
The earl was treacherously killed by his thrall while in hiding, and Olaf entered unopposed upon his short and brilliant reign. His great work was the enforced conversion to Christianity of Norway, Iceland and Greenland. In this undertaking both Olaf and his successor and namesake looked for help to England, whence they obtained a Introduction of Christianity by Olaf. bishop and priests; hence it comes that the organization of the early church in Norway resembles that of England. No more than England did Norway escape the struggle between Church and State, but the hierarchical party in Norway only rose to power after the establishment of an archiepiscopal see at Trondhjem in 1152, after which the quarrel raged for over a century. Until the year 1100, when tithes were imposed, the priests depended for their livelihood on their dues, and Adam of Bremen informs us that this made them very avaricious.
In the year 1000 Olaf fell at the battle of Svolder off Rügen, fighting against the combined Danish and Swedish fleets. The allies shared Norway between them, but the real power lay in the hands of Erik and Svein, sons of Earl Haakon. In 1015, when Erik was absent in England, another descendant of Harald Haarfager Relations with Denmark. appeared, Olaf, the son of Harald Grenske, a great-grandson of Harald Haarfager (see Olaf II. Haraldssön). He defeated Svein at Nesje in 1016, which left him free to work towards a united and Christian Norway. For some years he was successful, but he strained the loyalty of his subjects too far, and on the appearance of Knut the Great in 1029 he fled to Russia. His death at the battle of Stiklestad on his return in 1030 was followed by a few years of Danish rule under Svein Knutssön, which rendered Olaf’s memory sweet by contrast, and soon the name of St Olaf came to stand for internal union and freedom from external oppression. In 1035 his young son Magnus, afterwards called the Good, was summoned from Russia, and was readily accepted as king. A treaty was made with Hardeknut which provided that whichever king survived should inherit the other’s crown. Hardeknut died in 1042, and Magnus became king of Denmark, but a nephew of Knut the Great, Svein Estridssön, entered into league with Harald Haardraade (see Harald III.), the half-brother of St Olaf, who had just returned from the East. As soon, however, as overtures were made to him by Magnus, he forsook the cause of Svein, and in 1046 agreed to become joint king of Norway with Magnus. The difficulties arising out of this situation were solved by Magnus’s death in 1047.
Harald’s attempts to win Denmark were vain, and in 1066 he set about a yet more formidable task in attacking England, which ended with his death at Stamford Bridge in 1066. His son Olaf Kyrre (the Quiet) shared the kingdom with his brother Magnus until the latter’s death in 1069, after which the country enjoyed a period End of Harald Haarfager’s line. of peace. A feature of this reign is the increasing importance of the towns, including Bergen, which was founded by Olaf. In 1093 Olaf was succeeded by his turbulent son Magnus Barfod (barefoot) and by Haakon, son of Magnus the Good. The latter died in 1095. Besides engaging in an unsuccessful war against the Swedish king Inge, in which he was defeated at Foxerne in 1101, Magnus undertook three warlike expeditions to the Scottish isles. It was on the last of these expeditions, in 1103, that he met his death. He was succeeded by his three sons, Eystein, Sigurd and Olaf. Olaf died young. Sigurd undertook a pilgrimage, from which he gained the name of Jorsalfar (traveller to Jerusalem). He won much booty from the Moors in Spain, from pirates in the Mediterranean, and finally at Sidon, which he and his ally Baldwin I. of Jerusalem took and sacked. Eystein died in 1122. Sigurd lived till 1130, but was subject to fits of insanity in his later years. He was the last undoubted representative of Harald Haarfager’s race, for on his death
