HARALD I. (surnamed HAARFAGER, or beautiful-haired), king of Norway (868-90), was a descendant of the ancient race of the Ynglings in Sweden, and the son of Ilalfdan Svartc, a powerful jar: in Norway, who is noted as the earliest lawgiver of his country. According to the popular saga, Harald was induced to attempt the subjugation of the whole of Norway, through his love to a high-born maiden, named Gyda, who declared that she would not be his wife until he was sole king of Norway; and he swore that he would neither cut nor comb his hair till he had subdued all the laud to his sway—an oath which lie kept. After many years' contest with his brother jails, lie finally reduced the whole of the country from Finnuirken to the Naze of Norway; and after defeating the last general confederacy of the independent Norwegian chieftains in a naval battle at Hafursfjord, the present Stavengerfjord, he remained sole ruler of the land (872). Previously to his reign, Norway, like the other Scandinavian countries, had been divided into numerous independent districts or tribes, governed by their several kings. Harald, however, replaced all these rulers by jails of his own, under whom were placed herser or bailiffs, to whom was committed the charge of seeing that the tax which was imposed over all the land was faithfully paid. Harald's severity compelled the deposed rulers to seek other homes; and his reign is memorable for the ninny new settlements which were made by these exiles. Thus, the Orkneys were settled by the fugitive Ejnar, the
son of the king's friend, Rognvald, jail of More; while another son, Gauger Rolf, who had incurred Harald's anger by repeated acts of piracy, sailed with his followers in 876 to France, where he founded the Norman power. Other exiled Norwegian jails or kings colonized the Hebrides, Shetland. and Faroe islands, and Iceland. whence they continued their customary sea-roving and plunders until these islands, with the excep tion of Iceland, were subdued by Harald. Although a barbarian, lie ruled with a sound policy in advance of his age, and by his firmness succeeded in suppressing for the time the private warfare and sea-piracy which had prevailed in Norway before his reign; but the dissensions of his numerous sons checked all the good that might have resulted from his measures. To restore concord in his family, be divided his dominions among his children, reserving only the supreme power to himself. He died in 933 at Trondheim, which lie had made his capital, and was succeeded by his son,. Eric Blodoxa, or the Bloodaxe, to whom he had three years before resigned the'governtnent.