Halvdan (the Black) GUDRODSEN, KING

Birth:
823
Vestfold, Norway
Death:
863
Marriage:
Abt 840/45
Vestfold, Norway
Notes:
                   SOURCES:
    Fusa Bygdebok, p. 657. King of Vestfold Norse Family Saga, p. 56,64.

NOTES:
    Halvdan (Halfdan) the Black was Ase's son by Gudrod.  His mother ruled for him during his youth. She "gave" half the kingdom to his twenty- year-old half-brother, Alf (Olaf). Halfdan was known to be truthful and fair-dealing. He was forty years old when he was drowned as his horses and sleigh broke through the ice. His sorrowing people wished to have him near them in death. Accordingly, there were raised four "haugs" (mounds). His head was laid in the "haug" at Stein of Hringarili. His body was divided into four parts and each part buried in a haug of its own in the four separate districts he had governed. Thus, people who wished to honor him by a visit or seek his advice could sit by his burial mound near home instead of traveling to Stein, where Halfdan's head was buried. Halfdan married Ragnhild, daughter of Harald Golden- beard of Sogn. He was soon King over Sogn after Harald died. He conquered other areas and became a powerful king. Both Ragnhild and the child he had by her died, and then he courted and married another maiden also named Ragnhild, who was the mother of Harald Harfagre. She was of noble lineage.
NOTES:
    Han drukna i Randsfjorden (Halfdan drowned in the Randsfjord)
NOTES:
    The sources disagree as to which of the two Ragnhilds was the mother of Harald Harfagre.
Ragnhild SIGURDSDATTER
Birth:
Abt 825/30
Ringerike, (Romerike), Norway
Notes:
                   SOURCES:
    Fusa Bygdebok, p. 657. Norse Family Saga, p. 56,64 (FHL 929.2481 K831a) A History of the Vikings, by Gwyn Jones, Oxford University Press 1984 p. 85-86
Children
Marriage
1
Harald Harfagre HALVDANSEN, KING
Birth:
850
Norway
Death:
932
Notes:
                   SOURCES:
    Fusa Bygdebok, p. 657 Norse Family Saga, p. 56;64-65, FHL 929.2481 K831a Ancestral File Ordinance Index Vikings by Magnus Magnusson, Dutton Publishers, New York, p. 56 A History of the Vikings, by Gwyn Jones, pp. 88-89

NOTES:
    Harald Harfagre, or King Harold, the Fair-Haired, united all of Norway Had many wives and "frille-damer." Harald is a much revered figure in Norway's history. It is stated that he vowed he would not cut his hair until Norway was united, and did so ceremoniously when he felt that his goal had been achieved. This may be true or not, as much legend surrounds him. He had many sons by several wives and concubines. He is buried in a mound on Karmoy or by Haugasund in Rogaland, where he had long chosen to live. The history books call him the greatest king that Norway had ever known.
NOTES:
    According to early Icelandic historians, it was Harald's "tyranny" that provoked a mass exodus of the free-minded Norwegians to found new colonies westward over the sea. "Iceland was first settled from Norway in the days of Harald Fine-Hair, the son of Halfdan the Black...and that was 870 years after the birth of Christ...And then there came such a great movement of people out here from Norway that King Harald laid a ban on emigration, because he feared that Norway was being depopulated...It is said that Harald was king for seventy years, and lived to be eighty years old. --Ari the Learned: Book of Icelanders

NOTES:
    Worth to note that the final battle with the confederacy of chief- tains opposing Norway's unification took place near present-day Stavanger, and is known as the Battle of Hafrsfjord. "It was a long, hard fight," says Snorri Sturlusen, the early historian, "but eventu- ally King Harald won the day." Many of the sea-kings fell. The tradi- tional date of 872 for this battle is probably wrong. It is drawn from the works of the early Icelandic historians, who saw the settlement of Iceland itself as a direct outcome of Harald's subjugation of the independent chieftains of Norway. The latest scholarly thinking indicates that the Battle of Hafrsfjord probably took place around 890.
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Halvdan (the Black) Gudrodsen, King - Ragnhild Sigurdsdatter

Halvdan (the Black) Gudrodsen, King was born at Vestfold, Norway 823. His parents were Gudrod (Magnificent) Halvdansen and Ase Haraldsen.

He married Ragnhild Sigurdsdatter Abt 840/45 at Vestfold, Norway . Ragnhild Sigurdsdatter was born at Ringerike, (Romerike), Norway Abt 825/30 daughter of Sigurd (Hart) Helgasen and Ingeborg Haroldsen .

They were the parents of 1 child:
Harald Harfagre Halvdansen, King born 850.

Halvdan (the Black) Gudrodsen, King died 863 .