To help him spread the faith, Håkon invited missionaries to come over from England. While a few of Håkon’s personal retinue did accept baptism, they did so more out of loyalty than conviction, and most Norwegians were willing to tolerate their king’s Christianity only as long as he kept his worship private. The issue came to a head when Håkon announced at the Frostathing assembly in the Trøndelag that he wished the people to be baptised and to end pagan sacrifices. This provoked an immediate rebellion by the bonders, who sincerely feared for the prosperity of the land if they were not able to perform the traditional sacrifices. Most chieftains also opposed Christianity, partly, at least, because they feared a loss of status and authority: the Norse pagan religion had no priesthood and it was the chieftains who conducted the sacrificial rituals. Supported, it seems, by jarl Sigurd, the bonders threatened that if the king did not perform the sacrifices as his father had done they would choose another king. At the harvest festival at Lade later that year, Håkon attempted a compromise by placing a linen cloth between his mouth and the sacrificial horse flesh he had been offered, but this satisfied no one. Four local chiefs in the district of Møre began killing priests and burning the churches Håkon had founded, while another group of chiefs resolved to force him to take part in the midwinter Yule sacrifice, threatening violence if he refused. Under this intense pressure Håkon finally gave in and ate some small pieces of horse liver. This token sacrifice seems to have satisfied the pagans and, after this humiliation, Håkon gave up his attempt to make the Norwegians Christian.
Håkon soon faced a greater challenge to his throne. After their father’s death in 954, Erik Bloodaxe’s sons had gone to Denmark and won Harald Bluetooth’s support for a campaign to try to drive Håkon from the Norwegian throne. Håkon proved to be a capable warrior, inflicting a succession of defeats on Erik’s sons. In 960, three of Erik’s sons, Harald Greycloak, Gamle and Sigurd, landed secretly in Hordaland and surprised Håkon in his hall at Fitjar. Håkon fought off the brothers, who fled back to their ships, but it was his last victory: during the battle he received an arrow wound to his arm and he died of blood loss soon afterwards. Although Snorri says that he was still a Christian at the end of his life, Håkon may, at least publicly, have converted to paganism, if only to keep the peace. Certainly Håkon’s followers gave him a traditional pagan burial in a barrow and in his funeral lay Hákonamál, Håkon’s skald Eyvind Skaldaspillir described his welcome in Valhalla as befitting a pagan warrior who fell in battle. Despite all the opposition to his religious policies, Håkon was remembered in saga traditions as a just ruler who brought peace and good harvests and whose legal reforms made the district things more representative and easier to consult.
As Håkon had no male heirs, Harald Greycloak, the eldest of Erik’s sons, succeeded to the throne with the support of Harald Bluetooth. Harald and his brothers had been baptised while they were in England and, unlike their uncle, they were prepared to use violence against those who opposed Christianity. They destroyed many pagan temples and overthrew the idols to demonstrate their powerlessness, but few Norwegians converted despite the intimidation. Harald aspired to exercise direct authority throughout Norway and dealt ruthlessly with opposition. It was clear to Harald that the most serious obstacle to achieving this was jarl Sigurd. Harald courted Sigurd’s malcontent brother Grjotgard and came to a secret agreement: in return for helping to overthrow Sigurd, Harald would make Grjotgard jarl in his place. After the harvest in 962, Grjotgard sent word to Harald that Sigurd was gathered with very few followers in a hall at Aglo in north Trøndelag. Guided by Grjotgard, Harald sailed up Trondheim Fjord by starlight arriving at Aglo undetected late at night. Harald’s men set fire to the hall while Sigurd was feasting with his followers. Trapped inside, the jarl and his men were all burned to death. Harald also engineered the murders of Gudrød Bjørnsson and Tryggvi Olafsson soon afterwards, but the violent elimination of his main rivals did not make Harald’s position secure.
Rising popular discontent with Harald’s activities created an opportunity for Harald Bluetooth to intervene in Norway. Jarl Sigurd had been a popular ruler and after his killing the folk of Trøndelag rallied to his son Håkon Sigurdsson. After three years of desultory warfare, Harald was forced to accept Håkon as jarl of Lade, with the same autonomy his father had enjoyed. The peace did not last and in 968 Håkon went into exile in Denmark, where he hatched a conspiracy with Harald Bluetooth to overthrow Harald Greycloak and share Norway between them. Danish Harald lured Norwegian Harald to Denmark with offers of land, only to ambush and kill him when he landed at Hals on Limfjord in north Jutland. After the killing Håkon and Harald Bluetooth took a large fleet to Viken and divided the country between them. Håkon received back his ancestral jarldom in the north, which he ruled in complete autonomy, and the west coast districts of Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn, Møre and Romsdal, which he ruled as Harald’s vassal. Harald took control of the rest of the country except for Vestfold and Agder, which he gave to Harald Grenske, the son of the murdered king Gudrød Bjørnsson.
At first Håkon was true to his arrangement with Harald and loyally brought ships and men to defend Denmark against the emperor Otto II’s attack in 975. While Håkon was in Denmark, Harald forced him to accept baptism and agree to take a party of priests with him to Norway to begin missionary work. A devout pagan, Håkon’s conversion was insincere and he had no intention of helping Harald Christianise Norway. Håkon took the priests onboard his ship as Harald demanded but, as soon as he got a favourable wind for home, he disembarked the priests and made good his escape, plundering Danish territory on the way. Preoccupied with the threat from Germany, Harald was unable to prevent Håkon seizing control of all of Norway on his return and for the next ten years or so he enjoyed undisturbed possession of the country. Late in Harald’s reign or early in Svein Forkbeard’s – the sources are contradictory and none can be considered to be really reliable – the Danes attempted to win back control of Norway by sending a fleet of sixty ships to attack Lade. According to saga traditions the fleet was led by the elite Jomsvikings, but it never reached its destination. Deliberately misled by a captured herdsman, the Danes blundered unwittingly into a much larger Norwegian fleet under jarl Håkon and his son Erik at Hjørungavåg in Sunnmøre and was crushingly defeated in a battle fought in a heavy hailstorm. Only about half the Danish fleet escaped.
According to the saga traditions, Håkon became increasingly overbearing after his victory at Hjørungavåg and began to tax the bonders so heavily that his support ebbed away. So unpopular had Håkon become that when Olaf Tryggvason unexpectedly arrived in Norway in 995, fresh from his triumphs in England, he was immediately accepted as king. Håkon fled but was murdered soon after by one of his retainers while he was hiding in a pigsty: when Olaf later displayed his severed head, it was pelted with stones by a mob of angry bonders. Håkon’s son Erik Håkonarson escaped however, and, like many an exile before him, became a Viking leader.