Harold I (ca. 840-933), the first king of Norway, reigned from 860 to 930. He became the ideal for unification at the time of his great-grandson Olaf I Tryggvason.

Harold Haarfarer ("Fairhair") was a catalyst in his day and place. On the death of his father, Halfdan the Black in 860, Harold succeeded to the sovereignty of several small and somewhat scattered kingdoms which had come into his father's hands through conquest and inheritance. After his father's accidental death by drowning, his mother's brother, Guthorm, held his father's enemies at bay.

Harold was a man of legends. His mother, Ragnhild, perceived his rise to power from a thorn. The daughter of a neighboring king induced Harold to take a vow not to cut or comb his hair until he was the sole ruler of Norway. Two years later he was justified in trimming it, and henceforth he was known as "Fairhair...