Scandinavian minor kingdoms

These were numerous small kingdoms and chiefdoms, not one state

Before unification, Norway was a mosaic of petty kingdoms (småkongeriker) and jarldoms — such as Vestfold, Agder, Hordaland, Rogaland, Trøndelag, and others — ruled by local kings (konungr) and chieftains, each governed with the aid of a regional assembly (thing) and rooted in the warrior-farmer society of the late Iron Age/early Viking Age. Rich ship-burials such as Oseberg and Gokstad (Vestfold) attest to the wealth and maritime power of these petty dynasties.

According to the later Icelandic sagas — above all Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla — these kingdoms were united by Harald Fairhair (Harald Hárfagri), who, tradition says, vowed not to cut his hair until he had conquered all Norway. His decisive victory came at the naval Battle of Hafrsfjord, traditionally dated c. 872 (modern scholars often prefer a date closer to 880–900, and treat the saga accounts, written some three centuries later, with caution). Harald is credited with becoming the first king of a unified Norway, though in reality his authority was probably limited to the coastal west and south, and full unification was a longer process completed under later kings.

The consolidation is traditionally said to have driven dissatisfied chieftains and their followers overseas, contributing to the settlement of Iceland, the Faroes, and other North Atlantic colonies in the late 9th century. Historiographically, the very existence and achievements of Harald Fairhair, and the reliability of the saga tradition (composed in 13th-century Iceland from oral sources), are matters of genuine scholarly debate; the petty-kingdom stage itself, however, is well attested archaeologically.