Norwegians discovered Iceland in ca. 870 and within sixty years the island had been divided among four hundred chieftains.[16] Led by Erik the Red, a group of Norwegians settled on Greenland in the 980s. His son, Leif Ericson, discovered Newfoundland in ca. 1000, naming it Vinland. Unlike Greenland, no permanent settlement was established there.[17]
In the mid-9th century the largest chieftains of the petty kingdoms started a major power struggle. Harald Fairhair started the process of unifying Norway when he entered an alliance with the Earls of Lade and was able to unify the country after the decisive Battle of Hafrsfjord.[17] He set up the very basics of a state administration with stewards in the most important former chieftain estates. His son Håkon the Good, who assumed the crown in 930, established two large things, Gulating for Western Norway and Frostating for Trøndelag, in which the king met with the freemen to make decisions. He also established the ledang, a conscription-based military. After his death in 960, war broke out between the Fairhair dynasty and the Earls of Lade in alliance with Danish kings.[18]