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Dan (or Halfdan) is the name of one or more of the legendary earliest kings of the Danes and Denmark, as mentioned in medieval Scandinavian texts.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2019) |
Dan (or Halfdan) is the name of one or more of the legendary earliest kings of the Danes and Denmark, as mentioned in medieval Scandinavian texts.
The Chronicle of Lejre ( Chronicon Lethrense ), written around 1170, introduces a primeval King Ypper of Uppsala, whose three sons were Dan, who later ruled Denmark; Nori, who later ruled Norway; and Østen, who later ruled the Swedes. Dan apparently first ruled in Zealand, as the Chronicle states that it was when he saved his people from an attack by Emperor Augustus that the Jutes and the men of Fyn and Scania also accepted him as king. Consequently, the resulting expanded country of Denmark was named after him. Dan's wife was named Dana, and his son was named Ro.
The Eddic poem Rígsthula [1] tells how the god Ríg (said to be Heimdall) fathered a mortal son named Jarl. Jarl had twelve sons with Erna Herse's daughter, the youngest of whom was named Kon the Young (Old Norse Konr Ungr). This name is understood to be the origin of the title konungr ('king'), although the etymology is, in fact, untenable. One day, while hunting and snaring birds in the forest, a crow spoke to him and suggested that he would gain more by going after men, praising the wealth of "Dan and Danp." The poem breaks off incomplete at that point.
According to Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin epitome of the lost Skjöldungasaga, made in 1597:
Ríg (Rigus) was a man not the least among the great ones of his time. He married the daughter of a certain Danp [Old Norse Danpr], lord of Danpsted, whose name was Dana; and later, having won the royal title for his province, left as his heir his son by Dana, called Dan or Danum, all of whose subjects were called Danes.
This tradition is similar to that of the Rígsthula.
This Dan married Olof, the daughter of Wermund, and thus became brother-in-law to Offa of Angel, mentioned in the Old English poem Beowulf . Dan initially ruled in Jutland but later conquered Zealand from King Aleif, creating the kingdom of Denmark.
Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga saga relates the story of King Dygvi of Sweden:
Dygvi's mother was Drótt, a daughter of King Danp, the son of Ríg, who was first called konungr ['king'] in the Danish tongue [(Old Norse)]. His descendants always afterwards considered the title of konungr the title of highest dignity. Dygvi was the first of his family to be called konungr, for his predecessors had been called dróttinn ['chieftain'], and their wives dróttning, and their court drótt ['war band']. Each of their race was called Yngvi, or Ynguni, and the whole race together Ynglingar. Queen Drótt was a sister of King Dan Mikilláti, from whom Denmark took its name.
Here, Ríg is the father of Danp, who is the father of Dan. The title Mikilláti can be translated as 'Magnificent' or 'Proud'.
Snorri does not clarify whether this Dan is also descended from King Fridfrodi, or Peace-Fróði, whom Snorri presents as ruling in Zealand as a contemporary of Fjölnir, son of Frey, six generations before King Dygvi. Snorri writes further:
In the time when the kings we have been speaking of were in Uppsala, Denmark had been ruled over by Dan Mikilláti, who lived to a very great age; then by his son, Fróði Mikilláti, or the Peace-loving, who was succeeded by his sons Halfdan and Fridleif, who were great warriors.
This peaceful Fróði appears to be a duplicate of the earlier Fróði.
In his preface to the Heimskringla (which includes the Ynglinga saga), Snorri writes:
The Age of Cairns began properly in Denmark after Dan Mikilláti had raised for himself a burial cairn, and ordered that he should be buried in it on his death, with his royal ornaments and armour, his horse and saddle-furniture, and other valuable goods; and many of his descendants followed his example. But the burning of the dead continued, long after that time, to be the custom of the Swedes and Northmen.
