Early Møre og Romsdal History¶
Legendary history¶
According to legend, Romsdal is an eponym after Raum the Old, son of the equally eponymous Nór who appears in Hversu Noregr byggðist as the legendary founder of Norway. Jøtunbjørn the Old was the son of Raum the Old and Bergdis, a giant's daughter. He inherited Raumsdal (modern: Romsdal) from his father, and was himself the father of King Raum, who was the father of Hrossbjörn, who was the father of Orm Broken-shell, who was the father of Knatti, who had two sons: Thórolf and Ketill Raum (in one version, Thórolf and Ketill Raum are sons of Orm). According to legend, among Thórolf's descendants came some of the first settlers of Iceland.
The Laxdaela Saga claims that Raumsdal was the home of Ketill Flatnose, a descendant of Ketill Raum. In the 850s, Ketil was a prominent chieftain. He conquered the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. Some sources refer to him as "King of the Sudreys" (Hebrides), but there is little evidence that he himself claimed that title. Harald Fairhair appointed him the ruler of these islands, but he failed to pay tribute to the Norwegian king and was outlawed. He and his family left Norway and fled westwards across the sea, to Scotland, then Ireland, where he married off his daughter, Aud the Deep-Minded, to Olaf the White, king of Dublin. Aud went eventually to Iceland where she began that country's shift to Christianity.
9th century¶
Before Harald Fairhair, Romsdal was a petty kingdom. Ragnvald Eysteinsson (Ragnvald Mørejarl) was jarl (earl) of Møre, which was roughly equivalent to today's Møre og Romsdal. He died at the Orkney Islands. He was son of King Eystein "Glumra (the Noisy)" Ivarsson of Oppland, and a contemporary of Harald Fairhair who he supported in the unification process and from whom he received his fiefdom. He is likely to have resided on or nearby the important township of Veøya, Romsdal's Viking Era hub for commerce and communication. The legend says Ragnvald was the one to cut the hair of Harald Fairhair after he became king over all of Norway.
Ragnvald Eysteinsson was the father of several sons. With Ragnhild Rolfsdatter, he had the sons: Tore (Thorir Ragnvaldsson) who inherited the earldom after his father’s death and Hrolf Ganger (Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson). Although historians are quite divided its accuracy in this regard, the Orkneyinga saga claims Hrolf Ganger is identical to Rollo of Normandy ancestor of William I of England. Turf-Einar (Einarr Ragnvaldsson), a son by a concubine, was an ancestor of the Norse Earls of Orkney.
12th century¶
In 1122, while staying as a guest at the village of Hustad in Romsdal, King Eystein I was taken ill and died. His body was taken in impressive funeral procession to burial at Nidaros.
At Veøy, an island in the middle of the Romsdalfjord, there had been in time immemorial a religious site. At the close of the 12th century, Veøy gamle kirke, a church dedicated to St. Peter, was constructed over an ancient site of pagan worship.