The January issue of History Today includes an article by Synnøve Veinan Hellerud on Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri. Synnøve Veinan Hellerud, author of Oslo, a Thousand-Year History, explains that Hákon I, or Haakon the Good, nicknamed “Athelstan’s foster-son”, strove to make Norway more like his mentor’s realm, a well-organised Christian kingdom. Hákon was the youngest son of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, and brother of Eric Bloodaxe, and despite scant historical evidence, it is believed that he was brought up in England at the court of King Athelstan. In 930 Hákon returned to Norway as king, ruling as the first Norwegian Christian king until his death in 961.
There is no known portrait of the adult Hákon
so the author of the article has used the frontispiece to the
Parker Library MS of Bede’s Life of Saint Cuthbert,
where Athelstan presents the saint with a copy of the Life.