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Harald I Halfdanarson, Finehair or Fairhair c.860-c.945
King of Norway

He was the first ruler to claim sovereignty over all Norway. The son of Halfdan the Black (King of Vestfold), he achieved power and became king after the naval Battle of Hafursfjord, off Stavanger (c.890). His authoritarian rule caused many of the old aristocratic families to emigrate west to Orkney, Hebrides and Ireland, and to newly-settled Iceland. He made several punitive expeditions across the North Sea to subdue his former subjects and impose Norwegian rule over the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland. In 942 he abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Erik Haraldsson, Blood-Axe.