Wikitree currently has at least four profiles for Harald the Black, who was father of Godred Crovan King of Dublin and the Isles (died 1095), and a whole morass of duplicated and contradictory relatives:
The first two Haralds are shown with the same mother, Unknown Of_Islay-1 and an unmerged match of the two profiles was made in 2018.
As well as the four Haralds, these pairs clearly each represent one person:
- Godfred Haraldsson-213 and Godred Haraldson-2.
- Harald Sitricsson-1 and Harald Sigtryggrsson-1, who are both shown as sons of Sigtryggr Ivarsson-24.
The Wikipedia article on Godred Crovan has a section on his familial origins which gives a densely-referenced summary of the recent scholarly literature. It is clear that although Harald the Black's ancestry is imprecisely known, his father was neither Guðrøðr Haraldsson (King of the Isles), nor a son of Eirik Blodøks, but rather he was closely related in the male line to Ímar mac Arailt King of Dublin (Norse form Ivarr Haraldsson, no Wikitree profile that I can find) thought to be son of Aralt mac Amlaib/Harald Olaffsson-381).
I have found no statements about the identity of Harald the Black's mother.
Clare Downham's book Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland : The Dynasty of Ivarr to A. D. 1014 deals in detail with Guðrøðr Haraldsson in the context of dynastic succession but does not mention his wife, although her identity would be relevant to the book's topic. Reviewers have commended this book for its exhaustive coverage of the relevant documents, so I suppose that there is no written reference to Guðrøðr's wife.
The evidence for a woman from Islay being the wife of a son of Eirik Blodøks I do not know. Qualtrough's Kings of Man, which is cited on the profile of Haraldsson-213, says Godred Crovan "was the son of King Harald the Black of Islay and grandson of Godred Erikson (a son of Erik Bloodaxe by his marriage to the “Heiress of Islay”)." (page 8) This would imply that Harald the Black's wife rather than his mother was the daughter of Gudrød Eriksen-308. Qualtrough gives as his source The History of the Isle of Man under the Norse, or Now through a glass darkly by G.V.C. Young, which I have not yet been able to check.
Currently Wikitree shows Consort Norway Ragnfredsdatter-1 (abt. 1000) as wife of Harald the Black Guðrøðarson-2, mother of Godred Crovan, and granddaughter of Eirik Blodøks through his son Rangfred (Eiriksson) Eriksson (0930 - 0970), but born 30 years after her father's death! Clearly she is intended to be the same person as UNKNOWN Ragnfredsdatter-4 and Unknown Ragnfredsdotter-1
Wikitree also has two sons of Eirik Blodøks who appear to be duplicates, along with their wives:
PROPOSAL
- the four Harald the Black profiles be detached from any parents and merged as Haraldr. The LNAB should be Unknown, unless there is evidence of his father's name, in which case the patronymic is Guðrøðsson.
- Godfred Haraldsson-213 and Godred Haraldson-2 be merged as Guðrøðr Haraldsson.
- Harald Sitricsson-1 and Harald Sigtryggrsson-1 be merged as Haraldr Sigtryggsson.
- the two Gudrøds sons of Eirik Blodøks be merged as Guðrøðr Eiriksson, and the titles relating to the Isle of Man be removed.
- Heiress Of_Islay-2 be merged into Unknown Of_Islay-1.
- Rangfred Eiriksson-44 and Ragnfred av Norge-28 should be merged into Ragnfreðr Eiriksson.
- Consort Norway Ragnfredsdatter, UNKNOWN Ragnfredsdatter-4, Unknown Ragnfredsdotter-1 and Rangfredsdotter Unknown-272543 are all merged as Unknown Ragnfreðsdóttir, OR
- if Young's Now through a glass darkly has good evidence for it, instead of merging those four into Unknown Ragnfreðsdóttir they be merged and transferred to be daughter of Guðrøðr Eiriksson and Unknown Of_Islay and renamed Unknown Guðrøðsdóttir.
In each case hoping I have the correct Old Norse forms when proposing a different merged name (underlined).
Please discuss and tell me about any better or contradictory evidence.
If folks agree to this there will need to be quite a bit of discussion of what goes on the merged profiles, and what the estimated dates should be.
