In the year 866 AD, King Herald Fairhair sought to unify Norway under his rule. So he set out on a quest of conquest to enforce the petty kings who ruled small territories along the Norwegian coast to yield to him. A unified country was a strong country. Herald conquered ten kingdoms along the coast of Norway, leaving behind slaughter and dead kings.

When Herald Fairhair journeyed to the farthest area of northern Norway to the district of Naumudal, he planned to make the two kings, Herlaug and Hrollaug, bow to him. King Herlaug, though, had refused to ever surrender.

He gathered eleven companions and some food and ale, and they all entered a burial mound. When he, his companions, and his finite store of food and drink were in the burial mound, Herlaug had the tomb sealed shut. Herlaug decided to die as a king rather than surrender to a foe he could not beat.

Snorri Sturluson, twelfth century Icelandic poet, historian, politician