The
Battle of HafrsfjordHafrsfjord is a bay located in the municipalities of Stavanger and Sola in Norway, stretching 9 kilometres.Hafrsfjord is also a neighbourhood in the borough Madla in Stavanger city...
has traditionally been regarded as the battle in which western
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
for the first time was unified under one monarch. Eastern Norway was ruled by the Danish king. Although most scholars currently tend to regard the unification as a process lasting centuries, rather than being the result of a single battle, the Battle of Hafrsfjord ranks high in the popular imagination of Norway.
In 1983 a monument and famous landmark,
The Swords in the RockSverd i fjell is a monument in Hafrsfjord, Norway.The monument was made by sculptor Fritz Røed from Bryne and was opened by Olav V of Norway in 1983...
, was raised in Hafrsjord in memory of the battle.
The only contemporary source to this event is from a lay written by
Þórbjörn hornklofiÞorbjörn Hornklofi was a 9th century Norwegian poet. He was the court poet of King Harald Fairhair.-Bibliography:*Glymdrápa - A drápa on King Harald.*Hrafnsmál/Haraldskvæði - Another poem on King Harald using the málaháttr metre....
(
Modern NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...
:
Torbjørn Hornklove) shortly after King
Harald "Fairhair"Harald Fairhair or Harald Finehair , was the first king of Norway....
beat his enemies.
The
Battle of HafrsfjordHafrsfjord is a bay located in the municipalities of Stavanger and Sola in Norway, stretching 9 kilometres.Hafrsfjord is also a neighbourhood in the borough Madla in Stavanger city...
has traditionally been regarded as the battle in which western
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
for the first time was unified under one monarch. Eastern Norway was ruled by the Danish king. Although most scholars currently tend to regard the unification as a process lasting centuries, rather than being the result of a single battle, the Battle of Hafrsfjord ranks high in the popular imagination of Norway.
In 1983 a monument and famous landmark,
The Swords in the RockSverd i fjell is a monument in Hafrsfjord, Norway.The monument was made by sculptor Fritz Røed from Bryne and was opened by Olav V of Norway in 1983...
, was raised in Hafrsjord in memory of the battle.
Sources
The only contemporary source to this event is from a lay written by
Þórbjörn hornklofiÞorbjörn Hornklofi was a 9th century Norwegian poet. He was the court poet of King Harald Fairhair.-Bibliography:*Glymdrápa - A drápa on King Harald.*Hrafnsmál/Haraldskvæði - Another poem on King Harald using the málaháttr metre....
(
Modern NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...
:
Torbjørn Hornklove) shortly after King
Harald "Fairhair"Harald Fairhair or Harald Finehair , was the first king of Norway....
beat his enemies. The lay is very simple, dramatic and illustrative (The first part is translated into English here):
| Heyrði þú í Hafrsfirði, |
|
Did you hear in Hafrsfjord |
| hvé hizug barðisk |
|
how hard they fought |
| konungr enn kynstóri |
|
the high born king |
| við Kjötva enn auðlagða; |
|
against Kjotve the Rich Kjotve the Rich was a king of Agder, then a petty kingdom in southern Norway, in the late 800s. Kjotve was the father of Thor Haklang . Kjotve lead the western Norwegian kings against Harald Fairhair at the Battle of Hafrsfjord. Defeated by Harald, Kjotve fled; many of his allies were killed in...
. |
| knerrir The modern Knarr is a Bermuda rigged, long keeled, sailing yacht. The Knarr was designed by Erling L. Kristofersen, Norway, in 1943. It was traditionally built in wood, with the hull upside down on a fixed frame or plug and attaching the iron keel after having finished the hull. The hull planks...
kómu austan, |
|
ships came from the east |
| kapps of lystir, |
|
wanting to fight, |
| með gínöndum höfðum |
|
with threatening throats |
| ok gröfnum tinglum. |
|
of dragon fierce. |
The most well-known source of the battle is Harald Fairhair's saga in
HeimskringlaHeimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
written by
Snorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
more than 300 years after the battle took place. Snorre gives a vivid and detailed description of the battle. (Although historians continue to debate the historical accuracy of Snorri's work):
News came in from the south land that the people of
Hordalandis a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...
and
Rogalandis a county in Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum-industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%.-Etymology:...
