Harald Hardrada

• 1. Introduction

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  Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, faced an English army at Stamford Bridge on the 25th of September 1066, and a bitter bargain was reportedly put to him that day. Snorri Sturluson writes that Harold Godwinson, the English king, offered him "six feet of English ground, or seven feet as he was taller than other men". Henry of Huntingdon records a similar line. The joke was grim, and it came at the end of a long and violent career.

  Behind that taunt lies a life that the surviving sources tell in conflicting ways. The same king carries nicknames that seem to contradict each other. The accounts also disagree over several of his most dramatic moments.

  This documentary follows a handful of questions. How did an exile gain the wealth to claim a throne? What did his famous nickname actually mean? How did he govern Norway once he held it? And why do historians often treat his death as the end of the Viking Age?

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• 2. Many Names

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  Harald Sigurdsson, born around 1015, is remembered by a nickname that scholars cannot agree how to translate. The Old Norse harðráði has been rendered as 'hard in counsel', 'tyrannical', 'ruthless', 'savage in counsel', 'tough' and 'severe'. Judith Jesch argues that 'severe' fits best. Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes prefer 'resolute'. Jesch also dislikes the familiar English form Hardrada, which she calls "a bastard Anglicisation of the original epithet in an oblique case". The name appears most often in the later Icelandic saga tradition.

  Sources from the British Isles tell a different story. Manuscript D of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle calls him 'Harold Harfagera' under the year 1066. Orderic Vitalis, John of Worcester and William of Malmesbury use similar forms for the events of that year. So does the Life of Gruffydd ap Cynan, written in the later twelfth century. Marianus Scotus of Mainz records him as 'Arbach'. All of these descend from the Old Norse hárfagri, which means 'hair-beautiful' and is usually rendered as Fairhair.

  In the Icelandic sagas, Harald Fairhair is a much earlier Norwegian king. Twentieth-century historians therefore assumed that the British chroniclers had attached the name to the wrong man. Later scholars noticed that several of those sources were independent of each other. Many now believe that Hardrada really was widely known as Fairhair. Some even doubt that the earlier Fairhair existed in anything like the form the sagas describe.

  Sverrir Jakobsson offers a twist. He suggests that Fairhair "might be the name by which King Harald wished himself to be known". In his view, "It must have been his opponents who gave him the epithet 'severe'". The chronicler Adam of Bremen skipped both names and called him the "Thunderbolt of the North".

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• 3. Stiklestad and Flight

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  Harald was born in Ringerike, Norway, in 1015 or possibly 1016. His parents were Åsta Gudbrandsdatter and her second husband, Sigurd Syr. Sigurd was a petty king of Ringerike and among the strongest and wealthiest chieftains in the Uplands. Through his mother, Harald was the youngest of three half-brothers of King Olaf Haraldsson, later Saint Olaf. His two older brothers took after their father, practical men who cared mostly about the farm. Harald was different. He had a rebel's big ambitions and treated Olaf as his role model.

  Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla gives Sigurd a grand ancestry, as a great-grandson of King Harald Fairhair. Most modern scholars think this genealogy was invented to suit the expectations of authors writing around two centuries after Harald lived. One detail stands out. The supposed descent played no part in Harald's own lifetime, even though it would have strengthened his claim to the throne.

  A revolt in 1028 forced Olaf into exile, and he returned to Norway in early 1030. On hearing of the plan, Harald gathered 600 men from the Uplands and met his brother in the east of the country. Olaf wanted the throne back from Cnut the Great, who had taken it. On the 29th of July 1030, the brothers fought at the Battle of Stiklestad, with the fifteen-year-old Harald at Olaf's side. They lost to Norwegians loyal to Cnut. Olaf was killed and Harald was badly wounded, though observers remarked on his considerable military talent.

  Rögnvald Brusason, later Earl of Orkney, helped Harald reach a remote farm in eastern Norway, where he recovered. Possibly a month later, he crossed the mountains north into Sweden. A year after Stiklestad he reached Kievan Rus', which the sagas call Garðaríki. He probably spent time at Staraya Ladoga in the first half of 1031.

  Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise welcomed him. Yaroslav's wife Ingegerd was a distant relative, and Yaroslav badly needed military leaders. Morkinskinna adds that Yaroslav embraced Harald first of all as the brother of Olaf, who had sheltered with him after the revolt of 1028. Harald became a captain and fought in the campaign against the Poles in 1031. He may also have fought the Chudes in Estonia, the Pechenegs and other steppe peoples, and even the Byzantines. Fifteen years of exile lay ahead, and the next stop was Constantinople.

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• 4. Varangian Captain

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  Around 500 men went with Harald when he moved south to Constantinople, which the sagas call Miklagard, probably in 1033 or 1034. There they joined the Varangian Guard, a unit meant mainly to serve as the emperor's bodyguard. The Flateyjarbók says Harald first tried to hide his royal blood. Most sources say his reputation had already reached the east.

  Bodyguard duty did not keep him in the palace. He was found fighting on "nearly every frontier" of the empire. His first campaigns were against Arab pirates in the Mediterranean, and then against the Asia Minor towns that had backed them. By then, according to Snorri Sturluson, he had become "leader over all the Varangians".

  By 1035 the Byzantines had pushed the Arabs out of Asia Minor, and Harald joined campaigns that reached the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. His skald Þjóðólfr Arnórsson claimed that he helped capture eighty Arab strongholds. The historians Sigfus Blöndal and Benedikt Benedikz see no particular reason to doubt that figure. The sagas make Harald an independent army commander, which he probably was not. Even so, he and his Varangians may well have been sent to seize a castle or town now and then.

  Jerusalem is a harder question. The sagas say Harald went there and fought, and they place the trip after Sicily. Kelly DeVries doubts that order. Whether the journey was warlike or peaceful depends on its timing relative to the 1036 peace treaty between Michael IV and the Fatimid Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah. The caliph was a minor, so the treaty was in reality made with his mother, a Byzantine Christian by birth. Modern historians think it unlikely that Harald went before the treaty. They speculate that he escorted pilgrims, possibly including members of the imperial family, since the Byzantines were then allowed to repair the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

  In 1038, Harald joined George Maniakes, whom the sagas call "Gyrge", in an attempt to retake Sicily from the Muslim Saracens, who had founded an emirate on the island. Among the Norman mercenaries beside him was William Iron Arm. Snorri credits Harald with capturing four Sicilian towns. When the Sicilian expedition ended in 1041, a Lombard-Norman revolt broke out in southern Italy. Harald led the Varangian Guard in several battles, and he and the Catepan of Italy, Michael Dokeianos, had some early success. Then the Normans, led by Harald's former ally William Iron Arm, won the Battle of Olivento in March and the Battle of Montemaggiore in May.

  The emperor imprisoned Maniakes, and other pressing matters arose, so Harald and the guard were recalled to Constantinople. They were soon sent to Bulgaria, arriving in late 1041. There Harald fought for Michael IV at the Battle of Ostrovo, against the uprising led by Peter Delyan. His skald later gave him the nickname "Bulgar-burner", Bolgara brennir.

  Honours followed, though modest ones. A Greek book from the 1070s, the Strategikon of Kekaumenos, calls him Araltes and says the emperor favoured him. It says he was named manglabites after Sicily. After the Bulgarian campaign he received the rank of spatharokandidatos at Mosynopolis. DeVries reads that as possibly the third highest Byzantine rank. Mikhail Bibikov sees a lesser rank, usually given to foreign allies. Kekaumenos indicates that the ranks were low, since Harald was reportedly "not angry for just having been appointed to manglabites or spatharokandidatos". According to Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Harald fought in eighteen greater battles during his Byzantine service. Then Michael IV died in December 1041, and Harald's favour at court quickly began to decline.

