kingdom · Scandinavia and the Baltic

Hadeland

750 CE – 1020 CE (approx.)

Small inland kingdom on Lake Randsfjorden, linked in saga tradition to Halfdan the Black and ended when Olaf Haraldsson removed the Uppland kings.

Origins

Hadeland, a farming district around the southern end of Lake Randsfjorden, was one of the petty kingdoms of the Upplands of eastern Norway. Snorri Sturluson's sagas say it was won by Halfdan the Black, father of Harald Fairhair, in the 9th century.

Rule and society

Little is known of its government. The sagas tell that Halfdan the Black drowned when his sleigh broke through the ice on Randsfjorden, and that the districts quarrelled over his body, which was divided and buried in several places. Local kings continued to hold the district under the Norwegian high kings.

Decline and legacy

Around 1018 Olaf Haraldsson defeated a coalition of the Uppland kings, including the king of Hadeland, and took their lands into his kingdom. Hadeland became part of the Kingdom of Norway, and the twin medieval churches at Granavollen are among its later landmarks.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Lineage

HadelandKingdom of Norway 872 CE – present

More states of Scandinavia and the Baltic →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Hadeland. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/hadeland
MLA
“Hadeland.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/hadeland. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Hadeland.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/hadeland.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Hadeland’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/hadeland (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