Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' King in a part of Southern Norway1b. circa 820, d. between 860 and 864, #27706
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Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' King in a part of Southern Norway1| Father | Gudrod "The Magnificent" Halfdansson2,1 b. circa 738, d. circa 821 | |
| Mother | Asa Haralddottir3 b. circa 785 |
| Name Variation | Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' King in a part of Southern Norway was also found as Halfdan the Black Godfreyson.4 | |
| Name Variation | Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' King in a part of Southern Norway was also found as Halfdan "The Black" King of Vestfold.3 | |
| Name Variation | Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' King in a part of Southern Norway was also found as Halfdan III of Vestfold.2 | |
| Name Variation | Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' King in a part of Southern Norway was also found as Halvdan Black.5 | |
| Birth* | circa 820 | Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' was born circa 820. He was King in Adger Raumarike, and Sogn.4,3 |
| Note* | Also recorded as king from 830-870 who first married Ragnhild, daughter of King Harald Gullskiegg of Sogn. Halfdan was a year old when his father died. from Wayne Iverson, World Connect db=wiversrm, rootsweb.com.3 | |
| Marriage* | 841 | Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' King in a part of Southern Norway married Ragnhild Haraldsdottir, daughter of Harald Goldbeard King of Sogn, 841.6 |
| Marriage* | circa 849 | Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' King in a part of Southern Norway married Ragnhild Sigurdssdottir, daughter of King Sigurd Hart Helgisson and Thorny Klacksdottir, circa 849. King Halfdan heard of the events of Haki and sent Harek Gand who raided Haki's home in Hathaland and broke down the door and carried off Ragnhild and brother and valuables and burned down the hall with those within. Haki pursued them a while, but when he came to the ice-covered lake, he put down the hilt of the sword and fell upon the point and died. King Halfdan had a banquet and married Ragnhild. Ragnhild was Halfdan's second of three wives.6,7,8 |
| Death* | between 860 and 864 | Halfdan Svarte 'The Black' died between 860 and 864 at Randsfjord, at Norway. He died by drowning after breaking through the ice while driving home from a feast across the Randsfjord. He was so popular that the leading men agreed to divide his body into four parts to be buried in four districts, Ringerike, Romerike, Westfold and Heithmork. The head or trunk of the body was buried at Stein, Ringerike where there still is a mound named for him.2,4,3 |
| !AInfoNew* | Kai Werner Oestreng | |
| !AInfoNew | But Jo Rune Ugulen, P.O.Box 205, N-5201 Os, Norway E-mail: [email protected] answered this post of Medieval-L with the following dated 28 Feb 2000. We can with a reasonable amount of surety acknowledge Haraldr Hárfagri as a son of a Hálfdan, who probably was identical with Hálfdan Svarti. But we can't tell much more about this Hálfdan. As I mentioned somewhere, the oldest sources (Historia Norwegiæ, Sæmundr fróði [not Ari fróði as I wrote in the same article]) seems to place Hálfdan as a king "in montanis." Noregs kónungatal - a poem from abt. 1190, but based on Sæmundr - clearly states Haraldr as a son of Hálfdan. It also tells that Haraldr took the kingdom after Hálfdan drowned (stanza 4) and that Hálfdan was buried on Hringaríki (stanza 5). But he was not buried in the well-known Halvdanshaug, which seems to date from the 500's. Regarding the relationship between Haraldr Hárfagri and Hálfdan Svarti, we only have the sagas to trust. And they are not to be trusted too much on this period. However, there were a strong tradition in medieval times, that Hálfdan Svarti was the father of Haraldr, so I do believe that we can assume that this really was the name of Haralds father. For further reference I can point to Claus Krag's article "Norge som odel i Harald Hårfagres ætt" in [Norsk] Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 68 (1989), pp. 288 ff; and his book from 1991 "Ynglingatal og Ynglingasaga." In addition it might be worth to check out volume 2 of the recent "Aschehougs Norges Historie." From here it should be possible to find pointers to most of the relevant literature on this subject. Regrettably (at least to the non-Norwegian speaking part of this group) most of the literature are in Norwegian.9 | |
| !AInfoNew | The oldest sagas (written several hundred years after the death of Halvdan) give different accounts of the burial of different parts of his body in different places. When the excavations at Halvdanshaugen are completed; the findings may (or may not) decide which saga is the more reliable about this event - and other details of Halvdan and Harald...:-).5 | |
| !AInfoNew* | 881 | Halvdanshaugen may be 2 burial mounds on top of each other per Jan Henning Larsen, Oldsakssamlingen, Univ. of Oslo. He stated that there is a clear separation in the pollen profiles between the upper an lower mound. C14 -analysises of the lower mound date back to between 416 and 559 a.c. In this they have found some worked wood specimens and small pieces of clay during pilot investigations. The upper part of the mound may still have been constructed during the Viking Ages, but require further excavations depending on funds. During 1999 supplementary georadar-mapping proved that the readings of profile of a buried ship, indicated by earlier initial investigations could not be reproduced...... Before any more excavations are being planned, a Seminar discussing the results will be arranged in oct/nov. this year.5 |
| Family 1 | Ragnhild Haraldsdottir d. circa 850 | |
| Child | 1. | Harald the young of Sogn Halfdansson b. c 850, d. 8606 |
| Family 2 | Ragnhild Sigurdssdottir b. circa 830 | |
| Child | 1. | Harald I "Fairhair" King of Norway+ b. 850, d. fr 933 - 9361 |
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Compiler: Pomala Black
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