This article's lead sectionmay be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(December 2020)
Ancient Norwegians said that Hálogaland was named after a royal named Hǫlgi. The Norse form of the name was Hálogaland. The first element of the word is the genitiveplural of háleygr, a 'person from Hålogaland'. The last element is land, as in 'land' or 'region'. The meaning of the demonymháleygr is unknown. Thorstein Vikingson's Saga, 1, describes it as a compound of Hial, "Hel" or "spirit," and "loge", "fire" – although this is largely discredited.[citation needed]
The Gothic historian Jordanes in his work De origine actibusque Getarum (also known as Getica), written in Constantinople c.AD 551, mentions a people "Adogit" living in the far North. This could be an old form of háleygir and a possible reference to the petty kingdom of Hålogaland. Alex Woolf links the name Hålogaland to the aurora borealis — the "Northern Lights" —, saying that Hålogaland meant the "Land of the High Fire",[2]loga deriving from logi, which refers to fire. This is also discredited.[citation needed]
A legendary interpretation is found in the medieval accounts of Ynglingatal and Skáldskaparmál; "Logi" is described as the personification of fire, a fire giant, and as a "son of Fornjót". In the medieval Orkneyinga saga and the account of Hversu Noregr byggðist ('How Norway was inhabited'), Fornjót is described as king of "Gotland, Kænland and Finnland". The royal lineages of his children are discussed in these and other medieval accounts. The beginning of the Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar ("Saga of Thorstein son of Víking") discusses King Logi, who ruled the country north of Norway. Because Logi was larger and stronger than any other man in land, his name was lengthened from Logi to Hálogi, meaning "High-Logi". Derived from that name his country became called Hálogaland, meaning "Hálogi's land". The spelling of the name changed to modern-day Hålogaland. Another interpretation of the name is presented by Halvdan Koht and Alfred Jacobsen (in Håløyminne 1, 1920): 'Háleygr' is derived from Proto-Scandinavian *HaÞulaikaR, with the elements *haÞu 'battle' and *laik- 'pledge', i.e., a wartime alliance of the many settlements in times of conflict.
The Hversu Noregr byggðist is a legendary account of the origin of various legendary Norwegian lineages. It traces the descendants of the primeval ruler Fornjót (Fornjotr) down to Nór, who unites the Norwegian lands. The Hversu account then gives details of the descendants of Nór and of his brother Gór in the following section known as the Ættartölur ("Genealogies", or Fundinn Noregr, "Founding of Norway"). The Hversu account is closely paralleled by the opening of the Orkneyinga saga.
In 873 AD, according to the Egil's saga (written c.1240) the Kvens and Norse cooperate in battling against the invading Karelians. The chapter XVII of Egil's saga describes how Thorolf Kveldulfsson (King of Norway's tax chief starting 872 AD) from Namdalen, located in the southernmost tip of the historic Hålogaland, goes to Kvenland again:
That same winter Thorolf went up on the fell with a hundred men; he passed on at once eastwards to Kvenland and met King Faravid.
Based on medieval documents, the above meeting took place during the winter of 873–874. Hålogaland's rather close vicinity to Kvenland is also demonstrated c.1157 in the geographical chronicle Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan by the Icelandic Abbot Níkulás Bergsson (Nikolaos), who provides descriptions of lands around Norway:
Closest to Denmark is little Svíþjóð (Sweden), there is Eyland (Öland); then is Gotland (Gotland); then Helsingaland (Hälsingland); then Vermaland (Värmland); then two Kvenlönd (Kvenlands), and they extend to north of Bjarmaland (Bjarmia).
As recorded in Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, King Hákon Hákonarson settled some of the people of Bjarmaland in the area surrounding the Malangen fjord near modern Tromsø in the 1230s or 1240s. According to Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum, King Helgi of Hålogaland married a Princess Thora of Lappland and Bjarmaland, daughter of Prince Gusi, but in other sources he is only given as King of Lappland. In any event, for centuries the Norwegians of Hålogaland had extensive relations with both the Bjarmar[3] and Saami, and to some extent also the Kvens.[4]
Modern usage
In modern times, the term Hålogaland is used in a variety of senses. For some purposes, all of Northern Norway, Svalbard and Jan Mayen are covered under the term Hålogaland.[1] For other purposes the counties of Nordland and Troms constitute Hålogaland. Hålogaland or even Mid Hålogaland are frequent terms covering the smaller districts of Ofoten, Lofoten and Vesterålen, as well as the municipalities of Gratangen, Harstad, Ibestad, Kvæfjord, and Tjeldsund of Troms county. The term has also been used in this last sense, minus the Lofoten archipelago.
