User:Harald I nhe king of Norway

The only son and successor of Halvdan the Black, king of the Inglings, ruler of Vestfold. His mother was Ragnhild, the daughter of Sigurd the Stag, King of Hringariki.

Harald was ten years old when his father died. Initially, Harald's army was commanded by his mother's brother, Guttorm Sigurd's son. During the war for the unification of the largest principalities, Harald put the rights of the bonds (landowners) who supported him at the forefront of his interests Traundheim (Trand lands), Raumsdal (Raum lands), Rogaland (Rug lands) and Holugaland (Holeig land). According to the sagas, Harald's series of victories over the local Hevdings culminated in the great Battle of Hafrsfjord (about 872), after which he began to call himself the "ruler of the Norwegians". It was then that the toponym "Norway" (which means "northern way") came into use.

The unification of Norway under Harald's rule was fragile. Historians argue about the territory to which his power extended. It was probably only the coastal areas in southern Norway. The defeated Vikings (among whom was the founder of the Norman Duchy of Rollon), as the sagas tell, went to colonize Iceland and Normandy. At the end of his life, Harald made a conquering expedition to the west, to the shores of Scotland, conquering the Orkney and Shetland Islands. For the first time, he introduced a universal tax in Norway, permanent taxes. He joined the struggle for Vermland and other border areas with the Swedish King Erik Emundsson.

Norwegian States ca. 872 The last years of Harald's reign were overshadowed by feuds between his numerous sons (in different sagas their number varies from eleven to twenty). Harald appointed his beloved son Eirik Bloodaxe as the supreme ruler.