Editing Harald Hardrada (section)

==Epithets==
Harald's most famous epithet is Old Norse ''harðráði'', which has been translated variously as 'hard in counsel', 'tyrannical',<ref>Cleasby, Richard and Gudbrand Vigfusson, ''An Icelandic–English Dictionary'', 2nd ed. by William A. Craigie (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957), s.v. ''harðr''.</ref> 'tyrant', 'hard-ruler', 'ruthless', 'savage in counsel', 'tough', and 'severe'.<ref name="vol. 3">Snorri Sturluson, ''Heimskringla'', trans. by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes, 3 vols (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 2011–15) (2nd ed. 2016), [http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Heimskringla%20III.pdf vol. 3] p. x.</ref> While [[Judith Jesch]] has argued for 'severe' as the best translation,<ref name="Judith Jesch 1996 pp. 117">Judith Jesch, 'Norse Historical Traditions and Historia Gruffud vab Kenan: Magnus Berfoettr and Haraldr Harfagri', in ''Gruffudd ap Cynan: A Collaborative Biography'', edited by K.L. Maund (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 117–147 (p. 139 n. 62).</ref> Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes prefer 'resolute'.<ref name="vol. 3"/> ''Harðráði'' has traditionally been Anglicised as 'Hardrada', though [[Judith Jesch]] characterises this form as 'a bastard Anglicisation of the original epithet in an [[oblique case]]'.<ref name="Judith Jesch 1996 pp. 117"/> This epithet predominates in the later Icelandic saga-tradition.<ref name="researchgate.net">Sverrir Jakobsson, '[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sverrir_Jakobsson/publication/313458815_The_Early_Kings_of_Norway_the_Issue_of_Agnatic_Succession_and_the_Settlement_of_Iceland/links/5a60c21c45851517c7aeef0f/The-Early-Kings-of-Norway-the-Issue-of-Agnatic-Succession-and-the-Settlement-of-Iceland.pdf The Early Kings of Norway, the Issue of Agnatic Succession, and the Settlement of Iceland]', ''Viator'',  47 (2016), 171–188  (pp. 1–18 in open-access text, at p. 7); {{doi|10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.112357}}.</ref>

However, in a number of independent sources associated with the [[British Isles]], mostly earlier than the Icelandic sagas, Harald is given epithets deriving from Old Norse ''hárfagri'' (literally 'hair-beautiful'). These sources include:
* Manuscript D of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' ('Harold Harfagera', under the year 1066) and the related histories by [[Orderic Vitalis]] ('Harafagh', re events in 1066), [[John of Worcester]] ('Harvagra', s.aa. 1066 and 1098), and [[William of Malmesbury]] (''[[Gesta Regum Anglorum|Gesta regum Anglorum]]'', 'Harvagre', regarding 1066).
* [[Marianus Scotus of Mainz]] ('Arbach', d. 1082/1083).
* The ''Life'' of [[Gruffydd ap Cynan]] ('Haralld Harfagyr', later twelfth century).
In Icelandic sagas the name ''Harald Fairhair'' is more famously associated with an [[Harald Fairhair|earlier Norwegian king]], and twentieth-century historians assumed that the name was attached to Harald Hardrada in error by Insular historians. However, recognising the independence of some of the Insular sources, historians have since favoured the idea that Harald Hardrada was widely known as Harald Fairhair, and indeed now doubt that the earlier Harald Fairhair existed in any form resembling the later saga-accounts.<ref>Judith Jesch, 'Norse Historical Traditions and Historia Gruffud vab Kenan: Magnus Berfoettr and Haraldr Harfagri', in ''Gruffudd ap Cynan: A Collaborative Biography'', edited by K.L. Maund (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 117–147 (pp. 139–147).</ref><ref>[[Shami Ghosh]], ''Kings' Sagas and Norwegian History: Problems and Perspectives'', The Northern World, 54 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 66–70.</ref><ref name="researchgate.net"/>

[[Sverrir Jakobsson]] has suggested that 'fairhair' 'might be the name by which King Harald wished himself to be known. It must have been his opponents who gave him the epithet "severe" (ON. ''harðráði''), by which he is generally known in thirteenth-century Old Norse kings' sagas'.<ref>Sverrir Jakobsson, '[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sverrir_Jakobsson/publication/313458815_The_Early_Kings_of_Norway_the_Issue_of_Agnatic_Succession_and_the_Settlement_of_Iceland/links/5a60c21c45851517c7aeef0f/The-Early-Kings-of-Norway-the-Issue-of-Agnatic-Succession-and-the-Settlement-of-Iceland.pdf The Early Kings of Norway, the Issue of Agnatic Succession, and the Settlement of Iceland]', ''Viator'',  47 (2016), 171–188  (pp. 1–18 in open-access text, at p. 7); {{doi|10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.112357}}.</ref>