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• 5. Palace Revolt and Escape

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  With Michael IV dead, his successor Michael V and the powerful empress Zoe fell into open conflict, and Harald was caught in the turmoil. He was arrested and imprisoned, but no two sources give the same reason. The sagas say he cheated the emperor of treasure. They also say he asked to marry a Maria, an apparently fictional niece or granddaughter of Zoe, and that Zoe refused because she wanted to marry Harald herself. William of Malmesbury says he had defiled a noble woman. Saxo Grammaticus says he was jailed for murder. Kelly DeVries suggests the new emperor simply feared him because of his loyalty to the previous emperor.

  His release is just as murky. Harald may have been helped by someone outside, amid the revolt that began against the new emperor. Morkinskinna suggests that a rich and pious Byzantine widow rescued him.

  Whatever freed him, Harald became the leader of those Varangians who backed the revolt, while others kept guarding the emperor. In the end Michael V was dragged out of his sanctuary, blinded and exiled to a monastery. The sagas claim that Harald blinded him personally, or at least claimed to have done so. Blinding was the standard penalty for a deposed Byzantine emperor. It was probably carried out under Harald's supervision, as part of his duty commanding a guard unit, not as an act of heroic vengeance.

  Harald left the east very rich. The sagas say he took part three times in polutasvarf, loosely translated as "palace-plunder". The term implies either looting of the palace treasury when an emperor died, or a payout from the new emperor to buy the Varangians' loyalty. If the sagas are right, the three occasions were the deaths of Romanos III, Michael IV and Michael V. Harald shipped his wealth to Yaroslav the Wise in Kievan Rus' for safekeeping. It likely paid for his later claim to the Norwegian crown.

  Zoe was restored to the throne in June 1042 alongside Constantine IX, and Harald asked leave to go home. They refused, because he was an experienced commander with influence over the Varangians. He slipped out into the Bosphorus with two ships and some loyal followers. The Byzantines had stretched iron chains across the strait. The second ship was destroyed by them, but Harald's ship maneuvered over the barrier and sailed safely into the Black Sea. Kekaumenos still praised the "loyalty and love" Harald held for the empire, even after he became king.

  Harald arrived back in Kievan Rus' later in 1042 and married Elisabeth, called Ellisif in Scandinavian sources and also spelled Elisiv. She was Yaroslav's daughter and the granddaughter of the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung. Shortly after Harald reached Kiev, Yaroslav attacked Constantinople, and Harald likely supplied valuable information about the state of the empire. Morkinskinna says Harald had asked for her hand during his first stay and been refused because he was not yet wealthy enough. Snorri Sturluson links her to a love poem Harald wrote in Byzantium, which includes the verse "Yet the goddess in Gardarike will not accept my gold rings". The match mattered, since Yaroslav's other children married figures such as Henry I of France, Andrew I of Hungary and the daughter of Constantine IX.

  Harald composed skaldic poetry himself. Lee M. Hollander notes that verse was normal for Norwegian kings, but Harald was the only one who "showed a decided talent". He is portrayed as a man deeply concerned with how his image and memory would be shaped. That may explain the special attention he gave to Icelanders, and especially Icelandic skalds. One poem credits him with skill in poetry, brewing, horse riding, swimming, skiing, shooting, rowing and playing the harp. The sagas add that Harald and his Varangians once took a break from besieging a town to enjoy sports.

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• 6. Kings and Raiders

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  In early 1045, Harald left Novgorod, which the sagas call Holmgard, and travelled to Staraya Ladoga, where he obtained a ship. He sailed through Lake Ladoga, down the Neva River, into the Gulf of Finland and across the Baltic Sea. He reached Sigtuna in Sweden at the end of 1045 or early in 1046. The skald Tjodolv Arnorsson said that his ship was thrown off balance by its heavy load of gold.

  Norway already had a king. Magnus the Good, an illegitimate son of Olaf, had regained the throne, and Harald may have known this before he set out. Cnut the Great's sons Harthacnut and Harold Harefoot had abandoned Norway, so Magnus's position was secure. No rebellion is recorded during his eleven-year reign. When the death of Harthacnut left the Danish throne vacant, Magnus was also elected king of Denmark and defeated the pretender Sweyn Estridsson.

