Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar

[3] Haralds saga itself begins in medias res with Haraldr's escape from the Battle of Stiklarstaðir (ch.

The saga describes his military exploits in Sicily (chs 6-11; c. 1038-41) and North Africa, his conquest of Palestine and pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and escape from the unwanted advances of the Empress.

Chapters 75-77 describe the development of the succession crisis in England following the death of Edward the Confessor and the accession of Harold Godwinson (1064-66).

Harold's brother Tostig Godwinson seeks the support of the Danish king Sveinn in invading England (ch.

Haraldr's son Magnús becomes king of Norway, coming to share the kingdom with his brother Óláfr until his death (chs 98-101; 1066-69).

[5] The outlines of Haralds saga are independently verified by (near-)contemporary accounts, principally the Byzantine Strategikon of Kekaumenos, Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, and various accounts of the Norman Conquest of England, principally the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

[7][8] The account of his attempts to conquer England and his defeat at the Battle of Stamford Bridge is judged less accurate than the Anglo-Saxon records.

by Kari Ellen Gade, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009).

Haraldr Sigurðarson (wearing crown) fighting at the Battle of Stamford Bridge , as depicted by Matthew Paris in the Life of St Edward the Confessor in the mid-thirteenth century Cambridge University Library MS Ee.3.59, f. 32v, roughly coeval with the composition of Haralds saga .