Harald Sigurdsson (; – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald Hardrada or Harald III, was King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. He unsuccessfully claimed the Danish throne until 1064 and the English throne in 1066. Before becoming king, Harald spent 15 years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus' and chief of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire. In his chronicle, Adam of Bremen called him the "Thunderbolt of the North".
In 1030, the fifteen-year-old Harald fought in the Battle of Stiklestad alongside his half-brother Olaf Haraldsson. Olaf sought to reclaim the Norwegian throne, which he had lost to Danish king Cnut two years previously. Olaf and Harald were defeated by forces loyal to Cnut, and Harald was forced into exile to Kievan Rus'. Thereafter, he was in the army of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, becoming captain, until he moved on to Constantinople with his companions around 1034. In Constantinople, he rose quickly to become the commander of the Byzantine Varangian Guard, seeing action on the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia Minor, Sicily, possibly in the Holy Land, Bulgaria and in Constantinople itself, where he became involved in the imperial dynastic disputes. Harald amassed wealth whilst in the Byzantine Empire, which he shipped to Yaroslav in Kievan Rus' for safekeeping. In 1042, he left the Byzantine Empire, returning to Kievan Rus' to prepare to reclaim the Norwegian throne. In his absence the Norwegian throne had been restored from the Danes to Olaf's illegitimate son Magnus the Good.
In 1046, Harald joined forces with Magnus's rival in Denmark, the pretender Sweyn II of Denmark, raiding the Danish coast. Magnus, unwilling to fight his uncle, agreed to share the kingship with Harald, since Harald in turn would share his wealth with him. The co-rule ended abruptly the next year as Magnus died: Harald became the sole ruler of Norway. Domestically, Harald crushed opposition, and outlined the unification of Norway. Harald's reign was one of relative peace and stability, and he instituted a coin economy and foreign trade. Seeking to restore Cnut's "North Sea Empire", Harald claimed the Danish throne, and spent nearly every year until 1064 raiding the Danish coast and fighting his former ally, Sweyn. Although the campaigns were successful, he was never able to conquer Denmark.
Not long after Harald had renounced his claim to Denmark, the former earl of Northumbria, Tostig Godwinson, brother of English king Harold Godwinson, pledged his allegiance to Harald, inviting him to claim the English throne. Harald assented, invading northern England with 10,000 troops and 300 longships in September 1066, defeating the English regional forces of Northumbria and Mercia in the Battle of Fulford near York on 20 September. Harald was defeated and killed in a surprise attack by Harold Godwinson's forces in the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September, which wiped out his army. Historians often consider Harald's death the end of the Viking Age.
Epithets As was usual in Europe of the time, Harald went by only one name, with a patronymic (Sigurdsson), a locational epithet (of Norway), or a descriptive epithet added if required to disambiguate. Regnal numbers were not used; the name "Harald III" was assigned centuries later.
Harald's most famous epithet is Old Norse , which has been translated variously as 'hard in counsel', 'tyrannical',Cleasby, Richard and Gudbrand Vigfusson (1957) An Icelandic–English Dictionary, 2nd ed. by William A. Craigie (Oxford: Oxford University Press), s.v. harðr. 'tyrant', 'hard-ruler', 'ruthless', 'savage in counsel', 'tough', and 'severe'. While Judith Jesch has argued for 'severe' as the best translation, Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes prefer 'resolute'. has traditionally been Anglicised as 'Hardrada', though Judith Jesch characterises this form as "a bastard Anglicisation of the original epithet in an oblique case".
This epithet predominates in the later Icelandic saga-tradition, but it is not clear if it was used during Harald's lifetime. In a number of independent sources associated with the British Isles, mostly earlier than the Icelandic sagas, Harald is given epithets deriving from Old Norse (literally 'hair-beautiful', or more poetically 'fairhair'), including: Manuscript D of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ('Harold Harfagera', under the year 1066) and the related histories by Orderic Vitalis ('Harafagh', re events in 1066), John of Worcester ('Harvagra', s.aa. 1066 and 1098), and William of Malmesbury (Gesta regum Anglorum, 'Harvagre', regarding 1066). Marianus Scotus of Mainz ('Arbach', d. 1082/1083). The Life of Gruffydd ap Cynan ('Haralld Harfagyr', later twelfth century). In Icelandic sagas the name Harald Fairhair is more famously associated with an earlier Norwegian king, and twentieth-century historians assumed that the name was attached to Harald Hardrada in error by Insular historians. However, recognising the independence of some of the Insular sources, historians have since favoured the idea that Harald Hardrada was widely known as Harald Fairhair, and indeed now doubt that the earlier Harald Fairhair existed in any form resembling the later saga-accounts.
Sverrir Jakobsson has suggested that 'fairhair' "might be the name by which King Harald wished himself to be known. It must have been his opponents who gave him the epithet 'severe' (ON. ), by which he is generally known in thirteenth-century Old Norse kings' sagas".
