_Bonde_ in Valders.

Harald had heard of her as a very beautiful though proud girl. When
the men delivered their message, she answered that she would not marry
a king who had no greater kingdom than a few _Fylkis_ (districts), and
she added that she thought it strange that "no king here in Norway
will make the whole country subject to him, in the same way that
Gorm the Old did in Denmark, or Erik at Upsala." When the messengers
returned to the king, they advised him to punish her for her haughty
words, but Harald said she had spoken well, and he made the solemn vow
not to cut or comb his hair until he had subdued the whole of Norway,
which he did, and became sole king of Norway. The decisive battle was
a naval one in the Hafrsfjord, near the present city of Stavanger.
After this battle, which occurred in 872, when he had been declared
King of United Norway, he attended a feast, and the Earl of More cut
his hair, which had not been cut or combed for ten years, and gave him
the name of Fairhaired. Harald shortly afterward married Gyda.

From this time on, the history of Norway for nearly three hundred
years consists mainly in internecine warfare among the various
claimants of the throne, and the result of all this warfare was not
only to exhaust the material resources of the people, but to drive a
large proportion of the population to make viking excursions to win
land elsewhere, and also to make peaceable settlements in other
countries. Iceland was settled by the leading men of Norway in Harald
the Fairhaired's reign because they would not submit to his rule and
therefore emigrated to a land where they could rule. In 912 Duke Rollo
with a large following conquered Normandy and settled there with many
of his countrymen.