Hara/d Fairkair 147 



kings and earls. Agder, Westfold, Eaumariki, Vingul- 

 mark, Hordaland (modern Horlaud), Sogn, North and 

 South More are some of these kingdoms. Some of these 

 districts preserve their ancient names little changed. 

 The beautiful Gudbrandsdal was called after a certain 

 Hersir Gudbrand, who lived in the time of Half dan the 

 Black, father of Harald Fairhair. The Throndhjem 

 country had then for its chief place Lade (Hladir) — for 

 the town of Throndhjem was not yet built. North of 

 Throndhjem country lay Halogaland. 



In being cut up in this way among petty rulers, 

 Norway was, at first, only in the same condition as the 

 other Scandinavian kingdoms. Suithiod (the Upsala 

 country). East and AVest Gothland, were originally all 

 separate kingdoms in Sweden. Denmark had kings in 

 both North and South Jutland. A third division, the 

 Kingdom of Leire, consisted of the Danish isles, Zealand 

 and the rest, and the southern extremity of Sweden, 

 what are now the provinces of Smaland, Bkeling, 

 Halland, and Skane. Eventually the kingdom of Leire 

 swallowed up the Jutland kingdoms. For towards the 

 end of the ninth century Sweden and Denmark began 

 to coalesce. Gorm the Old made himself the sole king 

 of Denmark ; and Erik the king of the Upsala country 

 made himself master of the rest of Sweden. What 

 more natural, therefore, than that some one of the small 

 kings of Norwav should dream of doing the same thing 

 in that land ? And we might prophesy that the accom- 

 plishment of such a task would fall to the king in 

 Viken, seeing that he ruled in not only a thickly- 

 inhabited district, and in one which had ah'eady taken 

 the lead in inaugurating the life of adventure of the 



