ACCORDING TO THE sagas, Haraldr Sigurðarson, the future Norwegian king Haraldr inn harðráði (the Harsh Ruler), appeared in Garðaríki twice, with an interval of about ten years. The saga about him has been preserved in several redactions. Some chapters are dedicated to Haraldr in Ágrip af Noregskonunga sǫgum. In Morkinskinna we find Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða (see above, p. 145n2). Many chapters of Fagrskinna tell about Haraldr Sigurðarson. In Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar is a separate saga. Sagas of Haraldr are largely based on oral tradition. Among the informants one finds Halldórr Snorrason, the king's friend and bodyguard, who was with him all the time he was abroad, and who later told the saga of Haraldr at the Þing assemblies in Iceland; Þorgils Snorrason, a priest in Skarð in the west of Iceland (d. 1201); Guðríðr, the daughter of Guthormr, the son of Steigar-Þórir, that very bond who was the first to give Haraldr the king's name in Norway (d. 1095). King Haraldr himself was one of the informants in Morkinskinna: there are four references to him as a source of information. One might be sure that the saga of his travels beyond the seas was brought by the king himself, if not to Iceland, but to the Scandinavian north. The traditions about Haraldr seems to have blossomed more richly than about other rulers, and we may suspect that Haraldr had had a hand in this. He could have been the main patron of his own legend and could have supplied the narrative with information. There was a rich tradition concerning this Norwegian king in Iceland, and he was very popular among the Icelandic skalds. At least four of his skalds, Bǫlverkr Arnórsson, Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Stúfr inn blindi, and Valgarðr á Velli confirm the fact that Haraldr had been to Garðar.

Haraldr's mother Ásta Guðbrandsdóttir was married first to Haraldr inn grenski (the Greenlander), and then to Sigurðr sýr (Pig). Her sons from these two marriages, the famous Norwegian kings Óláfr Haraldsson (1014– 1028) and Haraldr Sigurðarson (1046– 1066), were uterine brothers, but they were related on the paternal line as well, since they were both great-grandsons of the founder of the dynasty of Norwegian kings, Haraldr the Fine-Haired, and were thus third cousins of one another.