"There is no information in original sources about Harald's parentage. Unfortunately, the Chronicle of Man and the Isles starts with Harald's supposed son Godred Crovan, and other annals of the period are very incomplete, so any ancestry of Godred must be conjectural. The suggestion that Ivar Haraldson was his father appears to be just a wild guess based on the name of Ivar's father. The usual (and more reasonable) guess, but still only a guess, is that his father was Óláfr Lagman (or Óláfr son of Lagman) who was slain at the Battle of Clontarf 1014. It seems to get Godred's dynasty right since one of Godred Crovan's sons (his successor) was named Lagman. This is politically significant since Godfred Crovan's predecessors, another Godfred (died 1075) and son Fingal (died 1079), are thought to be of the Dublin dynasty which apparently had occupied Man since the time of Eachmarchach (c.1052)."

Competing Theories

P.A. Munch antog att Harald I Godredsson Svarte av Islay, kung på Söderöarna ca 1035-1040, var son till kung Godred Haraldsson. Munch´s teori är också att Harald I Svarte var fader till Godred Crovan, som var kung på Man och Hebriderna 1079-1095. (Källa: G.V.C Young, 1986) (English: P.A. Munch figured Harald In Godredsson Black Islay, king of the South Island about 1035-1040, was the son of King Godred Haraldsson. Munch's theory is that Harald In Black was the father of Godred Crovan, who was king of Man and the Hebrides 1079-1095. (Source: G.V.C Young, 1986))

Alexander Bugge hävdar att kungarna på Man stammar från Ragnfred Eriksson, och det syns som om en dotter till Ragnfred blev gift med Harald I Svarte av Islay. Det är troligt, eftersom Ragnfred drog västöver till Orkneyöarna och kunde ha gift bort sin dotter till Harald I Svarte och därmed grundlagt en dynasti med kungligt norskt blod. (Källa: G.V.C Young, 1986) (English: Alexander Bugge argues that the kings of Man come from Ragnfred Eriksson, and it appears as if a daughter of Ragnfred was married to Harold the Black of Islay. It is likely, because Ragnfred pulled over to the West Orkney and could have married his daughter to Harald In Black and thus founded a dynasty of Royal Norwegian blood. (Source: G.V.C Young, 1986))

Harald 'the Black' kan också vara son till Ivar 'the old', som var son till kungen av Dublin och York, Olaf 'Cuaran', som i sin tur var son till Sitric, död 927. (Källa: Stewart Baldwin) (English: Harald 'the Black' can also be the son of Ivar 'the old', which was the son of the king of Dublin and York, Olaf 'Cuaran', which in turn was the son of Sitric, died 927 (Source: Stewart Baldwin))

Källor

1) Tom Björnstad, Norge (webbplats)

2) Landsarkivets bibliotek, G.V.C. Young, Isle of Man, England

Senast uppdaterad 010604

Stewart Baldwin's Analysis

GEN-MEDIEVAL/soc.genealogy.medieval

The Kings of the Isle of Man

from http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~medieval/man.htm

compiled by Stewart Baldwin

This material is a combination of several of my postings to the newsgroup soc.genealogy.medieval, with some new material added, and significant revisions on the old material. It is an attempt to give the genealogy of the Norse rulers of the Isle of Man, as completely as the limited sources will allow. While I have attempted to use primary sources (or translations thereof) as much as possible, there are still a few cases (clearly marked, and generally using good secondary sources like The Complete Peerage) where I have not tracked statements back to the primary sources. Hopefully, this will change in future revisions as I get access to the appropriate material. Table 1 sets the background by showing the relationships of several kings of Dublin who were (or might have been) related to the kings of Man. Tables 2 through 5 then give the main genealogical relationships, with a section discussing the possible parentage of Godred Crovan, and an appendix discussing the problems of identification involving several men named Ragnall. Because of the uncertainties involved, the kings of Man are difficult to number, and the kings given here have been assigned lowercase Romas numerals for purposes of identification. This numbering is done for the purposes of this article, and has no official status whatsoever, a fact which will hopefully be emphasized by the use of lowercase. The first three tables are based mostly on the Irish annals, and the last two mostly on the Chronicle of the Kings of Man. Bibliographic abbreviations are given at the end. I would like to thank Suzanne Doig, Todd Farmerie, and Peter Murray for comments which they posted to the newsgroup soc.genealogy.medieval on my earlier versions of this material.

Note: The tables given here were designed to work with a fixed-width font and a line length of seventy or more characters. They may be distorted, depending on the default settings of your browser. If the tables are not correctly displayed, select each table to go to a separate page with .gif images of tables, which should be correctly represented with any browser settings.

