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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-12 > 0849501218


From: "Peter E. Murray" <>
Subject: Danish Kings in 8th & 9th Centuries
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 23:33:38 -0500


I am grateful to Stewart Baldwin for sending me his earlier post on
the early Danish kings in the 8th-9th centuries (indeed a great
summary of the evidence for this period!). Thanks also to him and
others on what I can do to avoid missing some of the newsgroup
postings as had happened apparently on this one.

Some miscellaneous comments on looking through Stewart's summary
and another posting he made Nov 24 96:

Hugleik/Chocilaicus: It is highly unlikely that the Hugleik in
Beowulf was "based on" the Chocilaicus mentioned by Gregory of
Tours (c520). The two sources just happen to mention the same
person and event. There is an interesting conjecture that the
Wuffings of E.Anglia were descended from Wiglaf the Geat, kinsman
of Hugleik (Green C: Sutton Hoo, the Excavation of a Royal Ship
Burial).

Horik the elder: Horik's brother who d.814 was named Frotho
(however I am still looking for my source for this).

Sigifred: The Danish kings of the Great Army plundering on the
Continent from 878-892 were probably in this enterprise for years
at a time, which I think makes it unlikely that they were
territorial kings in Denmark -- at least in the case of Godfred and
Sigfred. Denmark appears to have been divided around this time,
and any king who went abroad for years at a time would not likely
have kept his kingdom for long.
In 882 the Danish army led by Godfred, Sigfred and Orm (in order of
seniority?) were induced to leave Esloo by means of 2900 pounds of
silver, while Godfred was installed as ruler of part of Frisia
subject to the emperor (Charles the Fat). But Godfred was murdered
in 885 at the instigation of Emp Charles. In 885-6 came the famous
year-long siege of Paris by Sigfred (now the sole leader of the
army that is mentioned). The basic details are from Gwyn Jones
"The Vikings", among others. So, Godfred didn't have a kingdom in
Denmark or he wouldn't have taken up residence in Frisia. And
Sigfred was with the army for years, so if a Sigfred was ruling in
Denmark at this period, it probably wasn't him. So when the death
of a Sigfred is recorded in 887 the wording of the record is
critically important for any hint that he was the king of the army
or a territorial king or both. If the record does not specifically
link this Sigfred to the army, then perhaps the Sigfred of the army
was the one killed in 891 still as king of the army (the annal of
891 should probably not be rejected simply because of the
coincidence of two common names unless there is other evidence as
well). Then the Sigfred who died in 887 then might indeed be the
king in Denmark previously mentioned in 873. I don't have access
to these annals, so does Stewart or someone else have the pertinent
exact wording and context of the annals of 887 and 891 relating to
Sigfred?

One hesitates to mention the undocumented "Sigurd Snake-eye" again,
but the fleeting mentions of him in the sagas would coincidentally
appear to place him just about at this time. For what it is worth,
he is said to have attacked no one and been attacked by no one,
lived long and died in his bed -- hardly a description of the
relentless campaigner in the land of the Franks, but a possible for
a separate king in Denmark.

Halfdan: As for the Halfdan, brother of Sigfred mentioned in the
873 annal, does the annal say precisely that he was in Denmark?
Halfdan was in fact an uncommon name in records or legends about
Danes (at home or abroad) around this time, although annals and
sagas seldom mention Denmark in this period, so it is hard to know.
It cannot be ruled out that the few mentions all refer to the same
person.

At least one Scandinavian source mentions Halfdan. This was the
Chronicle of Roskilde (another late source of course), in which it
appears that Gorm and Harde-Knud, sons of Svein, invaded Denmark
and killed king Halfdan whose realm they divided between them,
Denmark to Gorm and England to Harde-Knud. Starcke ("Denmark in
World History") thinks this is a memory of the expulsion of Halfdan
from his kingdom not in Denmark but in England in 876. There are
indications of the presence of a Horda-knut in Northumbria (but not
apparently in York) following Halfdan's expulsion. The same
circumstances tend to equate Harde-Knud's brother Gorm with Alfred
the Great's opponent Guthrum who displaced Halfdan in 875 as
principal leader of the Great Army's campaigns against Mercia and
Wessex. Halfdan had been more than just a transient war-leader,
perhaps ruling a part of the kingdom taken from (St) Edmund, since
he ("Alfdene Rx") apparently minted coins in London (only one of
which survives). So one wonders how happily Halfdan left the field
to Guthrum.

A book by AP Smyth, "Scandinavian Kings in the British Isles 850-
880" explored the career of Halfdan in detail. I haven't looked at
it for many years so I am not sure what he says on all this. Smyth
is one of the proponents of an historical Ragnar and his
conclusions on this and other issues are always controversial. But
however interpreted, no one else has pulled together all the
sources, both historical and legendary, to try to sort it all out.

Incidentally, Halfdan is not known to have left descendents; neither is
Guthrum; the sagas give supposed descents from "Sigurd Snake-eye"
(however credible or otherwise) including one from a dau who married a
"Helgi the Keen" (this marriage having links that have been of some
interest for testing the internal consistency --or lack!-- and supposed
approximate dating of the saga lines).

Peter

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