six years later. Olaf II is likewise claimed to have been a male-line descendant of Harald I, as great-grandson of Harald I's alleged son Bjørn in Vestfold, yet he is first known to history as a successful viking marauder rather than a landed prince. The reliability of these two claims depends on the credibility of the Icelandic accounts (in particular Heimskringla) and the sources used to compile them, and if deemed unreliable, their reigns would represent distinct dynasties from that of Fairhair. Harald III is historically attested to have referred only to his kinship with his maternal half-brother, Olaf II. Much later legends (sagas authored under the patronage of royal courts of Harald III's descendants) claim Harald III's father also to have descended from Harald I (through Harald Fairhair's alleged son Sigurd Hrise). Thus, Harald III's 'Hardrada dynasty' is represented in the sagas as a branch of the Fairhair dynasty. They also became known as the 'St. Olaf dynasty' in honor of the founder's half-brother. Harald IV arrived in Norway from his native Ireland and claimed to be the natural son of Magnus III, sired during the latter's Irish expedition. His claim seems, from historical sources, to be based on tales told by his Irish mother and family circle during his youth. Were one to view these claims as dubious, then Harald IV instead gave rise to a new dynasty, the 'Gille' (Irish) or 'Gylle dynasty'. The most seriously discredited alleged scion, practically regarded as an impostor by many modern academics, was Sverre I, who arrived in Norway from his native Faroe Islands, took up leadership in the embattled and heirless Birkebeiner party of the civil war, and claimed to be the natural son of Sigurd II by Gunhild, Sverre's attested mother. Sverre was sired during his mother's marriage with another man, Unas the Combmaker. Only in adulthood, so the claim goes according to legends, did his mother tell Sverre his 'real' paternity. Based on historical sources, no one else appears to have given the story credence. During that stage of the civil war, the strife was so intense that genealogical truth had evolved to a relative concept. Many royal pretenders claimed to be sons of King Sigurd II, and that was mostly a political statement - their claims were at best dubious. It may have meant just that the claimant desired to continue the perceived policies of Sigurd and