Harald Greycloak
King of Norway
Harald Greycloak (Old Norse: Haraldr gráfeldr, lit. 'Harald Grey-hide'; Norwegian: Harald Gråfell; Danish: Harald Gråfeld; c. 935 – c. 970) was a king of Norway from the Fairhair dynasty.
Harald acquired his nickname "Gray-hide" after an encounter with the crew of an Icelandic merchant ship which carried a large load of vararfeldir, a type of faux fur made from sheep's wool. The Icelanders were having trouble selling their faux furs so when the king asked them if they would make a present to him of one of the furs, which happened to be grey, the sailors did not hesitate and the king immediately used it as a cloak. This set an instant fashion trend and before long the Icelanders had sold their entire load of previously unsalable furs to the king's men and the locals. Harald was ever after known as Harald "Gray-hide".
Harald was the son of Eric Bloodaxe and a grandson of Harald Fairhair. His mother was Gunnhild, the sister of King Harald Bluetooth.
After his father's death in 954, Harald and his brothers allied with their uncle, King Harald Bluetooth, against their half-uncle King Haakon the Good.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Harald Greycloak” as king of Norway. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as king of Norway. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q182680. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harald Greycloak” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.