Álof árbót (‘Improvement of Prosperity’) Haraldsdottir was a daughter of King Harald Fairhair and member of the ninth-century ruling family of Møre.
[3] Orkneyinga saga also includes this episode, specifying that Álof was given to Thórir i fǫðurbœtr (in compensation for his father’s death).
[4] Álof is mentioned as the daughter of Harald, wife of Thórir, and mother of Bergljót in Ágrip[5] and in Landnámabók.
Snorri's other work, the Separate Óláfs saga helga, gives Álof's mother as Álfhild, daughter of Hringr Dagsson, instead of Gyða.
[7] Her nickname, árbót, has been translated as ‘Improvement of Prosperity,’[1] ‘Season’s Blessing,’[8] and ‘Who-Makes-the-Harvests-Better.’[9] Jan Rüdiger notes, "the compound...is reminiscent of the agrarian aspect of sacred kinship (the set phrase ár ok fríðr '[good harvest] year and peace' sums up ‘good’ kingship), in which the princess—or the hypothetical narrative figure who became Harald and Gyða’s daughter during the textualizations of the saga—had a share.