Harald III. (1015–1066), king of Norway, surnamed Haardraade, which might be translated “ruthless,” was the son of King Sigurd and half-brother of King Olaf the Saint. At the age of fifteen he was obliged to flee from Norway, having taken part in the battle of Stiklestad (1030), at which King Olaf met his death. He took refuge for a short time with Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod (a kingdom founded by Scandinavians), and thence went to Constantinople, where he took service under the empress Zoe, whose Varangian guard he led to frequent victory in Italy, Sicily and North Africa, also penetrating to Jerusalem. In the year 1042 he left Constantinople, the story says because he was refused the hand of a princess, and on his way back to his own country he married Ellisif or Elizabeth, daughter of Yaroslav of Novgorod. In Sweden he allied himself with the defeated Sven of Denmark against his nephew Magnus, now king of Norway, but soon broke faith with Sven and accepted an offer from Magnus of half his kingdom. In return for this gift Harald is said to have shared with Magnus the enormous treasure which he had amassed in the East. The death of Magnus in 1047 put an end to the growing jealousies between the two kings, and Harald turned all his attention to the task of subjugating Denmark, which he ravaged year after year; but he met with such stubborn resistance from Sven that in 1064 he gave up the attempt and made peace. Two years afterwards, possibly instigated by the banished Earl Tostig of Northumbria, he attempted the conquest of England, to the sovereignty of which his predecessor had advanced a claim as successor of Harthacnut. In September 1066 he landed in Yorkshire with a large army, reinforced from Scotland, Ireland and the Orkneys; took Scarborough by casting flaming brands into the town from the high ground above it; defeated the Northumbrian forces at Fulford; and entered York on the 24th of September. But the following day the English Harold arrived from the south, and the end of the long day’s fight at Stamford Bridge saw the rout of the Norwegian forces after the fall of their king (25th of September 1066). He was only fifty years old, but he was the first of the six kings who had ruled Norway since the death of Harald Haarfager to reach that age. As a king he was unpopular on account of his harshness and want of good faith, but his many victories in the face of great odds prove him to have been a remarkable general, of never-failing resourcefulness and indomitable courage.
Harald IV. (d. 1136), king of Norway, surnamed Gylle (probably from Gylle Krist, i.e. servant of Christ), was born in Ireland about 1103. About 1127 he went to Norway and declared he was a son of King Magnus III. (Barefoot), who had visited Ireland just before his death in 1103, and consequently a half-brother of the reigning king, Sigurd. He appears to have submitted successfully to the ordeal of fire, and the alleged relationship was acknowledged by Sigurd on condition that Harald did not claim any share in the government of the kingdom during his lifetime or that of his son Magnus. Living on friendly terms with the king, Harald kept this agreement until Sigurd’s death in 1130. Then war broke out between himself and Magnus, and after several battles the latter was captured in 1134, his eyes were put out, and he was thrown into prison. Harald now ruled the country until 1136, when he was murdered by Sigurd Slembi-Diakn, another bastard son of Magnus Barefoot. Four of Harald’s sons, Sigurd, Ingi, Eysteinn and Magnus, were subsequently kings of Norway.
HARBIN, or Kharbin, town of Manchuria, on the right bank of the river Sungari. Pop. about 20,000. Till 1896 there was only a small village here, but in that year the town was founded in connexion with surveys for the Chinese Eastern railway company, at a point which subsequently became the junction of the main line of the Manchurian railway with the branch line southward to Port Arthur. Occupying such a position, Harbin became an important Russian military centre during the Russo-Japanese War. The portion of the town founded in 1896 is called Old Harbin, but the centre has shifted to New Harbin, where the chief public buildings and offices of the railway administration are situated. The river-port forms a third division of the town, industrially the most important; here are railway workshops, factories and mercantile establishments. Trade is chiefly in the hands of the Chinese.
HARBINGER, originally one who provides a shelter or lodging for an army. The word is derived from the M.E. and O.Fr. herbergere, through the Late Lat. heribergator, formed from the O.H.Ger. heri, mod. Ger. Heer, an army, and bergen, shelter or defence, cf. “harbour.” The meaning was soon enlarged to include any place where travellers could be lodged or entertained, and also by transference the person who provided lodgings, and so one who goes on before a party to secure suitable lodgings in advance. A herald sent forward to announce the coming of a king. A Knight Harbinger was an officer in the royal household till 1846. In these senses the word is now obsolete. It is used chiefly in poetry and literature for one who announces the immediate approach of something, a forerunner. This is illustrated in the “harbinger of spring,” a name given to a small plant belonging to the Umbelliferae, which has a tuberous root, and small white flowers; it is found in the central states of North America, and blossoms in March.
HARBOUR (from M. E. hereberge, here, an army; cf. Ger. Heer and -beorg, protection or shelter. Other early forms in English were herberwe and harborow, as seen in various place names, such as Market Harborough. The French auberge, an inn, derived through heberger, is thus the same word), a place of refuge or shelter. It is thus used for an asylum for criminals, and particularly for a place of shelter for ships.
Sheltered sites along exposed sea-coasts are essential for purposes of trade, and very valuable as refuges for vessels from storms. In a few places, natural shelter is found in combination with ample depth, as in the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, New York Harbour (protected by Long Island), Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton Water (sheltered by the Isle of Wight), and the land-locked creeks of Milford Haven and Kiel Harbour. At various places there are large enclosed areas which have openings into the sea; but these lagoons for the most part are very shallow except in the main channels and at their outlets. Access to them is generally obstructed by a bar as at the lagoon harbour of Venice (fig. 1), and similar harbours, like those of Poole and Wexford; and such harbours usually require works to prevent their deterioration, and to increase the depth near their outlet. Generally, however, harbours are formed where shelter is provided to a certain extent by a bay, creek or projecting headland, but requires to be rendered complete by one or more breakwaters (see Breakwater), or where the approach to a river, a ship-canal or a seaport, needs protection. A refuge harbour is occasionally constructed where a long length of stormy coast, near the ordinary track of vessels, is entirely devoid of natural shelter. Naval harbours are required by maritime powers as stations for their fleets, and dockyards for construction and repairs, and also in some cases as places of shelter from the night attacks of torpedoes. Commercial harbours have to be provided for the formation of ports within their shelter on important trade routes, or for the protection of the approaches from the sea of ports near the sea-coast, or maritime waterways running inland, in some cases at points on the coast devoid of all natural shelter. A greater latitude in the selection of suitable sites is, indeed, possible for refuge and naval harbours than for commercial harbours; but these three classes of harbours are very similar in their general outline and the works protecting them, only differing in size and internal arrangements according to the purpose for which they have been constructed, the chief differences being due to the local conditions.
Harbours may be divided into three distinct groups, namely, lagoon harbours, jetty harbours and sea-coast harbours, protected by breakwaters, including refuge, naval and commercial harbours.
Lagoon Harbours.—A lagoon, consisting of a sort of large shallow lake separated from the sea by a narrow belt of coast, formed of deposit from a deltaic river or of sand dunes heaped up by on-shore winds along a sandy shore, possesses good natural shelter; and, owing to the large expanse which is filled and emptied at each tide, even when the tidal range is quite small, together with the discharge
