Harald the Younger
Harald the Younger (from "Herioldus iunior", how he is named in the
In 841
Although later sources unambiguously describe Harald as a pagan—Prudentius of Troyes, author of the Annales Bertiniani, regarded him as a "persecutor of the Christian faith and a demon-worshipper" and his receipt of a benefice as an "utterly detestable crime"[5]—he may have been baptised as a young man at the imperial court. Harald Klak and his family, perhaps including Harald, were baptised at Mainz in 826, with Lothair standing as godfather. Harald's son Godfrid Haraldsson and one of his nephews remained at the imperial court even after the elder Harald left. Since Godfrid remained allied with Lothair until the mid-840s, it is possible that Harald was his cousin who remained with Lothair after 826 and began raiding Louis the Pious's Frisian lands in 834.[6]
Notes
- ^ See, for example, H.-W. Goetz (1980), "Zur Landnahmepolitik der Normannen im Fränkischen Reich," Annalen des Historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein, 183, 9–17; N. Lund (1989), "Allies of God or Man? The Viking Expansion in a European Perspective," Viator, 20, 45–59; and Ian Wood (1987), "Christians and Pagans in Ninth-Century Scandinavia," in B. Sawyer, P. Sawyer and Ian Wood (eds.), The Christianization of Scandinavia (Alingsås), 36–67. Simon Coupland (1998), "From Poachers to Gamekeepers: Scandinavian Warlords and Carolingian Kings", Early Medieval Europe, 7 (1), 91 and n. 36 corrects the error.
- ^ As recorded in both the Annales Xantenses (“frater iam dicti Herioldi iunioris”) and Annales Fuldenses, while the Annales Bertiniani record that Rorik was the nephew of Harald, presumably Harald Klak. Coupland, "Poachers to Gamekeepers", 91 and nn. 40–41.
- ^ The Annales Fuldenses, a. 850, incorrectly assign this event to the time of Louis the Pious.
- ^ a b c Coupland, "Poachers to Gamekeepers", 90–91.
- ^ Coupland, "Poachers to Gamekeepers", 92.
- ^ Coupland, "Poachers to Gamekeepers", 93 and n. 48.