The 12th-century historian Sven Aagesen mentions Danu Elatus, 'the Proud,' presumably Dan Mikilláti, and makes him the successor to Uffi, that is, Offa, son of Wermund, thus agreeing with the Skjöldungasaga. He states that this Dan was such a powerful king that he had another king as his page and two nobles to hold his horse.
Saxo Grammaticus, in his Gesta Danorum, presents three different Danish monarchs named Dan, either splitting a single monarch into multiple figures or properly distinguishing those whom others have confused.
Saxo begins his history with two brothers named Dan and Angul, sons of one Humbli, who were made rulers by the consent of the people because of their bravery. However, they were not referred to as 'kings,' as that usage was not common at the time.
Angul is the eponym of the region of Angul, and from his people eventually came the English, who gave their name to England. Dan fathered two sons, Humblus and Lotherus, by his wife Grytha.
Neither son is otherwise known, although a king named Humli is a leader of the Huns in the Old Norse Battle of the Goths and Huns . Lotherus may have some relation to the Norse god Lóðurr or to the exiled king Heremod mentioned in Beowulf, or possibly to both. According to Saxo, Lotherus is the father of the famous hero Skioldus.
The second king called Dan appears much later in Book 4 as the son of Uffi, son of Vermund (that is, Offa of Angel, son of Wermund). However, Saxo mentions him only briefly, describing him as a warlike king who scorned his subjects and squandered his wealth, having greatly degenerated from his ancestors.
He is succeeded by King Huglek, followed by Fróði the Active, and then by the third Dan. Saxo does not specifically provide the parentage of any of these kings. Of this Dan, Saxo recounts only an anecdote: when Dan was twelve years old and tired of the arrogance of Saxon ambassadors who demanded tribute under the threat of war, he bridged the river Elbe with ships, crossed over, and won a great victory.
This Dan is the father of Fridlef, who is the father of Frothi. In this lineage, one can recognize Fridleif and his son Fróði, both of whom are often mentioned in Norse sources. The latter, at least by parentage, is the Peace-Fróði introduced by Snorri early in the Ynglinga saga.
The 'Song of Eric' was once considered a valuable source for Migration Period history but is now regarded as inauthentic fakelore created during the 16th century.
The ballad deals with Eric, the first king of Geatland (fyrsti konunger i Götalandinu vidha). He sent a troop of Geats southward to a country named Vetala, where no one had yet cultivated the land. Accompanying them was a wise man who was to uphold the law. Eventually, a king named Humli appointed his son Dan to rule the settlers, and after Dan, Vetala was named Denmark .
The song was first published in a Latin translation in Johannes Magnus's Historia de omnibus gothorum sueonumque regibus (1554). He states that the original song was widely sung in Sweden at that time.
Offa is a semi-legendary king of the Angles in the genealogy of the kings of Mercia presented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He is the son of Wermund and the father of Angeltheow. His name is also mentioned in the Old English poem Widsith. He has been identified with Uffo, a legendary Danish king in the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus.
Old Norse Yngvi, Old High German Ing/Ingwi and Old English Ing are names that relate to a theonym which appears to have been the older name for the god Freyr. Proto-Germanic Ingwaz was the legendary ancestor of the Ingaevones, or more accurately Ingvaeones, and is also the reconstructed name of the Elder Futhark rune ᛜ and Anglo-Saxon rune ᛝ, representing ŋ.
Fróði is the name of a number of legendary Danish kings in various texts including Beowulf, Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda and his Ynglinga saga, Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, and the Grottasǫngr. A Danish king by this name also appears as a minor character in the Middle High German epic Rabenschlacht. The name is possibly an eponym for the god Freyr.
The Ynglings were a dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem Ynglingatal. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings in Beowulf. When Beowulf and Ynglingatal were composed sometime in the eighth to tenth centuries, their respective authors expected their audience to have a great deal of background information about these kings, which is shown in the allusiveness of the references.
Various gods and men appear as sons of Odin in Old Norse and Old English texts.
Jorund or Jörundr was a Swedish king of the House of Yngling. He was the son of Yngvi, and he had reclaimed the throne of Sweden for his dynasty from Haki.