  Having heard of Sweyn's defeat, Harald met him, and the Swedish king Anund Jacob joined them. Together they raided the Danish coast to show the Danes that Magnus offered no protection. Magnus guessed that Norway would be their next target and hurried home with his entire army. The Norwegians were unwilling to turn against him. His advisors urged him not to fight his uncle, and in 1046 the two men agreed to rule Norway jointly, with Magnus holding precedence. Harald also had to share half his wealth with Magnus, who badly needed funds. They kept separate courts, and their only recorded meetings nearly ended in blows.

  In 1047, the two kings took their leidang forces to Denmark. That year in Jylland, less than a year into the shared reign, Magnus died without an heir. He had decided that Sweyn should inherit Denmark and Harald should inherit Norway. Harald nevertheless declared himself king of both countries and prepared to oust Sweyn. The army and chieftains, headed by Einar Thambarskelfir, refused to invade. Harald objected to bringing Magnus's body home, but the Norwegian army carried it to Nidaros, now Trondheim. They buried it next to Saint Olaf in late 1047. Einar, no friend of Harald, said that "to follow Magnus dead was better than to follow any other king alive".

  From 1048, nearly every year until 1064, Harald fought Sweyn. Most of the campaigns were swift and violent raids on the Danish coast. In 1048 he plundered Jutland. In 1049 he burned Hedeby, then the most important Danish trade centre and one of the best protected and most populous towns in Scandinavia. Hedeby never recovered as a town, and Slavic tribes looted what remained in 1066. Saxo Grammaticus tells of one standoff in which Sweyn's smaller army panicked at the Norwegians' approach. The Danes jumped into the water to escape, and most of them drowned.

  The great set piece was the naval Battle of Niså on the 9th of August 1062. Harald sailed with a fleet of around 300 ships to a time and place already agreed with Sweyn. Sweyn did not appear, so Harald sent home his non-professional soldiers, the bóndaherrinn, who made up half his forces. Once those ships were out of reach, Sweyn's fleet arrived, possibly also numbering 300 ships. Harald won, and 70 Danish ships were reportedly left "empty", but many men and ships escaped, Sweyn among them. Harald himself shot with his bow in the early phase of the fight.

  The cost of these indecisive battles wore both kings down. In 1064, or 1065 according to Morkinskinna, they agreed to an unconditional peace. Harald had won most of the engagements but never occupied Denmark. Each king kept his kingdom within its old boundaries, and no reparations changed hands.

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• 7. Iron Rule

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  Einar Thambarskelfir once arrived at Harald's court in Nidaros with "eight or nine longships and almost five hundred men", an obvious show of strength. Einar headed the Earls of Lade through his marriage to a daughter of Haakon Sigurdsson. Haakon had ruled all of Norway, nominally under the Danish king, from 975 until he was killed in 995 during Olaf Tryggvasson's takeover. His descendants kept a large measure of autonomy in the north. Harald was not provoked by the display. Even so, Harald's men soon murdered Einar, although the sources differ on the circumstances, and civil war threatened. Harald negotiated peace with Haakon's remaining descendants and secured their submission. With the deaths of Einar and his son around 1050, Trøndelag was firmly part of Harald's kingdom.

  To build alliances at home, Harald married Tora Torbergsdatter, from one of the most powerful Norwegian families. The sagas date the marriage to around 1048. Some modern historians dispute it, since Harald was still married to Elisiv and would have been a bigamist. Even if it happened, only Elisiv is recorded as queen.

  The Uplands proved a harder problem. Haakon Ivarsson joined Harald before Niså, distinguished himself in the battle and won the king's favour. Harald reportedly even considered making him an earl, then backed down, and Haakon was greatly upset. The Swedish king Stenkil later gave Haakon the earldom of Värmland. In early 1064 Haakon entered the Uplands and collected taxes, and the region effectively threatened to renounce its loyalty to Harald. That revolt may be the main reason Harald accepted peace with Sweyn. Afterward he sent tax collectors to the Uplands, only to find that the farmers would withhold their taxes until Haakon arrived. Harald entered Sweden with an army and quickly defeated Haakon.