Table 1: The Kings of Dublin

The kingdom of Dublin was established by the Norse invaders of Ireland in the ninth century. By the early tenth century, it had become a hereditary kingdom ruled by the descendants of the ninth century ruler Ivar (d. 873). The kings of Dublin were also often kings of York during the early period, and cadet branches of this dynasty appear to have also ruled in Limerick, Waterford, the Isles, and Man, although it is not always possible to determine the exact relationship to the "main line" ruling in Dublin. The principle Dublin branch descends from Sitric (d. 927), who is consistently referred to in the Irish annals as a grandson of Ivar, the intervening generation being uncertain. No attempt is made here to give a complete table for the Dublin kings, and the only individuals shown are the principle kings of Dublin and the individuals relevant to the possible connections with the rulers of Man discussed below.

                                  Sitric, d. 927 [AU],

                                  grandson of Ivar

                                  king of Dublin and York

               ______________________|.............? [see Note]

              |                                    |

          Olaf Cuaran, d. 981                   Harald, d. 940 [AI, CS]

          king of Dublin and York               king of Limerick

          abdicated 980 [CS]                    [see Table 2]

      ________|_____________________________________________

     |                       |            |                 |

   Ragnall, d. 980 [AU] Glun Iarainn    Sitric Silkbeard  Harald

   [see discussion      d. 989 [AU]     d. 1042 [AT]      d. 999 [AU]

   below of identity    king of Dublin  king of Dublin      |

   of men of this name]                 deposed 1036      Ivar,

                                                          d. 1054 [AU]

                                                          king of

                                                          Dublin

                                                            |

                                                   later kings of Man?

                                                  see discussion below

   (.gif version of Table 1)

Note: Harald ("Aralt") is referred to as the grandson of Ivar in AI. CS calls him a son of the grandson of Ivar, i.e., of Sitric ("Aralt mac .h. Imair .i. mac Sitric, Rí gall Luimnigh, do marbad la Connachtoíbh"). If the account of CS is literally true, and the "grandson" of AI just means descendant in general, then Harald would probably be a brother of Olaf Cuaran, as shown in the table. However, Ivar also had a son named Sitric (d. 896), so if the "mac .h." is a mistake for just ".h." (a common abbreviation for the word "ua" ["grandson'] and its various declensions), then Harald may have been son of this earlier Sitric.

Table 2: Kings of "the Isles" (including the Isle of Man?)

During the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, a dynasty briefly appears whose kings were called kings of the Isles (i.e., principally the Hebrides), and at least one of these kings (Godred, who is called king of Man in Njal's Saga, an Icelandic source) appears to have ruled in Man (See also, HBC, ESSH, and CGG). The use of the rare name "Lagman" among the later kings of Man also suggests that they regarded themselves as the successors of these kings of "the Isles".

                       Harald (Aralt), d. 940 [AI, CS],

                       king of Limerick

                       [see Table 1]

                          |

                          |[see Note 1]

                          |

                       Godred (Goffraid) i, d. 989 [AU]

                       king of the Isles

              ____________|________________ [see Note 2]

             |                             |

         Reginald (Ragnall) i            Lagmann i, ruling 1014

         king of the Isles, d. 1004/5    king of the Isles

                                           |

                                         Olaf (Amlaib), d. 23 Apr 1014

                                         killed at Clontarf [AU]

   (.gif version of Table 2)

Note 1: The Harald who was father of Godred is not identified in the primary sources, but the king of Limerick of that name seems like the most likely individual. In the list of the kings of Man, NHI (vol. 9, p. 466) suggests that the Harald who was father of Godred might have been Harald of Denmark (son of Gorm the Old), but this seems unlikely. Some would include a certain "Magnus", also a son of Harald, as another king during this period, but it is likely that this is a mistake. The existence of a "Magnus" son of Harald is given only in late sources, and seems to be a error for "mac Arailt" in the earlier sources, in which "mac" became "Maccus" and then "Magnus" in successive corruptions of the records. In further support of this, observe that the personal name "Magnus" is based on the Latin word magnus ("great"), and, if we are to give any credence to the account of Heimskringla, the name derives more directly from Charlemagne ("Carolus Magnus" in Latin), with king Magnus "the Good" of Norway being the first individual of that name. This would seem to exclude the possibility that a Viking bore that name as early as the tenth century. While it is possible that "Maccus" is a corruption of some other Scandinavian name, it seems much more likley that the "mac Arailt" who appears in the annals was the son of Harald about whom we already know, i.e., Goffraid mac Arailt.

Note 2: AU, in listing those who fell at the famous Battle of Clontarf on 23 April 1014, names a certain Olaf son of Lagman ("Amlaim m. Laghmaind") as one of the Norse leaders who fell. CGG, written in the early twelfth century, also mentions the same individual, where the different manuscripts call him Amlaf Lagman son of Goffraidh, Amlaf son of Lagmann son of Gofraidh, or Amhlaibh son of Laghman. Given the testimony of the other witnesses (and AU in particular), it would seem that the first of these manuscripts accidently left out a "son of", and that the Amlaib who was killed at Clontarf was son of Lagman, son of Goffraid. William of Jumiéges, in describing the events just after the death of king Svein Forkbeard of Denmark (1014), states that his son Cnut sought support from two kings, Lacman of the Swedes and Olaf of the Norsemen (i.e., of Norway) ["... Lacman equidem Suauorum et Olauum Noricorum" - See GND, vol. 2, pp. 19-27]. Since no king named Lacman was ruling in Sweden at the time, the reasonable suggestion has been made that "Suauorum" was a scribal slip for "Sudrorum", and that Lacman was king of the Hebrides (i.e., "the Isles"), and this seems like a safe emendation, given the evidence of AU and CGH