,
AgderAgder is a historical district of Norway in the southernmost region of Norway, corresponding to the two counties Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder. Today, the term Sørlandet is more commonly used.-Name:...
and
Thelemarkis a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
, were gathering, and bringing together ships and weapons, and a great body of men. The leaders of this were
Eirik king of HordalandEirik King of Hordaland was a king of Hordaland, then a petty kingdom in southern Norway, in the late 800s. Eirik was the father of Gyda. Eirik lead the first attack against Harald Fairhair at the Battle of Hafrsfjord. Defeated by Harald, Eirik fell; many of his allies were also killed in the...
; Sulke king of Rogaland, and his brother Earl Sote: Kjotve the Rich, king of Agder, and his son Thor Haklang; and from Thelemark two brothers, Hroald Hryg and Had the Hard. Now when Harald got certain news of this, he assembled his forces, set his ships on the water, made himself ready with his men, and set out southwards along the coast, gathering many people from every district. King Eirik heard of this when he same south of Stad; and having assembled all the men he could expect, he proceeded southwards to meet the force which he knew was coming to his help from the east. The whole met together north of Jadar, and went into Hafersfjord, where King Harald was waiting with his forces. A great battle began, which was both hard and long; but at last King Harald gained the day. There King Eirik fell, and King Sulke, with his brother Earl Sote. Thor Haklang, who was a great berserk, had laid his ship against King Harald's, and there was above all measure a desperate attack, until Thor Haklang fell, and his whole ship was cleared of men. Then King Kjotve fled to a little isle outside, on which there was a good place of strength. Thereafter all his men fled, some to their ships, some up to the land; and the latter ran southwards over the country of Jadar.
The little isle that King Kjotve fled to was probably
YtrabergetYtraberget is a peninsula in Hafrsfjord in Sola Kommune, Norway. Ytraberget is connected to Indraberget, and it divides Sørnesvågen and Grannesvågen. Harald Fairhair fought the Battle of Hafrsfjord in 872 A.D...
, where there were some abandoned fortifications.
Chronology
The traditional dating of the event, 872, is a 19th century invention. The exact year of the battle is likely to be unknown. This is due to lack of sources, and partly because the Christian calendar was not introduced at the time. The sagas follow the convention of counting the number of winters passed since an event.
In the 1830s, the historian Keyser counted the number of years backwards from the battle of Svolder (AD 1000) in
HeimskringlaHeimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
, dating the battle to
872. Keyser's chronology was popularized by the works of the historian P.A. Munch, and by that time still unchallenged, this year was chosen for the millennial celebration of the unification of the Norwegian state in 1872. In the 1920s, using similar methods as Keyser but highly critical to the reliability of the sagas, the historian
Halvdan KohtHalvdan Koht was a Norwegian historian, biographer, and Foreign minister 1935–40....
dated the battle to
about 900. For the next fifty years, this chronology was regarded by most scholars as being most likely. In the 1970s, the Icelandic historian Ólafia Einarsdóttir concluded that the battle took place somewhere
between 870 and 875. However still disputed, most scholars will agree that the battle took place
during the 880s.
Significance
It was formerly believed that this battle was the decisive event in the unification of Norway. According to Snorri's saga, King Harald controlled large parts of Norway's southeast portion before the battle; but other sources claim that the eastern portion of Norway was under the Danish king. The battle of Hafrsfjord marks the final crushing of opposition from Norway's southwestern portion (primarily Rogaland, but also chieftains from the Sognefjord area). This made it possible for King Harald to subdue the country and collect taxes from a large part of it. Later historiography regarded him as the first legitimate
King of Norway. Many of the defeated who would not submit to Harald's rule emigrated to Iceland (q.v.).
External links