of prophetic dreams, according to Heimskringla, in which the genealogy reaches its full form. One particular point of doubt raised by historians is whether Harald III's father was actually descended in unbroken male line from a younger (and somewhat obscure) son of Harald Fairhair, and Olav II in another obscure but unbroken male line. It has been suggested that their claims to the throne were bolstered by genealogical invention because although they shared the same mother, Åsta Gudbrandsdatter, the mother's descent was unimportant in inheritance according to traditional Germanic law. In this critical view, only three generations of Fairhair kings reigned, from 930 to 1030, for 40 years altogether. The kings Olav Tryggvason and St. Olav, their family ties with the Fairhair dynasty perhaps a 12th-century invention, ruled for 18 years altogether and Harald Hardrada then founded a new dynasty. There may be as many as 6 dynasties altogether subsumed under the title of Fairhair dynasty: Harald Fairhair's, Olaf Tryggvason's, St. Olaf's, Harald Hardrada's, Magnus Erlingsson's and Sverre's. Genealogy The problem points (points of broken genealogy) in the medieval royal lineage in the so-called Fairhair dynasty are: whether either Olaf I of Norway or Olaf II of Norway descended from Harald I of Norway (Harald Fairhair) whether Harald III of Norway descended from Harald I whether Harald IV of Norway was son of King Magnus III of Norway whether King Sverre was son of King Sigurd II of Norway, whether Haakon IV of Norway was son of King Haakon III Each of them came from "nowhere" and won the kingdom, the three latter claiming to be hitherto unknown natural sons of an earlier king. Olaf I is given a male-line descent from Harald I in the Icelandic sagas, as grandson of Harald's alleged son Olaf in Vika. However, Viken and its region of Norway, Vestfold, were not parts of Harald I's dominions but subject to the Danish kings at the time, making this connection dubious. Further, the future king Olaf is said to have been born posthumously to a mother who had taken refuge in the Orkney Islands, yet the age assigned him in other sources would place his birth years after the date attributed to the death of his father. The Heimskringla then relates that he was enslaved in Estonia as a three-year-old, only to tell his true parentage to the man who discovered him there and freed him