Sigurd Lavard

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Sigurd Sverresson Lavard (* probably in the Faroe Islands ; † 1200 ) was a chief of the Birkebeiner in the civil war between Birkebeinern and Baglers . He was mostly called "lávarðr" after the Anglo-Saxon word "hlâford", which can best be translated with the word "Crown Prince".

His father was King Sverre Sigurdsson , his mother is not known. He was the oldest son. Bjørgo believes that he came to Norway from the Faroe Islands with his father in 1176. As early as the 1190s he acted as a military leader with the Birkebeinern.

According to the Sverres saga, he was weak and fearful in battle, so that his father criticized him with unusually harsh and disparaging ways.

In 1193 Sigurd was a military leader of the Birkebeiner near Sarpsborg . In 1196 he was involved in fighting in Ranrike (in the historic province of Viken ), where he fled, for which he was scolded by his father. The criticism became even sharper on the occasion of a fight with the farmers in 1200 near Oslo . His judgment eventually became a disgrace to his family. This image then dominated historiography.

During excavations at Bryggen in Bergen , a runic letter written by Sigurd was found in the remains of the great fire of 1198. He wrote on behalf of the king, which indicates important tasks in the king's military supply. In the letter he gave the order to forge weapons from the pig iron that he sent along. He may also have ordered a longship for the king, but that is controversial. In return, he promised the recipient “Our true friendship now and forever”. The letter had an elegant style with courtly language and reliable spelling, which suggests a high level of education.

He died in 1200 and left behind his son Guttorm Sigurdsson , who was only a few months old and whom he had from a lover.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Runekjevle (rune log) registration number B 448
  2. ^ Aslak Liestøl: "Correspondence in Runes" in: Medieval Scandinavia , Vol. 1, 1968 pp. 17-27.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Sigurd Lavard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sigurd Sverresson Lavard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Faroe Islands
DATE OF DEATH 1200
Place of death Norway