In the year 866 Norway was little more than a collection of small coastal kingdoms, smaller chiefdoms, and individual farms, the whole united only by common traditions and language. The richest agricultural lands of Norway were in Vestfold, a coastal zone to the west of Oslo. Harald Fairhair, proud King of Vestfold and beneficiary of its agricultural riches and shipbuilding prowess, began in that year to unify of all Norway under his rule.
In this Harald was merely continuing a centuries-old European expansion of feudal powers to every corner of the continent, but to the independent farmers of Norway, who had never owed fief or paid land tax to anyone, the sudden arrival of royal tax collectors came as a rude shock. By ancient custom and law, the independent landowners of Norway owned their land in allodial title, free of any tax or feudal service obligation. They weren't about to give up those rights without a fight..." [15 Mar 08]
