Tyra Haraldsdatter

Tyra Haraldsdatter Þyri Haraldsdóttir (date and place of birth unknown, † September 18, 1000 ) was the daughter of Harald Blauzahn and lived in the 10th century. She married Olav Tryggvason of Norway and was Queen of Norway. After his death she disappears from history. Allegedly she refused to eat after his death and starved to death.

Life

Tradition made them play an important role in the events that led to Olav Tryggvason's death in the Battle of Svolder in 1000. The sources are considered to be strongly literary, which is why it is difficult to determine the historical facts. The sources also tell their story differently.

The oldest report comes from Adam von Bremen around 1070. According to him, she was a particularly haughty woman who incited her husband to war against Denmark. According to him, the battle in which Olav fell did not take place in Svolder, but in Øresund . But shortly before the description of the battle, Adam gives the reason for the war a new alliance between the Danish King Svend Tveskæg and the Swedish King Olof Skötkonung .

The oldest Norrønen texts from the 12th century are that she was initially engaged to a Wendish prince. But she refused the marriage, whereupon Sven Gabelbart refused to give her the dowry after marrying the Norwegian king. She then persuaded Olav to attack.

Snorri reports that Olav Tryggvason was initially married to Geira, the daughter of Prince Boleslav in Wendland, who was on friendly terms with Olav Tryggvason. But Geira died and Olav left Poland. Boleslav is said to have married Tyra, Sven Gabelbart's sister, some time later as part of an arrangement between the two of them. But after seven nights, Tyra fled to Norway. There she married Olav Tryggvason. A year later Olav promised to move to Boleslav in Wendland, with whom he was still on friendly terms, in order to reclaim the property of Tyra in Wendland. On the way near Svolder he was attacked and killed by his enemies King Sven Gabelbart, King Olof Skötkonung and the Norwegian Jarl Erik Håkonsson .

Snorri turned the roles around: Olav was no longer the attacker, but the attacked one. And the role of Tyra as the woman who incited the war was now taken over by Sigrid the proud , the wife of Sven Gabelbarts. She is said to have been deeply offended because Olav did not want to marry her as a pagan and even scolded her as a “pagan bitch”.

Saxo Grammaticus , however, reports that she was previously married to Styrbjörn the Strong , Erik Segersäll's brother . This Styrbjørn is mentioned in an Icelandic skald song. Its historical existence has not been proven. He is said to have been chief over the Jomsburg and defeated Harald Blauzahn and then received his daughter. Then he challenged the King of Sweden, but fell in the battle of Fyrisvall near Uppsala.

The Historia Norvegiae only reports that Olav Tryggvason married “sororem Sweinonis regis… Tyri”, but that she was promised “dux quidam de Sclauia”.

literature

• Halvdan Koht: Norske dronningar . 1926.
• Claus Krag: Tyra Haraldsdatter . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon ; Retrieved October 28, 2009.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tyra Haraldsdatter . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg, Eugen Fahlstedt (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape  30 : Tromsdalstind – Urakami . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1920, Sp. 536 (Swedish, runeberg.org ). According to Claus Krag, the exact date is unknown.