Eric Bloodaxe died at Stainmore in 954. That was not the end of his line — it was closer to the beginning of its second act. Gunnhild gathered their sons, left England, and spent the next several years turning a defeated family into the next rulers of Norway.
How Many Sons, Exactly
The sagas aren't fully consistent with each other, which is itself telling — this is a family whose story was reassembled generations later from oral tradition. Most accounts name seven to nine sons: Harald (called Greycloak, the eldest and by far the most consequential), Gamli, Guthorm, Erling, Sigurd Sleva, Ragnfrod, and Gudrod. Egils saga also mentions a son named Rögnvald, though his place in the family is less certain than the others. A daughter, Ragnhild, married into the earldom of Orkney.
Whatever the exact count, the pattern is clear: this was a large family built for one purpose. Gunnhild needed enough sons that losing some of them to war, exile, or betrayal — which is exactly what happened — wouldn't end the line.
Exile After Stainmore
After Eric's death, the family fled first to Orkney, where he had kept old alliances among the Norse jarls, and then on to the Danish court of Harald Bluetooth. Denmark gave them what Northumbria and Norway no longer could: safety, ships, and a patron with his own reasons to back a claim on the Norwegian throne. Gunnhild spent these years doing the quiet, unglamorous work of dynasty-building — keeping her sons loyal to each other and to her, and watching Norway for the moment their half-uncle Haakon the Good would show weakness.
The Return: Fitjar, 961
That moment came in 961. Haakon the Good — Eric's half-brother, who had ruled Norway since Eric's expulsion decades earlier — was killed in battle at Fitjar, fighting a fleet backed by Danish support and led by Gunnhild's sons. Harald, the eldest, took the throne. His brothers held power alongside him in the western regions, though Harald was clearly first among them — later tradition remembers this period as the reign of "Gunnhild's sons" as much as any one king's.
Harald Greycloak's Reign — and Its End
Harald Greycloak's rule was aggressive and, by most accounts, unstable. He made enemies quickly, among them the powerful Hakon Sigurdsson of Lade. In 970, Harald Bluetooth — the same Danish king who had sheltered the family for years — turned on him, luring him to a meeting in Denmark where he was ambushed and killed. The alliance that had rebuilt the dynasty was also the one that ended its strongest branch.
With Harald gone, power in Norway passed to Hakon Sigurdsson. Two of Gunnhild's surviving sons, Gudrod and Ragnfrod, fled with her once more, back to Orkney, still a family defined by exile as much as by rule.
A Dynasty Measured in Decades, Not Battles
What's remarkable about Eric's sons isn't that they won cleanly — they didn't, not really. It's how long the family stayed relevant. From Stainmore in 954 to Harald Greycloak's death in 970 is sixteen years of a defeated royal line refusing to disappear, fighting its way back to a throne, and losing it again. That's the real story behind "sons of Eric Bloodaxe" — not a single battle, but a multi-generational campaign that very nearly rewrote who ruled Norway.
Carry the History
👉 Eric Bloodaxe T-Shirt – Viking King of Norway & Northumbria
👉 Eric Bloodaxe Sweatshirt – Viking Warrior Crewneck
👉 Gunnhild T-Shirt – Norse Queen, Mother of Kings
👉 Eric Bloodaxe & Gunnhild Shirt – Viking King and Queen
Further reading: Gunnhild, Mother of Kings: The Woman Who Outlived Everyone — How Eric Bloodaxe Died: The Battle of Stainmore, 954 — Harald Fairhair: The Father Who United Norway