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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2000-04 > 0954720122


From: "Brynjulf Langballe" <>
Subject: Re: ROGNVALDSSON, Rolf - 846 ?
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 02:02:02 +0200


Jo Rune Ugulen <> wrote in message
news:8c7n3d$22ik$1@toralf.uib.no...
> Brynjulf Langballe <> skrev i
> meldingsnyheter:ZdIF4.29747$...
> >The Icelandic "Landnmabok" traces Rolf's agnatic family:
> >1 Rolf
> >2 Ragnvald Earl of Mre
> >4 Eystein "Glumra" Earl of Oppland (South East Norway)
> >8 Ivar Earl of Oppland
>
> Orkneyinga saga continues this line and claims that Ivarr was the son of
the
> mythical Hlfdan gamli [i.e. the old]. This mythical figure can be found
as
> one of the ancestors of almost every version of the old Norwegian kings
> descent. Claus Krag (as has been mentioned earlier) suspects that we here
> can see a faint trace of a tradition regarding the Hunic king Huldin from
> the late 300's.

Hlfdan gamli seems to be the result of mixing similar names in the
Orkneyinga saga. Hlfdan Matille should fit better in. I do not remember
exactly, but does not Landnmabok have him in this position. I do not fully
agree in Claus Krag's trace. In my opinion we have to trace him further
back to the mid 200's, 4 generations before Huldin.

> >Eystein seems to have got control of the Mre area on the west coast of
> >Norway either by force or at least as an intruder from the eastern "Dane
> >area" of Norway.
>
> And which source are you referring to here?

How Eystein and Ragnvald came to power on the west coast of Norway should
not be of the greatest importance cencerning this matter, and I have not
pointed that out with any kind of strength. But there seems to be some
references in Heimskringla's Hkon the Good's saga (and Olav the Holy's
saga) saying that Eystein, ruler of the Opplands went north and conquered
parts of the area in Mid Norway and later expanded in the coastal area.
After that he was called Eystein "Sea-rider" back home in Oppland. He seems
to have lost his control of the Mre area, wich later was given back to his
son Earl Ragnvald by Harald Fairhair. The Icelandic sources about the
chieftain Skage Skopteson says that he fled from the Mre area and settled
down on Iceland after fights with Eystein. This fled of Skage is actually
some of the "evidence" for later research stretching Harald Fairhairs
qonquer of Norway forward from year 872.

It is interesting to notice that the landscape name Mre means something
like the "Ocean Land" or the "Sea Land." The French word for ocean "mer"
and in latin "mare"
have the same root. When old sources are talking about "riding the ocean".
this can be interpreted "rule Mre", or "rule West Norway" or even the full
modern Norway. In both Saxo and Beowulf this expression are used. On
some very old maps showing Norway, the country are named "Maurengania".
Gania seems to have greek roots meaning country. The name Norway is
allways? interpreted "The way up North". But if you are looking on the way
the name is in Norwegian, it is "Norge". The -ge seems to be a shortform of
"gania", and nor can mean something like "ocean gap" in old coastal
dialects. This interpretation of Norway will also be the "Ocean Land" and
makes it a synonym to Mre.

It seems like the two landscapes Norway and Denmark have been changing
during the last centuries of the first millenium. Norway has been expanding
from a coastal area to cover the full present country, and Denmark has been
decreasing from an interscandinavian power to a southern sub part.

Regards

Brynjulf Langballe, Oslo, Norway

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