title: King Harald's Saga: Harald Hardradi of Norway: From Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla (Penguin Classics)
author: Snorri Sturluson
description: <b>Snorri Sturluson </b>(1179&ndash;1241) was the son of an upstart Icelandic chieftain. He rose to become Iceland&rsquo;s richest and, for a time, most powerful leader.
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  
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  * * *
  
  Absalom's Hair
  
  
  CHAPTER 1
  
  CHAPTER 2
  
  CHAPTER 3
  
  CHAPTER 4
  
  CHAPTER 5
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # Absalom's Hair
  
  
  ### Bjornstjerne Bjornson
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  * CHAPTER 1
  
  
  * CHAPTER 2
  
  
  * CHAPTER 3
  
  
  * CHAPTER 4
  
  
  * CHAPTER 5
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  Etext by
  
  
  Nicole Apostola, Charles Franks
  
  
  and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
  
  
  ### CHAPTER 1
  
  
  Harald Kaas was sixty.
  
  
  He had given up his free, uncriticised bachelor life; his yacht
  
  
  was no longer seen off the coast in summer; his tours to England and
  
  
  the south had ceased; nay, he was rarely to be found even at his club
  
  
  in Christiania. His gigantic figure was never seen in the doorways; he
  
  
  was failing.
  
  
  Bandy-legged he had always been, but this defect had increased;
  
  
  his herculean back was rounded, and he stooped a little. His
  
  
  forehead, always of the broadest—no one else's hat would fit him-
  
  
  -was now one of th