Talk:Battle of Hafrsfjord

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Norway Portal This article is part of WikiProject Norway, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to Norway. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Norse history and culture, a WikiProject related to all activities of the Norse people, both in Scandinavia and abroad, prior to the formation of the Kalmar Union in 1397. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information and associated task forces: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- B-Class-1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points have appropriate inline citations. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- B-Class-2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- B-Class-3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- B-Class-4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- B-Class-5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no Associated task forces (general topics): Maritime warfare task force Associated task forces (nations and regions): Nordic military history task force Associated task forces (periods and conflicts): Medieval warfare task force (c. 500–c. 1500)

Contents 1 Rename 2 Poem 3 Common misconceptions about the battle of H. 4 Structure

[edit] Rename

• The Battle Of Hafrsfjord should be renamed to Battle of Hafrsfjord (std Wikipedia naming), but due to the edit history this is not possible for me to do. -- Egil 05:15, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Poem

Could we have the poem in Old Norse, please? Instead of Bokmål?--Wiglaf 06:37, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Happy now? -- Egil 14:56, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yes. Although, I love the Norwegian language, Old Norse is too elegant a language not to show :).--Wiglaf 21:11, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Common misconceptions about the battle of H.

The main source of knowledge of this battle is from Snorri's sagas written 350 years ‘‘after’’ the events took place. A lot of misconceptions arise when readers reads Snorris's great literature as if it was some sort of journalistic first hand account!

When the kingdom of Norway was firmly established in the 13th century, it became apparent to trace the history of the kingdom to a "big bang" that started the whole thing. Hafrsfjord was then chosen to represent the decisive event, thus neglecting other events.

• Snorri's sagas are NOT written during the Viking period. (Which ended more than 100 yrs before Heimskringla was written.)
• The conventional year of the battle, 872, is a 19th century invention.
• "Norway" (Norvegr) was a purely geographical term in the 9th century, denoting the coastline from Lindesnes to Troms (NOT the South Easter parts of the country, e.g. around Oslo). Its significance as a political entity is a later construction.
• King Harald did not "control" Norway after the battle of Hafrsfjord. Communications were so poor that his realm continued to be ruled by local chieftains paying taxes to Harald.

--User:Haraldgroven

[edit] Structure

There should be a description of the battle in plain English, people shouldn't have to try decipher that poem to get an account of the battle. For example the poem does not make it explicitly clear whether the battle was a naval one.

No. This poem is the only primary source we have of the battle. So any "plain English" description that goes beyond the description of the battle in this poem is likely to be pure fiction.

User:Haraldgroven