Table 3: Echmarcach of Dublin and Man, and his descendants

King Echmarcach of Dublin and Man was the son of a certain Ragnall, and there are different opinions as to which of the known individuals that name was his father. See the appendix for more on this. Echmarcach was apparently the same person as the king "Iehmarc" who submitted to Cnut in 1031, according to the "E" manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [see Hudson (1992)]. Echmarcach has also sometimes been incorrectly identified with the king Margaðr of Dublin who appears in Heimskringla and other Norse sources. However, as has been pointed out, the name "Margaðr" is the Norse form of the Irish name Murchad, and the Margaðr in question was actually the Leinster prince Murchad mac Diarmata (d. 1070, ancestor of the MacMurroughs), who ruled Dublin under his father Diarmait mac Máel na mBo, king of Leinster (d. 1072) [see Hudson (1991)]. Although no sons of Echmarcach are known, the Ban Shenchus [BS] shows that he had a daughter Mor who married Tadg Ua Briain, king of Munster (and great-grandson of the famous Brian Boruma), and had several children, one of whom appears to have ruled as king of Man for a short time. Using BS, Echmarcach's descendants can be traced for a few additional generations, and all such descendants who are currently known to me are given in this chart (BS being the source unless otherwise given).

                    Ragnall (see the Appendix for the

                    possibilities regarding his identity)

                      |

                    Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, d. 1065

                    king of Dublin, 1036-8, 1046-52,

                    also king of Man and Galloway

                      |

                    Mor md.

                    Tadg Ua Briain, d. 1086 [AU]

                    king of Munster

       _______________|______________________________________

      |               |                        |             |

   Donnchad    Domnall mac Taidg, d. 1115   Amlaib        Be Bind, md.

   mac Taidg   [AU, AI, see also AI 1111]   mac Taidg     Donnchad mac

               king of Man [see Note 1]     d. 1096       Murchada

                                                          [see Note 2]

       ______________________________________________________|

      |             |

   Amlaib mac    Dubchoblaig ingen Donnchada [see Note 3]

   Donnchada     md. 1st       md 2nd              md. 3rd

                 Ua Nuallain   Muirchertach        Dalbach

                    |          Ua Máel Sechlainn   Ua Domnaill

       _____________|___      _____|_____           ___|_______

      |     |   |       |    |           |         |           |

   Dúnlaing | Máel      | Caillech  Máel Ruanaig  Dúnlaing  Crimthann

            | Sechlainn |

            |           |

      Muiredach       Sadb

   (.gif version of Table 3)

Note 1: Although the status of Domnall as king of Man for a short period seems secure, the exact chronology of his reign is difficult, as CRM seems to place his reign earlier than the Irish annals.

Note 2: His exact identity is uncertain. Donnchad mac Murchada, king of Leinster (d. 1115), and Donnchad mac Murchada, king of Meath (d. 1106), would both make chronologically likely candidates.

Note 3: The first name of Dubchoblaig's first husband is not given by BS. The personal names suggest that her second husband was of the Uí Néill. Crimthann is called the son of the son of Dalbach, which is an apprent slip by the copyist. Sadb and Caillech were daughters, and the other children were sons. The children of Dubchoblaig were apparently contemporaries of the writer of BS. It is possible that a close comparison of the material in BS with the other Irish genealogical material would turn up modern descendants of one or more of these individuals.

Other Comments

See "My Lines"

( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/p129.htm#i15028 )

from Compiler: R. B. Stewart, Evans, GA

( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/index.htm )

P.A. Munch antog att Harald I Godredsson Svarte av Islay, kung på Söderöarna ca 1035-1040, var son till kung Godred Haraldsson. Munchþs teori är också att Harald I Svarte var fader till Godred Crovan, som var kung på Man och Hebriderna 1079-1095. (Källa: G.V.C Young, 1986)

Alexander Bugge hävdar att kungarna på Man stammar från Ragnfred Eriksson, och det syns som om en dotter till Ragnfred blev gift med Harald I Svarte av Islay. Det är troligt, eftersom Ragnfred drog västöver till Orkneyöarna och kunde ha gift bort sin dotter till Harald I Svarte och därmed grundlagt en dynasti med kungligt norskt blod. (Källa: G.V.C Young, 1986)

Harald 'the Black' kan också vara son till Ivar 'the old', som var son till kungen av Dublin och York, Olaf 'Cuaran', som i sin tur var son till Sitric, död 927. (Källa: Stewart Baldwin)

Hustru: Ukendt

Børn:
1. Godred III Crovan (King Orry), d. 1095