Eymundar þáttr hrings

Flateyjarbók

Eymundar þáttr hrings (German story by Eymundr ) is a short Nordic story ( Þáttr ) from the 13th century. It describes the power struggles for the Grand Duchy of Kiev and the Principality of Polotsk at the beginning of the 11th century.

The Eymundr saga is preserved in Flateyjarbók (around 1387/90). A story with a similar content is the introductory chapter in Ingvars saga víðförla .

Historical background

From 1015 Svyatopolk I was Grand Duke of Kiev. In 1017 his half-brother Yaroslav the Wise drove him away . Svjatopolk fled to Poland to Bolesław Chrobry . He recaptured Kiev and Swjatopolk became Grand Duke again. In 1019 Yaroslav conquered the city and became the new Grand Duke.

Nothing is known about Svyatoslav since then.

content

Around 1018, the Swedish Prince Emund arrived with 600 warriors in Novgorod near Yaroslav the Wise. He should support this in the fight for the Grand Duchy of Kiev, Kiev was conquered.

Then Emund should kill the ruler Burislav of Kiev. Before that he fled to Prince Brjatscheslav in Polotsk . Now Jaroslaw tried to kill Emund. He attacked Polotsk. His wife Ingegerd brokered a peace agreement between the two sides: Yaroslav should remain Grand Duke, Brjatscheslav also rule in Kiev (as regent?), Emund was given its own domain.

Bryacheslav died. Emund died at a young age.

Harald II fled (1028) from Norway to Ingegerd in Novgorod.

Places and names

• Garðaríki = Gardarike , Kievan Rus
• Kænugarðr = Kiev
• Hólmgarðr = Novgorod
• Palteskju = Polotsk
• Aldeigjuborg = Ladoga

• Búrizlafr = Bolesław Chrobry , Duke of Poland , ally of Svyatopolk I , but the depiction is more in line with the historical Svyatopolk.
• Jarizleifr = Yaroslav the Wise
• Ingigerðr = Ingegerd of Sweden
• Valdimar = Vladimir the Great , Grand Duke of Kiev
• Vartilafr = Brjatschislav , Prince of Polotsk

• Eymundr Hringsson = Emund, Prince, son of Hringr, Prince of Hringarike in Uppland in Sweden
• Ragnarr Agnarsson = Ragnar, Jarl, relative and companion of Emund
• Rögnvaldr Úlfsson = Ragnvald , Jarl of Västergötland , relative of Ingegerd, since 1019 their governor in Ladoga

swell

Eymundar þáttr hrings . In: Flateyjarbók ( Óláfs ​​saga helga )

• in Corpus Codicum Islandicorum Medii Aevi , Volume 1: Flateyjarbók . Copenhagen 1930 (old Icelandic) ulver.com

Text version in Ingvars saga víðförla

• Old Icelandic online
• English part 1 , 2

literature

• J. de Vries: Old Norse literary history . Volume 2. 2nd edition. Berlin 1967, p. 304.
• Rudolf Simek , Hermann Pálsson : Lexicon of old Norse literature. The medieval literature of Norway and Iceland (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 490). 2nd, significantly increased and revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-520-49002-5 , p. 93.
• Omeljan Pritsak : The origin of Rus . Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Cambridge MA 1981, ISBN 0-674-64465-4 (author of a Russian translation of Eymundar þáttr hrings ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bolesław only conquered Kiev in 1018