Background
The only contemporary sources mentioning him are the two skaldic poems Haraldskvæði and Glymdrápa, which have been attributed to Þorbjörn Hornklofi or alternatively (in the case of the first poem) to Þjóðólfr of Hvinir. The first poem has only been preserved in fragments in 13th century Kings' sagas. It describes life at Harald's court, mentions that he took a Danish wife, and that he won a battle at Hafrsfjord. The second relates a series of battles Harald won. The validity of this evidence is doubtful and the facts offered by the poems are scant. Their unity is in any case questionable, as they have been reconstructed from fragments in the Kings' sagas, where they are attributed to more than one author.
Harald is not mentioned in any foreign sources earlier than the 12th century. His life is described in several of the Kings' sagas, but the first of these were not written until the end of the 12th century, over 250 years after his death. Their accounts of Harald and his life differ on several points, and much of the content is clearly mythological. He is credited with having unified Norway into one kingdom. Modern historians have generally assumed that his rule was limited to the coastal areas of southern Norway.
Read more about this topic: Harald Fairhair
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