  The farmers still resisted. Harald campaigned through Romerike, Hedmark, Hadeland and Ringerike, burning farms and small villages and having people maimed and killed. The Uplands lay deep in the interior and had never been fully part of the king's realm. Harald also confiscated farming estates in the rich communities there, which strengthened his economic position. By the end of 1065 there was probably peace, since any opposition had been killed, chased into exile or silenced.

  Harald held power through the hird, a private standing army maintained by Norwegian lords. He enforced a rule that only the king could keep one, which drew power away from local warlords. The historian Knut Helle says Harald completed the first phase of what he calls the "national territorial unification of Norway".

  Under Harald, Norway introduced a royal monopoly on minting coins. Coins minted in his reign seem to have been widely used as currency, replacing a reliance on foreign-minted coins. Minting probably supplied a substantial part of his yearly revenue, and it collapsed in Norway only in the late 14th century. A coin economy let Norway take part in international trade. Through his eastern connections he began trade with Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire, and also with Scotland and Ireland. The later sagas say he founded Oslo, where he spent much time. They dwell on his wars with Sweyn and the invasion of England and say little about domestic policy. Modern historians read that silence as a sign of peace and progress.

  Excavations show that churches were built and improved throughout Harald's reign. He imported bishops, priests and monks, especially from Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire, so Norway received a slightly different form of Christianity from the rest of northern Europe. DeVries calls him inclined toward Christianity but says his personal morality did not match the Christian ideal, citing his marriage arrangements. Harald also flew the Raven banner, originally a symbol of Odin, who was often shown with two ravens named Huginn and Muninn.

  Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen objected to Harald's misuse of funds from the pilgrimage to Nidaros. He also objected to bishops who were consecrated outside France and England, or not consecrated at all. When Adalbert's legates protested, Harald reportedly replied that "he did not know of any other archbishop or lord of Norway than the king himself". Halvdan Koht said the words "seemed as if spoken by a Byzantine despot". Harald may have kept in touch with Byzantine emperors after becoming king, which could explain his church policy.

  Adam of Bremen reports that Harald also took to the sea. He says Harald searched the length of the northern ocean in ships and reached "the dark failing boundaries of the savage world", escaping the abyss only with difficulty. Kelly DeVries suggests Harald may have been looking for Vinland, which Viking sailors had discovered only a short time before. H. H. Lamb proposes instead that the land he reached was Spitsbergen or Novaya Zemlya.

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• 8. Stamford Bridge

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  The claim to England rested on a 1038 agreement between Magnus and Harthacnut, who died childless in 1042. Under it, if either man died, the other would inherit his lands. Magnus probably did not expect to gain England without a fight. Harthacnut himself preferred his half-brother Edward the Confessor, who became king with the backing of Earl Godwin, father of Harold Godwinson. Magnus planned an invasion in 1045 but set it aside to deal with an uprising by Sweyn. After Magnus died in 1047, Harald took over the claim. Edward kept rivals hopeful by hinting they might succeed him, including Harald, Sweyn and William II, Duke of Normandy. In 1058 a fleet under Harald's son Magnus supported a large Welsh raid into England, which may have shown Harald he could not fight Denmark and England at once. When Edward died in January 1066 and Harold Godwinson was proclaimed king, that lesson mattered.

  Tostig Godwinson, formerly Earl of Northumbria, hoped to regain his titles and lands. He reportedly approached both William and Sweyn Estridsson for support. Northern England was the most suitable landing place for a Norwegian invasion, so Tostig was worth more to Harald. Details are limited, but Tostig may have sent a fellow exile, Copsig, to settle plans in Norway while he stayed in France. John of Worcester says Tostig left Flanders in May or June and raided Harold's home estates in southern England, from the Isle of Wight to Sandwich. That made an attack from Normandy seem imminent, and Harold's brother and most of his troops waited in the south for William.

