Meaning of epithet Old Norse translates straightforwardly into English as 'hair', but , the adjective of which is a form, is trickier to render, since it means 'fair, fine, beautiful'Geir T. Zoëga, A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (Oxford: Clarendon, 1910), s.v. . (but without the moral associations of English fair, as opposed to unfair).Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 2nd edn by William A. Craigie (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957), s.v. fagr. Although it is convenient and conventional to render in English as 'fair-hair(ed)',Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 2nd edn by William A. Craigie (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957), s.v. .<ref>Geir T. Zoëga, A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (Oxford: Clarendon, 1910), s.v. hár-fagr.</ref> in English 'fair-haired' means 'blond', whereas the Old Norse fairly clearly means 'beautiful-haired' (in contrast to the epithet which, according to some sources, Haraldr previously bore: , '(thick) matted hair').Paul R. Peterson, 'Old Norse Nicknames' (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota, 2015), pp. 39–40.Judith Jesch, 'Norse Historical Traditions and Historia Gruffud vab Kenan: Magnus Berfoettr and Haraldr Harfagri', in Gruffudd ap Cynan: A Collaborative Biography, edited by K. L. Maund (Cambridge: Boydell, 1996), pp. 117–47 (p. 139 n. 62). Accordingly, some translators prefer to render as 'the fine-haired' or 'fine-hair'E.g. Margaret Cormack, 'Fact and Fiction in the Icelandic Sagas, History Compass, 5/1 (2007), 201–17 (p. 203) .E.g. Carl Phelpstead, 'Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Hair Loss, the Tonsure, and Masculinity in Medieval Iceland', Scandinavian Studies, 85 (2013), 1–19 (p. 5), . (which, however, unhelpfully implies that Haraldr's hair was thinning) or even 'handsome-hair'.Edith Andersen, I Am from Iceland: A Memoir (Lulu, 2010), p. 4.
Meaning of epithet Old Norse translates straightforwardly into English as 'hair', but , the adjective of which is a form, is trickier to render, since it means 'fair, fine, beautiful'Geir T. Zoëga, A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (Oxford: Clarendon, 1910), s.v. . (but without the moral associations of English fair, as opposed to unfair).Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 2nd edn by William A. Craigie (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957), s.v. fagr. Although it is convenient and conventional to render in English as 'fair-hair(ed)',Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 2nd edn by William A. Craigie (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957), s.v. .<ref>Geir T. Zoëga, A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (Oxford: Clarendon, 1910), s.v. hár-fagr.</ref> in English 'fair-haired' means 'blond', whereas the Old Norse fairly clearly means 'beautiful-haired' (in contrast to the epithet which, according to some sources, Haraldr previously bore: , '(thick) matted hair').Paul R. Peterson, 'Old Norse Nicknames' (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota, 2015), pp. 39–40.Judith Jesch, 'Norse Historical Traditions and Historia Gruffud vab Kenan: Magnus Berfoettr and Haraldr Harfagri', in Gruffudd ap Cynan: A Collaborative Biography, edited by K. L. Maund (Cambridge: Boydell, 1996), pp. 117–47 (p. 139 n. 62). Accordingly, some translators prefer to render as 'the fine-haired' or 'fine-hair'E.g. Margaret Cormack, 'Fact and Fiction in the Icelandic Sagas, History Compass, 5/1 (2007), 201–17 (p. 203) .E.g. Carl Phelpstead, 'Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Hair Loss, the Tonsure, and Masculinity in Medieval Iceland', Scandinavian Studies, 85 (2013), 1–19 (p. 5), . (which, however, unhelpfully implies that Haraldr's hair was thinning) or even 'handsome-hair'.Edith Andersen, I Am from Iceland: A Memoir (Lulu, 2010), p. 4.