Halvdan Svarte

Map of the small kingdoms in Norway at the time of Halfdan. His domain is marked in red.

Hálvdan svarte (Halvdan the black, after his dark hair; father of Harald Hårfagre ) (* about 810; † about 860) was the son of the Ynglinge king Guðrøðr veiðikonungr (king of the hunt) and of his second wife Ása, daughter of the king of Agdir , Haraldr hinn granrauði.

Halvdan's family

After Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla , the small king of southern Norway refused to give Guðrøðr his daughter as a wife. He then drove south with his army. In the battle Haraldr fell with his son. Ása was continued as the Yngling's wife. When her son Hálvdan was one year old, she is said to have had her husband murdered in vengeance. She moved with her son to Agdir, where he grew up.

His life

At the age of 18 he took over the rule of Agdir , shortly afterwards he is said to have shared power over the Norwegian Ynglinge Empire with his half-brother Óláfr Geirstaðaálfr. Hálvdan received the south with Agdir, Óláfr the east with Vestfold. After the death of his half-brother, Hálvdan gained power as king. He undertook several campaigns against the petty kings of Vingulmörk, Raumaríki , Heiðmörk , Gudbrandsdal , Toten and Hadaland. He also successfully raised claims to the homeland of his deceased first wife, Sogn in western Norway . Thus he ruled the east and south of the country and parts of the west. His second wife, Ragnhildr, was the daughter of the King of Ringerike . With her he had the son Harald, who was then called Haraldr hárfagri (Harald Fairhair).

His death

Snorri Sturluson tells of Hálvdan's death that he crossed the frozen Rönd ( Randsfjord ) on a return trip from Hadaland in the spring . He and his entourage broke in and died - at the age of 40. Because fertility was associated with his rule, the body was divided and these parts were buried in several burial mounds: in Raumariki, Vestfold, Heiðmörk, his head in Steinn in Hringariki. Snorri describes a funerary custom that is more reminiscent of his contemporary Christian worship of relics than that it might have corresponded to a pagan custom of the 9th century . This is all the more true as z. B. Sæmundur Froði writes that Halvdan got a tumulus in Ringerike. Snorri could not deviate from this; therefore it remains with the Fagrskinna that he was at least partially buried there. Snorri agrees with this younger version and also invents an explanation for the fact that the four regions wanted the king for themselves, so that the division represented the solution to this dispute.

Halvdan in literature

The Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson, Ágrip, Fagrskinna and Hálfdanar Þáttr svarta tell of the reign of King Hálvdan in the high medieval Icelandic saga literature , who, however, uses fabulous fables. The Heimskringla is the main source. It dedicates its own little saga to the king as the first individual ruler, the Hálfdanar saga svarta. It is preceded by the mythical-prehistoric Ynglinga saga . The Haralds saga hárfagra is followed by a longer text about the historically guaranteed Norwegian unifier.

Hálvdan can be described more precisely historically. After the Heimskringla , his second wife Ragnhildr was a granddaughter of the Danish king Harald Klak , whom the Frankish imperial annals mention and who is believed to have died a few years after 840. The sister of her mother is the Danish Queen Thyra Danabot , the wife of King Gormr hinn gamli ( Gorm the Old ) and mother of the future King Haraldr blátönn ( Harald Blue Tooth ) of Denmark . If one adds that one believes to be able to recognize Princess Hálvdan's mother Ása, who was buried in the ship grave of Oseberg in the first half of the 9th century , the predecessor Harald Fairhair's predecessor Harald Fairhair comes to a relatively reliable chronological classification around the middle of the 9th century. He is believed to have died after 860. The observation of the Skálda valley that the skald Guttormr sindri also wrote a drápa on Hálvdan, which, however, has not survived, complements the historical contours of this Norwegian king from the Ynglinge family.

literature

• Arnvid Lillehammer, Stein-Morten Omre: Aschehoug's Norgeshistory. Volume 2: Claus Krag: Vikingtid og rikssamling. 800-1130 . Aschehoug, Oslo 1995, ISBN 82-03-22015-0 .