Early life
Harald was born in Ringerike, Norway,Hjardar & Vike (2011) p. 284 in 1015 (or possibly 1016)Halvor Tjønn (2010) Harald Hardråde p. 13 ISBN 978-82-430-0558-7 to 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.Tjønn (2010) p. 14 Through his mother Åsta, Harald was the youngest of three half-brothers to King Olaf Haraldsson (later Saint Olaf). In his youth, Harald displayed traits of a typical rebel with big ambitions, and admired Olaf as his role model. He thus differed from his two older brothers, who were more similar to their father, down-to-earth and mostly concerned with maintaining the farm.Tjønn (2010) pp. 15–16
The Icelandic sagas, in particular Snorri Sturluson in Heimskringla, claim that Sigurd, like Olaf's father, was a great-grandson of King Harald Fairhair in the male line. Most modern scholars believe that the ancestors attributed to Harald Hardrada's father, along with other parts of the Fairhair genealogy, are inventions reflecting the political and social expectations of the time of the authors (around two centuries after Harald Hardrada's lifetime) rather than historical reality.See, for example, Joan Turville-Petre, "The Genealogist and History: Ari to Snorri", Saga-Book 20 (1978–81), pp. 7–23 (pdf), Claus Krag, Ynglingatal og Ynglingasaga: en studie i historiske kilder, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1991, , and Knut Helle, Cambridge History of Scandinavia, Volume I, Prehistory to 1520, Cambridge University Press, 2003, , pp. 185, 191. Harald Hardrada's alleged descent from Harald Fairhair is not mentioned and played no part during Harald Hardrada's own time, which seems odd considering that it would have provided significant legitimacy in connection with his claim to the Norwegian throne.
Following a revolt in 1028, Harald's brother Olaf was forced into exile until he returned to Norway in early 1030. On hearing news of Olaf's planned return, Harald gathered 600 men from the Uplands to meet Olaf and his men upon their arrival in the east of Norway. After a friendly welcome, Olaf went on to gather an army and eventually fight in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030, in which Harald took part on his brother's side.Tjønn (2010) pp. 17–18 The battle was part of an attempt to restore Olaf to the Norwegian throne, which had been captured by the Danish king Cnut the Great (Canute). The battle resulted in defeat for the brothers at the hands of those Norwegians who were loyal to Cnut, and Olaf was killed while Harald was badly wounded. Harald was nonetheless remarked to have shown considerable military talent during the battle.DeVries (1999) p. 25
Exile in the East
To Kievan Rus' After the defeat at the Battle of Stiklestad, Harald managed to escape with the aid of Rögnvald Brusason (later Earl of Orkney) to a remote farm in Eastern Norway. He stayed there for some time to heal his wounds, and thereafter (possibly up to a month later) journeyed north over the mountains to Sweden. A year after the Battle of Stiklestad, Harald arrived in Kievan Rus' (referred to in the sagas as Garðaríki or Svíþjóð hin mikla). He likely spent at least part of his time in the town of Staraya Ladoga (Aldeigjuborg), arriving there in the first half of 1031. Harald and his men were welcomed by Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, whose wife Ingegerd was a distant relative of Harald.Tjønn (2010) pp. 21–22DeVries (1999) pp. 25–26 Badly in need of military leaders, Yaroslav recognised a military potential in Harald and made him a captain of his forces.DeVries (1999) p. 26 Harald's brother Olaf Haraldsson had previously been in exile to Yaroslav following the revolt in 1028,Tjønn (2010) p. 16 and Morkinskinna says that Yaroslav embraced Harald first and foremost because he was the brother of Olaf.Tjønn (2010) p. 25 Harald took part in Yaroslav's campaign against the Poles in 1031, and possibly also fought against other 1030s Kievan enemies and rivals such as the Chudes in Estonia, and the Byzantines, as well as the Pechenegs and other steppe nomad people.DeVries (1999) p. 27
In Byzantine service
After a few years in Kievan Rus', Harald and his force of around 500 men moved on south to Constantinople (Miklagard), the capital of the Byzantine Empire, probably in 1033 or 1034,Tjønn (2010) p. 28 where they joined the Varangian Guard. Although the Flateyjarbók maintains that Harald at first sought to keep his royal identity a secret, most sources agree that Harald and his men's reputation was well known in the east at the time. While the Varangian Guard was primarily meant to function as the emperor's bodyguard, Harald was found fighting on "nearly every frontier" of the empire.DeVries (1999) p. 29 He first saw action in campaigns against Arab pirates in the Mediterranean Sea, and then in inland towns in Asia Minor / Anatolia that had supported the pirates. By this time, he had, according to Snorri Sturluson (a 12th-century Icelandic historian, poet, and politician), become the "leader over all the Varangians". By 1035, the Byzantines had pushed the Arabs out of Asia Minor to the east and southeast, and Harald took part in campaigns that went as far east as the Tigris River and Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, where according to his skald (poet) Þjóðólfr Arnórsson (recounted in the sagas) he participated in the capture of eighty Arab strongholds, a number which historians Sigfus Blöndal and Benedikt Benedikz see no particular reason to question. Although not holding independent command of an army as the sagas imply, it is not unlikely that King Harald and the Varangians at times could have been sent off to capture a castle or town.DeVries (1999) pp. 29–30 During the first four years of the reign of Byzantine Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian, Harald probably also fought in campaigns against the Pechenegs.