St. Olaf dynasty

Fairhair dynasty Hårfagreætta
Norse clan (Ætt) Royal dynasty
Coin of Eric Bloodaxe
Country	Kingdom of Norway
Titles	King
Founded	ca. 865
Founder	Harald Fairhair
Final ruler	Harald Greycloak or Olaf IV Haakonsson
Dissolution	970 or 1387
Ethnicity	Norwegian
Cadet branches	Vigen branch Vestfold branch Hardrada dynasty Gille dynasty Sverre dynasty

The Fairhair dynasty (Norwegian: Hårfagreætta) was a family of kings founded by Harald I of Norway which united and ruled Norway with few interruptions from the latter half of the 9th century to 1387 (traditional view), or through only three generations of kings ending with Harald Greycloak in the late 10th century (the view of many modern scholars).

The Fairhair Dynasty is traditionally regarded as the first royal dynasty of the united kingdom of Norway. It was founded by Harald I of Norway, known as Haraldr hinn hárfagri (Harald Fairhair or Finehair), the first King of Norway (as opposed to "in Norway"), who defeated the last resisting petty kings at the Battle of Hafrsfjord in 872.

According to the traditional view, after Harald Fairhair first unified the kingdom, Norway was inherited by his agnatic (male) descendants. In the 13th century, this was codified in law. Unlike other Scandinavian monarchies and Anglo-Saxon England, Norway was never an elective monarchy.

However, in the first centuries after Harald Fairhair, there were several periods during which the country was effectively ruled not by a king but by one of the Jarls of Lade, (Old Norse Hlaðir), from the northern part of Norway. The first such period was from about 975 to about 995 under Haakon Sigurdsson (Hákon Sigurðarson, often called 'Jarl Haakon'). Also, although Harald Fairhair's kingdom was the kernel of a unified Norway, it was still small and his power centre was in Vestfold, in the south. And when he died, the kingdom was divided between his sons. Some historians put emphasis on the actual monarchical control over the country and assert that Olav II (Olav the Stout, who later became St. Olav), who reigned from 1015, was the first king to have control over the entire country. He is generally held to be the driving force behind Norway's final conversion to Christianity and was later revered as Rex Perpetuum Norvegiæ (Latin: eternal king of Norway). Some provinces did not actually come under the rule of the Fairhair kings before the time of Harald III (Harald Hardrada, r. 1046–1066). Either of these may therefore be regarded as further unifiers of Norway. And some of the rulers were nominally or actually vassals of the King of Denmark, including Jarl Haakon.