Alaric and Eric, according to legend, were two kings of Sweden.
In Norse mythology, Dyggvi or Dyggve was a Swedish king of the House of Ynglings. Dyggvi died and became the concubine of Hel, Loki's daughter. Dyggvi was succeeded by his son Dag the Wise. According to Snorri Sturluson, Dyggvi was the nephew of Dan, the eponymous ancestor of Denmark, through his sister Drott, and was the first to be called King by his family.
In Norse mythology, the Swedish king Domar of the House of Ynglings was the son of Domalde. He was married to Drott, the sister of Dan the Arrogant who gave his names to the Danes. Drott and Dan are in this work said to be the children of Danp son of Ríg.
Fjölnir is a legendary king in Norse mythology said to have been the son of Freyr (Frey) and his consort Gerðr (Gertha). The name appears in a variety of forms, including Fiolnir, Fjölner, Fjolner, and Fjolne. He was claimed as the progenitor of the Swedish Yngling dynasty, reigning from Gamla Uppsala. According to the Grottasöngr, Fjölnir lived from the 1st century BC to the early 1st century AD.
The Scyldings or Skjǫldungs, both meaning "descendants of Scyld/Skjǫldr", were, according to legends, a clan or dynasty of Danish kings, that in its time conquered and ruled Denmark and Sweden together with part of England, Ireland and North Germany. The name is explained in many texts, such as Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann's 'Research on the Field of History', by the descent of this family from an eponymous king Scyld, but the title is sometimes applied to rulers who purportedly reigned before him, and the supposed king may be an invention to explain the name. There was once a Norse saga on the dynasty, the Skjöldunga saga, but it survives only in a Latin summary by Arngrímur Jónsson.
Halfdan was a late 5th and early 6th century legendary Danish king of the Scylding (Skjöldung) lineage, the son of king named Fróði in many accounts, noted mainly as the father to the two kings who succeeded him in the rule of Denmark, kings named Hroðgar and Halga in the Old English poem Beowulf and named Hróar and Helgi in Old Norse accounts.
Halga, Helgi, Helghe or Helgo was a legendary Danish king living in the early 6th century. His name would in his own language (Proto-Norse) have been *Hailaga.
Rígsþula or Rígsmál is an Eddic poem, preserved in the manuscript, in which a Norse god named Ríg or Rígr, described as "old and wise, mighty and strong", fathers the social classes of mankind. The prose introduction states that Rígr is another name for Heimdall, who is also called the father of mankind in Völuspá. However, there seems to be some confusion of Heimdall and Odinn, see below.
Wermund, Vermund or Garmund is an ancestor of the Mercian royal family, a son of Wihtlaeg and father of Offa. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes him a grandson of Woden, but the Gesta Danorum written by Saxo Grammaticus goes no further than his father, while the Brevis Historia Regum Dacie of Sven Aggesen makes Wermund son of king Frothi hin Frokni.
The Angles were a dominant Germanic tribe in the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, and gave their name to the English, England and to the region of East Anglia. Originally from Angeln, present-day Schleswig-Holstein, a legendary list of their kings has been preserved in the heroic poems Widsith and Beowulf, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Af Upplendinga konunum is a short tale of the Norwegian part of the so-called Yngling. The saga consists of two short chapters in just over one book page, and is reproduced in Hauksbók. Af Upplendinga konunum does not exist in other manuscripts. The author is unknown, but he probably had a common source with Snorri Sturluson. Af Upplendinga konunum appears to be a simplified and shortened version of Snorri's far more famous Ynglinga Saga, but one does not think Snorri is the source for the author of About Uplanders kings . Rather, it seems that the Af Upplendinga konunum is somewhat older than Snorri's Ynglinga Saga.
Fróði's Peace is a semi-legendary period of peace throughout Northern Europe that is referenced in Nordic mythology, skaldic poetry and historical accounts.