Styrbjorn
According to the Icelandic sagas, Styrbjörn the Strong ( Styrbjörn enn sterki ; * around 960; † 984 ) was the son of the Swedish King Olof II Björnsson . After the death of his father, his brother and co-regent Erik Segersäll denied him the claim to the Swedish throne and proclaimed it for his unborn son Olof Skötkonung .
History sources
Styrbjörn is first mentioned in history in a contemporary Lausavísa :
- Eigi vildu Jótar
- reiða gjald til skeiða,
- áðr Styrbjarnar stœði
- Strandar dýr á landi;
- nú's Danmarkar dróttinn
- í drengja lið genginn;
- landa vanr ok lýða
- lifir ánauðr hann auðar.
One can assume that there were once larger sagas about Styrbjörn. Most of the remaining material, however, is found in the short story Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa and in parts of the Eyrbyggja saga and the Hervarar saga . His name is also mentioned in the Heimskringla and the Yngvars saga víðförla , in which Ingvar the well-traveled is compared with his relative Styrbjörn.
In modern literature he appears as a hero in Eric Rucker Eddison's book Styrbjörn the Strong (1926) and is also mentioned as a heroic protagonist in Frans G. Bengtsson's The Adventures of Röde Orm (1941).
Summary
The following summary is based on the Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa .
youth
Styrbjörn was unusually tall, strong, and irrepressible (for a Viking), and although he was only a young boy, he managed to kill a courtier who accidentally hit him on the nose with a drinking horn.
Styrbjörn sulked for a long time when, after his father's death, he was denied co-reign over Sweden by his uncle Erik VIII .
When he was 16 years old, the Ting decided that he was too unruly to take the Swedish throne. Erik decided to hand over the throne to his own unborn child on the condition that it would become a boy. In return, his uncle gave him 60 well-equipped longships, whereupon the frustrated Styrbjörn snatched his sister Gyrid and disappeared.
Career
In the following years he went to the Viking and devastated settlements and cities on the shores of the Baltic Sea. When he was twenty, he found a sea warrior inclusion in the Jomsburg whose founder Palnetoke him one of the military leaders of the Jomsvikings chose her.
During his time as a Yomswiking, he became a close ally of the Danish King Harald Blauzahn and gave him his sister Gyrid as his wife. Styrbjörn in turn married Harald's daughter Tyra . Judging by the Nordic sources, Styrbjörn rescued the seriously wounded King Harald Blue Tooth from the sea battle of Helgenes , which probably took place around 986 on the island of Bornholm , and helped him with his ship to escape on the Pomeranian coast, to Jomsburg or Jumne .
The battle of Fýrisvellir
Harald gave Styrbjörn more warriors to support him, so that he was now able to recapture the Swedish throne. Styrbjörn sailed with a large force, which in addition to his Jomswikings consisted of 200 Danish ships. When they landed at Fyrisån in Uppland , Styrbjörn had all of his ships burned to make sure his warriors would fight to the end. The Danes were apparently uncomfortable with this and so they sailed back to Denmark .
So Styrbjörn and the Jomswikings went to Gamla-Uppsala alone . Erik had meanwhile learned of the impending invasion and had been sending reinforcements in all directions.
During the first two days the two armies seemed balanced and neither the Jomswikings nor the Swedes could bring about a decision. On the evening of the second day Erik went to the temple of Uppsala and made a sacrifice to Odin . He swore to his god that if he won the battle in his favor, his life would be his and he would arrive at Valhalla ten years after this day .
On the third day, Erik hurled his spear at the enemy and shouted, “I sacrifice all of you Odin !” Styrbjörn and his brothers-in-law were almost all left on the battlefield and died. With the military defeat in mind, only a few soldiers from Styrbjörn, including the Icelandic warrior and Yomswiking Björn Asbrandsson , managed to escape in a nearby forest and later by sea to the Pomeranian base Gau Jom .
Despite all the pros and cons of the historicity of Styrbjörn and the Battle of Alt-Uppsala , it is clear that this battle took place, in which the Swedes destroyed the invaders under Styrbjörn's leadership, but the exact time has not yet been clarified. Since Harald Blauzahn died on Pomeranian soil after Adam von Bremen Allerheiligen 985 or 986, Styrbjörn could not have invaded Sweden until shortly after the death of the Danish king, otherwise he would not have been able to save Harald from the sea battle in Pomerania .
Three rune stones commemorate the battle on Fyrisvellir, those of Hällestad and Sjörup in Schonen and Högby in Östergötland . Their inscriptions roughly correspond to the content of the later Icelandic sagas. The rune stone from Hällestad speaks of a Viking warrior Toke: "He did not flee near Uppsala", while Sjörup reports about another named Asbjörn: "He did not flee near Uppsala, but fought as long as he had weapons". And the Swedish Högby stone passed down from a warrior named Asmund Gullesson: "The brave Asmund fell at Fyris ... Torkil scratched the runes".
literature
- Wolfram zu Mondfeld : Viking trip. Culture guide Sweden - Gotland - Öland . Herford: Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft 1986. Runestones from Hällestad (p. 106f), Högby (p. 118) and Sjörup (p. 178).
- Lutz Mohr: The Jomswikinger. Myth or truth. Elmenhorst: POMMERCE EDITION 2009.
- Lutz Mohr : Dragon ships in the Pomeranian Bay. The Jomswikinger, their Jomsburg and the Gau Jom . (edition Rostock maritime). Edited by Robert Rosentreter . Rostock. Ingo Koch Verlag 2013. Chapter: Björn Asbrandsson - An Icelandic Jomswikinger in Pomerania, Sweden and the New World , pp. 156–163, ISBN 978-3-86436-069-5
- Thule . Old Norse poetry and prose. Second series, volume 19: The stories of the Orcades (Orkneyinga saga), Denmark (Knytlinga saga) and the Jomsburg (Jomsvikinga saga) . Edited by Felix Niedner , transferred by Walter Baetke . Jena: Eugen Diederichs Verlag 1924, chapter: The case of Styrbjörns the Strong , p. 224
Sources and Notes
- ↑ http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/skindex/dan.html
- ^ Lausavísur from Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa
- ↑ L. Mohr 2013, p. 156ff
- ^ Lutz Mohr : History of the Jomswikinger, the Jomsburg and the Gaues Jom in Pomerania. Doberlug-Kirchhain, Greifswald 2009, p. 61ff
- ↑ Quoted from Johannes Bröndsted: The great time of the Vikings . Translated from Danish by Karl Kersten. Wachholtz-Verlag, Neumünster, 1964, p. 167
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Styrbjorn |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Styrbjorn the Strong; Styrbjörn enn sterki |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Son of the Swedish King Olof II. Björnsson |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 960 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 984 |