GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1998-03 > 0888751919


From: "Frank H. Johansen" <>
Subject: Re: Haithabu (was: Link between Charlemagne and Holy Roman Empire)
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 12:31:59 +0100


Stewart Baldwin wrote:

> wrote:
>
> >In Paul Theroff's files referring to the kings of the Haithabu, I find the
> >following information:
>
> > Godefrid, 15th King of Haithabu, oldest son of Harald Klak, murdered
> > 885/6, married 882 Gisela, daughter of Emperor Lothar II; had daughter
> > Reinhilde, died 917, married ca. 900 Dietrich II of Saxony.
>
> >Theroff also seems to have a lot of information not mentioned in some previous
> >discussions of Danish/Scandinavian kings. I don't know his sources (or
> >credentials <g>).
>
> Paul Theroff's source was Schwennicke's Europaische Stammtafeln, which
> is usually a pretty good source, but blundered completely in this
> "Haithabu" table, which should never have been included. Indeed,
> although Hedeby (Haithabu) was an important commercial center during
> the period, there is, to my knowledge, no evidence whatsoever that
> there ever was a "kingdom" named Haithabu. The "Haithabu" table in
> Schwennicke is a curious attempt to combine the Danish kings mentioned
> in contemporary sources with Norwegian kings from the sagas. Some of
> the kings given in the "Haithabu" chart were in fact historical, and
> were referred to as kings of the Danes in the contemporary Frankish
> chronicles, but the relationships given in the tables cannot be
> trusted.

There was never a "kingdom of Haithabu" (or Hedeby, as it was called in Norse). It
was the mightiest king (kind of high-king) in the area that controlled Haithabu.
This Goddfried was probably the same as the Norwegian King Gudröd. It was probably
written Gothred, wich the Germans easily adopted as Godfried. This
Gothred/Gudröd/Godfried probably controlled most of south-eastern Norway, the
west-coast of Sweden (were the Danes actually lived) and lands both in northern
Jutland and southern Jutland (wich later was called Schleswig). His son by a local
Norwegian woman, Halvdan the Black, became father of the first King of Norway,
Harold the Fairhaired. His son by the daughter of the last "High-King" of this
area, Hárekr, became King in Jutland. In the Danish chronicles he's called Erik
(Hárekr-Erikr-Erik). A third son became king of the most southern part of Norway
(Agder) and was possible an agnatic ancestor of the Kings of Dublin. A fourth son
was possibly an agnatic ancestor of the Earls of the Orkneys and the Dukes of
Normandy (wich in the Norwegian Saga's was kalled "Ruda-Jarl" wich means "Earl of
Ruda (Rouen)"

Frank H. Johansen

This thread: