Heimskringla
King Haraldr had a market town built east in Oslofjord, and often stayed there, for it was a good place for getting supplies, the land around being very productive. Staying there was very convenient for guarding the land from the Danes, and also for incursions into Denmark. He was accustomed to doing this frequently, even when he did not have a large army out.
Harald
I spent a lot of time in Oslofjord. It was my home district, so I felt safe there.
I built ships there. We cut the big timber from the mountains and floated it down into the fjord. The blacksmith forged nails that did not rust. Our best seller was a knarr designed for two men and ten sheep.
Heimskringla
King Haraldr stayed the winter in Niðaróss. He had a ship built during the winter out on Eyrar. It was a búza type ship. This ship was built after the style of Ormr inn langi and finished with the finest craftsmanship. There was a dragon head at the prow, and in the rear a curved tail, and the necks of both were all decorated with gold. It numbered thirty-five rowing benches, and was of a proportionate size, and was a most handsome vessel. The king had all the equipment for the ship carefully made, both sail and rigging, anchor and cables.
Harald
I was King of Norway for 20 years. In retrospect, it went by in a flash. It was real life, which doesn’t always align with the historical record.
I loved to sail. I sailed every summer. I had a shipbuilder in the Oslofjord, implementing the designs I had used and seen in the Black Sea, in the Mediterranean, in Egypt. Clinker built Longships, Triremes with keels and a lateen sail, canoes with outriggers, I was always trying out a new design.
I sailed to Halogaland. I sailed to the Faroes. I sailed to Iceland. I sailed to Greenland. I sailed to Vinland. That all happened.
Convenient to Kattegat and the markets of Copenhagen and Malmo, easy access to the Jutland coast and up the Elbe.
To Kattegat, through the Belt, to Uppsala for the psychedelic Woodstock, over to Novgorod to see Ellisif’s sisters.
To Jutland, up the Elbe or down the Friesans.
Follow the route of Rollo up the Seine to Paris. Normandy, the Isle of Wight, the slave market at Dublin, and the follow the Gulf Stream home to Trondheim. You could take a lot more risks heading out, because to get home all you had to do was follow the wind.
The North Sea. With a sun compass and the stars by night you could steer a course, but the winds were always blowing you back home, not out to the location of your next adventure. Four days forced rowing to Hjaltaland – the stopping point.
The North Atlantic – that was a whole different story. The favorable wind for Iceland is always the front edge of a storm. You hope the storm is large enough that you get to Iceland before the wind turns or small enough that you can ride it out and then navigate there under clear skies. Both my cruises were the in-between case. Two days due west on good winds, then four days of ten foot seas, rowers around the clock to give you way into the waves, and no sight of sky by day or by night.
The Icelanders were pretty badass. I kept one in Trondheim as my court poet. No trees – no way to repair a boat of build a new one. After I returned, I instituted trade with them – boat lumber for walrus tusks.
Tbh, the job of King of Norway was not that demanding. Anything can be settled with gold. I could travel freely and freeload. Keep the war-arrows to a minimum. Plenty of volunteers if you can plunder. I made the Halogaland people build me a longhouse so I could watch the Northern Lights one winter.
I loved metallurgy. I built a smelter in Olsofjord – extracted iron from Danish
bog ore, made pig iron ingots, forged steel for a Daneaxe that was more like a
meat cleaver on a stick than any field axe. I minted my own coinage.
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