  In March or April 1066 Harald began assembling a fleet at Utvær, in the Sognefjord, and the work was complete by the start of September. It included his flagship Ormen, the "Serpent". Before leaving, he had his son Magnus proclaimed king of Norway. He left Tora behind and took Elisiv, his daughters and his son Olaf. He stopped in Shetland and Orkney to collect more troops, including Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson, the Jarls of Orkney. At Dunfermline he met Tostig's ally Malcolm III of Scotland, who gave him around 2,000 Scottish soldiers. Most sources say Harald and Tostig joined forces at Tynemouth on the 8th of September. Harald brought somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 men in 240 to 300 longships, while Tostig had only 12 ships.

  After Tynemouth, the two men probably landed at the River Tees and began plundering the coast of Cleveland. Scarborough refused Harald's demand to surrender, so he burned the town down. Other Northumbrian towns then gave in. They sailed up the Humber and the Ouse and landed at Riccall on the 20th of September. The earls Morcar of Northumbria and Edwin of Mercia met them that day at the Battle of Fulford, 3 km south of York. It was a decisive victory for Harald and Tostig, and York surrendered on the 24th of September. It was the last time a Scandinavian army defeated English forces.

  The same day, Harold Godwinson reached Tadcaster, just 11 km from the Norwegian fleet at Riccall. He probably scouted the fleet there and planned a surprise attack. Harald had left no force in York, so Harold marched straight through the town to Stamford Bridge. Early on the 25th, Harald and Tostig left Riccall with most of their men, leaving a third behind. They wore only light armour, because they expected to meet the citizens of York at Stamford Bridge and decide who would govern the town. Instead they saw Harold's army approaching, heavily armed and armoured and far larger than theirs.

  Sources outside the sagas say that a single gigantic Norwegian held up the English at the bridge, giving Harald and Tostig time to form a shield-wall. It did not save them. An arrow struck Harald in the throat early in the battle. He fought in a state of berserkergang, wearing no body armour and gripping his sword with both hands. When the battle was almost over, reserves from Riccall led by Eystein Orre finally arrived, exhausted from running all the way. Eystein picked up Harald's fallen banner, Landwaster, called Landøyðan in Old Norse, and launched a last counter-attack. It nearly breached the English line. Then Eystein was killed, and the rest fled the field.

  Harald's son Olaf was among those left at Riccall, and the English allowed him to go home peacefully. Sources say only 20 to 25 ships carried the survivors back to Norway, but that figure probably counts only the Norwegians. Most of the Scottish and Orkney troops likely stayed at Riccall throughout, and Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson are known to have been stationed there the whole time. Harald's daughter Maria, promised in marriage to Eystein Orre, reportedly died on Orkney that same day.

  Harold Godwinson's victory was short-lived. Only a few weeks later William the Conqueror defeated and killed him at the Battle of Hastings. Harold had marched hard to reach Stamford Bridge and then rushed south, all in less than three weeks. That strain is widely seen as a primary factor in William's victory.

  Harald's sons by Tora both took the Norwegian throne. Magnus II reigned from 1066 to 1069, and Olaf III from 1067 to 1093. Oslo, the city Harald is traditionally said to have founded, holds two monuments to him. Lars Utne's bronze relief on granite, showing Harald on horseback, was raised on Harald Hardrådes plass in 1905. In 1950 Anne Grimdalen unveiled a large relief, also of Harald on horseback, on the western façade of Oslo City Hall. Poul Anderson's historical-fiction trilogy The Last Viking retells his life as fiction.

  A year after his death, Harald's body was moved to Norway and buried at the Mary Church in Nidaros. About a hundred years later it was reburied at Helgeseter Priory, which was demolished in the 17th century. On the 25th of September 2006, the 940th anniversary of his death, the newspaper Aftenposten reported on the poor state of Norway's ancient royal burial sites. Harald's grave is reportedly under a road built across the monastery site. The next day, the Municipality of Trondheim said it would examine exhuming him and reburying him in Nidaros Cathedral. The cathedral holds nine Norwegian kings, among them his predecessor Magnus the Good and his successor Magnus Haraldsson. A month later the proposal was scrapped, so the king reportedly still lies beneath the road.

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