Gyrid of Sweden | |
---|---|
Queen consort of Denmark | |
Reign | 980s |
Spouse | Harald I of Denmark |
House | House of Munsö (by birth) House of Denmark (by marriage) |
Father | Olof Björnsson |
Mother | Ingeborg Thrandsdotter |
Gyrid Olafsdottir of Sweden, also called Gyritha [1] or perhaps Gunnhild (10th-century), according to legends was a Swedish princess and a Danish queen consort as the spouse of King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark.
In the sagas, Gyrid was the daughter of King Olof Björnsson of Sweden and Queen Ingeborg Thrandsdotter.
According to several sagas, her brother, Prince Styrbjörn Starke, accompanied her to Denmark in order to arrange her marriage to Harald Bluetooth. Styrbjörn Starke in turn married Tyra (Tyri Haraldsdatter), who was a daughter of Harald Bluetooth.
After the death of King Harald (around 985), nothing more is recorded about Gyrid.
The Danish historians Arild Huitfeldt (1603) [1] and Jakob Langebek (1772) [2] record Gyrid/Gyritha as one of the two wives of Harald Bluetooth - the other being Thora (Tófa ?).
Sweyn Forkbeard was King of Denmark from 986 until his death, King of England for five weeks from December 1013 until his death, and King of Norway from 999/1000 until 1013/14. He was the father of King Harald II of Denmark, King Cnut the Great, and Queen Estrid Svendsdatter.
Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson was a king of Denmark and Norway.
Jomsborg or Jómsborg was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants were known as Jomsvikings. Jomsborg's exact location, or its existence, has not yet been established, though it is often maintained that Jomsborg was located on the eastern outlet of the Oder river. Historian Lauritz Weibull dismissed Jomsborg as a legend.
Eric the Victorious was a Swedish monarch as of around 970. Although there were earlier Swedish kings, he is the first Swedish king in a consecutive regnal succession, who is attested in sources independent of each other, and consequently Sweden's list of rulers usually begins with him. His son Olof Skötkonung, however, is considered the first ruler documented to definitely have been accepted both by the original Swedes around Lake Mälaren and by the Geats around Lake Vättern. Adam of Bremen reports a king named Emund Eriksson before Eric, but it is not known whether he was Eric's father. The Norse sagas' accounts of a Björn Eriksson are considered unreliable.
Sigrid the Haughty, also known as Sigrid Storråda (Swedish), is a Scandinavian queen appearing in Norse sagas. Sigrid is named in several late and sometimes contradictory Icelandic sagas composed generations after the events the stories describe, but there is no reliable, historical evidence attesting to the veracity of her depiction in those tales. She is reported by Heimskringla to have been the wife of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, as being sought after by Olaf Tryggvasson, and then married to Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. In other writings, however, author Snorri Sturluson says that Sweyn the Dane was married not to Sigrid but some other woman.
Ivar Vidfamne was a semi-legendary king of Denmark, who originated in Scania. He apparently died circa 700 CE, in Karelia, at a place called Karjálabotnar, which may have been the modern Kurkiyoki, in Lakhdenpokhsky District of Russia.
Harald Wartooth or Harold Hiltertooth was a semi-legendary king of Denmark who is mentioned in several traditional sources. He is held to have (indirectly) succeeded his father as king of Zealand and to have expanded his realm. According to different sources, he may have ruled over Jutland, part of Sweden and the historical northern German province of Wendland. He is said to have been finally defeated and killed at the legendary Battle of Bråvalla.
Olof Björnsson, in legend, was a Swedish king who was referenced in several Old Norse Sagas including Hervarar saga, Saga of Harald Fairhair and the Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa. Reconstructions that place him as a historical king date his reign to c. 970 – c. 975.
Styrbjörn the Strong according to late Norse sagas was a son of the Swedish king Olof, and a nephew of Olof's co-ruler and successor Eric the Victorious, who defeated and killed Styrbjörn at the Battle of Fyrisvellir. As with many figures in the sagas, doubts have been cast on his existence, but he is mentioned in a roughly contemporaneous skaldic poem about the battle. According to legend, his original name was Björn, and Styr-, which was added when he had grown up, was an epithet meaning that he was restless, controversially forceful and violent.
Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, also called Githa, was a Danish noblewoman. She was the wife of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and the mother of King Harold Godwinson and Edith of Wessex, the latter of whom was the queen consort of King Edward the Confessor.
Thorgils Sprakalegg was a Danish nobleman whose children were active in the politics of Denmark and England in the early 11th century and who was grandfather of kings of both nations. Little is recorded about Thorgils in historical texts outside of his place in the genealogy of his children or grandchildren. Thorgils' cognomen Sprakalägg can be translated into English as "Break-leg" or "Strut-leg".
Sigurd Snake-in-the-eye or Sigurd Ragnarsson was a semi-legendary Viking warrior and Danish king active from the mid to late 9th century. According to multiple saga sources and Scandinavian histories from the 12th century and later, he is one of the sons of the legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok and Áslaug. His historical prototype might have been the Danish King Sigfred who ruled briefly in the 870s. Norwegian kings' genealogies of the Middle Ages name him as an ancestor of Harald Fairhair and used his mother's supposed ancestry to Völsung in order to create an ancestry between Harald and his descendants and Odin.
Haakon Sigurdsson, known as Haakon Jarl, was the de facto ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995. Sometimes he is styled as Haakon the Powerful, though the Ágrip and Historia Norwegiæ give the less flattering name Hákon Illi, that is, Haakon the Bad.
The Jomsvikings were a legendary order of Viking mercenaries or conquerors of the 10th and 11th centuries. Though reputed to be staunchly dedicated to the worship of the Old Norse gods, they would allegedly fight for any lord who could pay their substantial fees, even if they may be Christian. The institution of the Jomsvikings would itself foreshadow those of the later religious and chivalric orders of the Middle Ages.
Ulf Thorgilsson, commonly known as Ulf Jarl or Earl Ulf, was a Danish jarl of Skåne and regent of Denmark. Ulf was the son of Thorgil Sprakling and the father of King Sweyn II of Denmark and thus the progenitor of the House of Estridsen, which would rule Denmark from 1047 to 1375, which was also sometimes, specially in Swedish sources, referred to as the Ulfinger dynasty to honor him.
Thyra was the wife of King Gorm the Old of Denmark, and one of the first queens of Denmark widely believed by scholars to be historical rather than legendary. She is presented in medieval sources as a wise and powerful woman who ordered the building or fortification of the Danevirke, consistent with her commemoration on multiple Viking Age runestones. These include those at Jelling which was the seat of power for her dynasty. When she was born and became queen is unclear, however, she likely ruled until her death in the middle of the 10th century CE.
The Battle of Fýrisvellir was fought in the 980s on the plain called Fýrisvellir, where modern Uppsala is situated, between King Eric the Victorious and an invading force. According to Norse sagas, this force was led by his nephew Styrbjörn the Strong. Eric won the battle, and became known as "the Victorious".
Sigurd Hart or Sigurd Hjort was a legendary king of Ringerike, during the late 9th or early 10th centuries. he is mentioned in Ragnarssona þáttr and in Halvdan Svartes saga.
Gunnhildr konungamóðir or Gunnhildr Gormsdóttir, whose name is often Anglicised as Gunnhild, is a quasi-historical figure who appears in the Icelandic Sagas, according to which she was the wife of Eric Bloodaxe. She appears prominently in sagas such as Fagrskinna, Egils saga, Njáls saga, and Heimskringla.
Tyra of Denmark was a 10th-century Danish princess. She was the spouse of both King Olav I of Norway and of Styrbjörn Starke, prince of Sweden.