So, first off, I must apologize for breaking my earlier promise to write here every day! Life's been a little crazy lately, and I definitely needed the time to take a break yesterday.
But to make up for it, I've decided to start a series of posts describing all of the Norwegian kings, both past and present. I, like most Norwegian-Americans that I know, know very little about Norwegian history in general, so I'll be writing just as much for myself here as anyone else!
Halfdanr Svarti (i.e., Halfdan the Black, for his 'raven' black hair), who lived c.810-c.860 ACE, was a Norwegian king of the Norse state of Vestfold, which would later form the basis for a united Norway. Halfdan is best known, however, for being the father of the first king of that united Norway, Harald Harfagre ('Fair-hair').
(As a heads up, the following piece might seem a little dull and 'historical' sounding. I really did try to be as concise as possible though).
 |
| All the kingdoms of Halfdan's reign. Vestfold is in red. |
As the book of Norwegian kings tells (the Heimskringla, as cited from Project Gutenberg), Halfdan was a year old when his father, the semi-mythical Gudrod the Hunter (a member of the Yngling dynasty, later to be known as the Fairhair dynasty, supposedly founded by the Norse god of abundance, Frey) was killed in his kingdom of Vestfold. He and his mother Asa then fled to her father's kingdom of Agder, where the boy was raised.
 |
| Frey, son of Odin, god of abundance, and creator of the line of Yngling kings. |
When the boy turned 18, he and his brother Olaf united the Vestfold kingdom, and then spent many of the following years fighting rival Norwegian kings, first battling against king Gandalf (mentioned in an earlier post) of Vingulmark, who gave him half of that land after his defeat, and then against king Sigtryg of Hedemark for control of the territory of Romerike.
Halfdan was victorious against Sigtryg, who died in battle against him, but spent years following their great battle fighting king Sigtryg's brother Eystein who retook Romerike from him. Of course, Halfdan was victorious in a number of battles against Eystein, causing him to flee north and sue for peace. Out of fairness for his family, Halfdan gave Eystein half of Hedemark while he kept the rest.
The king of Vestfold then married Ragnhild, the daughter of king Harold Gulskeg (goldbeard; you gotta' love those old Norse names), king of Sogn. Long story short, Halfdan has a son, that son is raised in Sogn and given control of the kingdom by his grandfather on Harold Gulskeg's deathbed. Ragnhild then dies shortly after he father, and then her son dies shortly after her, making Halfdan the king of Sogn as well.
 |
| Sogndalsfjorden (Sogn's fjord). (Credits: Tim Bunce, Wikipedia) |
Anyway, this is getting a little lengthy; needless to say, Halfdan fought Gandalf's sons again, killed two out of three, took all of Vingulmark, and the third son (Hake) fled to the kingdom of Alfheimar and his lands at Hadeland. Halfdan then gets married to a second Ragnhild, whose father had been king of the kingdom of Ringerike (before getting killed by Hake). She was captured by Hake and taken to his lands of Hadeland; Halfdan hears of it at Yule (still a pre-Christian Norse pagan festival at this point), at then captures her back and makes her his wife, and makes himself king of Hadeland as well.
Some supernatural things happen after that, and just before his son is born, Halfdan has a dream prophesying the greatness of his family. The son is named Harold, and would later become Harold Fairhair, first king of Norway.
Also, a number of years later, Halfdan was having another Yule feast in Hadeland, when all of the meat and mead suddenly disappeared from his table as if it had never been. Startled, the king captured a wise 'Finn' (really, a member of the Sami people, the indigenous inhabitants of Norway, whose language is related to that of the Finn people of Finland; in Norwegian epics and folktales, they're generally acknowledged as having magical, non-Christian powers of enchantment) and tortures him to tell him the truth of what happened to the food and drink at his feast.
 |
| A Norwegian Sami family, circa 1900. |
His son Harold (about 10 years old at this point) lets the 'Finn' escape against his father's wishes, and travels with him to his chief's lands, staying with the 'Finns' until the next spring. The man that Harold rescued then tells him that he did in fact steal king Halfdan's provisions, but that the king is now dead, and Harold is now the new king of Halfdan's lands.
As it turns out, Halfdan was traveling back from his feast in Hadeland over a frozen lake in the middle of a spring thaw, with predictable results. He and much of his army fell through it, and he died around the age of 40.
 |
| Randsfjord, where Halfdan drowned. |
Interestingly enough, when his body floated ashore at Ringerike, the leading folk of all the united kingdoms of his lands began to argue about where the body would get buried, since they all thought that wherever it would be interred would be guaranteed a good harvest (keep in mind that Halfdan was supposed to be the descendant of Frey, the god of abundant harvests). So, his nobles did what any rational folk would do; they chopped the body up into four pieces and buried them in four mounds around the country, with the head going to the land of Stein in Ringerike.
 |
| One of 'Halfdan's mounds' at the Hadeland folk museum. (Photo: Anders Einar Hilden, i.e. Kagee, Wikipedia). |
And thus were the foundations of a united Norway laid!
No comments:
Post a Comment