Trondheim is the earliest proper name for the settlements on both shores of the great, wide fjord. It is said to mean the land (home) of fertile growth. From this name came the people's name "Trønder" and these names are believed to be about 1500 years old. In the sagas it is said that Trondheim has always been the nation's capital and when Harald
Hårfagre had taken Trondheim, he called it his home because it was the finest place he had won. In the beginning of that era we call the historic period in Norway, that is to say the end of the viking period, Trondheimen was a well organized legal district, Trøndelagen. That word actually means the Trønders law region.
   As it first appears in the sagas, Trøndelag consisted of 8 small "fylker" gathered around the fjord, each with its chieftain, its cult centre and its assembly place. These fylker were situated along the fjord in from its mouth at Agdenes and were divided into two main groups, the in-trønder and the out-trønder fylker. The four in-trønder were:
   1) Sparbyggjafylki - the now Stenkjer and Snåsa.
   2) Eynafylki - the now Beitstad, Inderøy and Verran.
   3) Verdølafylki - the now Verdal.
   4) Skeynafylki - the now Skogn, Ytterøy and Mosvik.
The four out-trønder were:
   1) Stjørdølafylki - the now Stjørdal, Meråker, Klæbu Selbu and Tydal.
   2) Strindafylki - the now Strinda, Leksvik, Frosta and Åsen.
   3) Gauldølafylki - all the Gauldal valley.
   4) Orkdølafylki - all of the Orkla valley with Børsa, Skaun and Byneset.
    Some of these divisions have been changed in recent years. Each of these two groups had a joint assembly place and cult centre. The common assembly for the out-trønders was at Øra, at the mouth of the Nid river
and at nearby Lade was the common cult centre. The name Lade means loading place and here was an important trading place, such that the area of the river mouth (Nidaros) became, politically, religiously and economically, the mid-point for all of Trøndelagen. The in-trønders had a common cult centre, similar to Lade, at Mære in Sparbu.
 Both in the what the sagas tell about Trøndelag and in the information provided in other ways, e.g. buried finds and other cultural evidence, it seems that Trøndelag was a link in a large social  continuity, a "kingdom" if one wishes, that stretched from Trondheimsfjorden eastward through Jämtland to Uppland in Sweden.
   That the oldest Trøndelag did not stretch further west than Agdenes suggests that the oldest society around Trondheimsfjord was a sort of inland kingdom that did not have its interests westward to the sea, but lived off the agriculture in the inner fjord and the most important communication was eastward to Sweden. This impression is strengthened when one notes that, particularly in Trøndelag, there is found relatively little of the viking goods from the British Isles as are so commonly found in other parts of the Norwegian coast. They are found in Vestlandet and re-appear again in Namdalen, but the Trøndelag does not seem to be a viking community in the sense that they took part in viking raids in the west.
   There is much evidence that Trøndelagen was tied to the routes eastward. In Sweden, in pre-history times, a lively trade connection far to the south and especially through the island of Gotland in the Baltic sea. Buried in the ground in Gotland there are found large quantities of old Arabic coins. This Arabic money, called kufic coins, are also found
in greater quantities in Trøndlagen and north of the Dovre mountains much more than elsewhere in Norway.
   In this conection, it is interesting to note that the linguists who have studied dialects in Norway and Sweden have concluded that north Swedish, Finland Swedish and Estonian Swedish must belong to the Norwegian dialect region. Therefore, one must conclude that the Trønders originally belonged to a society that stretched from Trondheimsfjorden through Sweden and around the Gulf of Bothnia. Not surprising, when one considers that the high and wild Dovre mountains presented a much more  formidable barrier than the low and mostly forested Kjølen mountains toward Sweden.
   Trøndelag differed in many ways from the lands south of Dovre. In the early saga period we find in Østlandet a society that was divided in small portions, each with their petty king and these kings had little to do with one another. On the other hand in Trøndelag we find a firmly bound larger society. This was a sort of farmer republic.
   Over time the union became changed. The out-Trønders and In-Trønders agreed on a single law region with its assembly at Øra - the Øreting.The union was also expanded when Namdalen and Bindalen in the north and Fosen and Nordmøre in the south joined and a new assembly was establishe at Lagatun (Logtu) the Frostating. This was a much bigger area, now with 12 fylker. The original 8 maintained a sort of seniority and had their own special assembly in the Øreting as well as the common one, the Frostating. Even later the Øreting was where the Trønders proclaimed their kings.
   There is an impression that the Trønders lived in happy isolation, but it is not really so. This was a hierarchical society with a chieftain in each "fylki" backed by great farmers, leseer farmers, tenants and thralls (serfs) They traded goods with the Baltic in the east and Frisian traders from the west. The latter were looking for furs (especially ermine), eiderdown, walrus ivory and hides and particularly the superb ropes made from walrus hide.
   Most of these goods were obtained further north in Haalogaland
(modern Nordland and Troms) and local cheiftains got into the trading to the south. One of these chieftains, Grotgard Herlaugsson of Aamd in the Vesterålen islands achieved a sort of overlordship of the whole area and was known as Haaløygjajarl (Earl of Haalogaland) and in order to protect the sea routes became master of the approaches to Trondheimsfjord by 850 A.D. His son Håkon Grotgardsson moved to Lade as a chieftain and became master of ceremonies at the temple there. This was achieved rather peacefully since the aims of the Trønders were the same as his. He became known as Håkon Ladejarl.
   There is no doubt that Håkon harboured ambitions further south along the coast but events changed that. Harald I Hårfagre had united the petty kingdoms around Vest Agder and marched north over the Dovre to meet with Håkon. They came to the agreement that Håkon recognized Harald as king but that he would remain Ladejarl of the coast from Tromsø to Molde. This freed up Harald to deal with Vestlandet with the help of Håkon. Harald also married Håkon's daughter Aasa.
   In the longer view, Harald had bolstered up the strongest challengers to his Yngling dynasty, set a barrier across his descendants' way to the unification of Norway, and ensured a more or less independent status for the Trønders, who would long remain the most rebellious and uncooperative section of the Norwegian realm.