Chieftain House at Borg in Lofoten Lofotr Viking Museum
Hålogaland figures extensively in the Norse sagas, and in the Heimskringla, especially the Ynglinga Saga and Háleygjatal. It was inhabited by the race of Hölgi (Háleygja ætt) who was the eponymous hero of Hålogaland.[5]
In the saga, Heimskringla, a man called Gudlög led a number of Norwegian pirates that were fought by the Swedish king Jorund and king Godgest of Hålogaland was given a horse by the Swedish king Adils. The first earl of Lade, Håkon Grjotgardsson, ruler of Trøndelag, came from Hålogaland, and sought to extend his kingdom southwards. Here, he met with Harald Fairhair, and joined him.[6]
Archaeologists have uncovered the Chieftain House at Borg in Lofoten (På Borg på Vestvågøya i Lofoten), a large Viking Age building believed to have been already established around the year 500. Archaeological studies commenced here in 1983 and in 1986–89, a joint Scandinavian research project was conducted at Borg. Excavations brought to light remains of the largest building ever to be found from the Viking Era in Norway, 83 meters long and 9 meters high. The chieftain's seat at Borg is estimated to have been abandoned around AD 950. Today the site is the location of the Lofotr Viking Museum.[7][8][9]
Geography
Hålogaland is a drowned coastline containing extensive mountainous fjords and islands. It was a refuge for Viking ships as well as a way station for voyagers to the White Sea, which offered access to Russia. Narvik was an important World War II objective. In 2008, the name was proposed as the possible name of an independent Northern Norway.[10]
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.
Kvenland, known as Cwenland, Qwenland, Kænland, and similar terms in medieval sources, is an ancient name for an area in Fennoscandia and Scandinavia. Kvenland, in that or nearly that spelling, is known from an Old English account written in the 9th century, which used information provided by Norwegian adventurer and traveler Ohthere, and from Nordic sources, primarily Icelandic. A possible additional source was written in the modern-day area of Norway. All known Nordic sources date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Other possible references to Kvenland by other names and spellings are also discussed here.
Nór is according to the Orkneyinga Saga the eponymous founder of Norway.
Fornjót is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the father of Hlér ('sea'), Logi ('fire') and Kári ('wind'). It is also the name of a legendary king of "Finland and Kvenland". The principal study of this figure is by Margaret Clunies Ross.
Logi or Hálogi is a jötunn and the personification of fire in Norse mythology. He is a son of the jötunn Fornjótr and the brother of Ægir or Hlér ('sea') and Kári ('wind'). Logi married fire giantess Glöð and she gave birth to their two beautiful daughters—Eisa and Eimyrja.
In Norse mythology, Snær is seemingly a personification of snow, appearing in extant text as an euhemerized legendary Scandinavian king.
Hversu Noregr byggðist is an account of the origin of various legendary Norwegian lineages, which survives only in the Flateyjarbók. It traces the descendants of the primeval Fornjót, a king of "Gotland, Kænland and Finnland", down to Nór, who is here the eponym and first great king of Norway, and then gives details of the descendants of Nór in a following section known as the Ættartölur, 'Genealogies'.
Gard Agdi appears in the legendary genealogies of Hversu Noregr byggdist as one of the three sons of Nór, the legendary first king of Norway, and as ruler and ancestor of rulers over southwestern Norway. The nickname Agdi may refer to a member of the Egðir, a tribe inhabiting the southernmost region of Norway known as Agder, represented today by the counties of Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder.
Raum the Old is a legendary king in Norway in the Hversu Noregr byggdist and in Thorsteins saga Víkingssonar. He was said to have been ugly, as was his daughter, Bryngerd, who was married to King Álf. Indeed, in Old Norse, raumr means a big and ugly person.
Thorir Hund was one of the greatest chiefs in Hålogaland. Tore Hund was one of the leaders of the Stiklestad farmer faction opposing Norwegian King Olaf II of Norway, later named St. Olaf. He was reported to have been among the chieftains who killed the king in the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. He also served in the forces of King Canute the Great on several occasions.
The petty kingdoms of Norway were the entities from which the later Kingdom of Norway was founded. Before the unification of Norway in 872 and during the period of fragmentation after King Harald Fairhair's death, Norway was divided in several small kingdoms. Some could have been as small as a cluster of villages, and others comprised several of today's counties.
The dog king is a Scandinavian tradition which appears in several Scandinavian sources: Chronicon Lethrense, Annals of Lund, Gesta Danorum, Heimskringla, Hversu Noregr byggðist and probably also in Skáldatal.
A few Icelandic sagas tell about kings that ruled in Kvenland.
The Dagling or Dögling dynasty was a legendary clan of the petty kingdom Ringerike in what today is Norway. It was descended from a Dag the Great.
Ketils saga hœngs or The Saga of Ketil Trout is an Icelandic legendary saga on the Norwegian chieftain Ketil Hallbjarnarson Haeng, also known as "Ketil Trout of Hrafnista". Hrafnista is present-day Ramsta, Hålogaland, Northern Norway.
Guðröðr was a legendary Scanian king who, according to the Ynglinga saga, was the brother of Halfdan the Valiant, Ivar Vidfamne's father. He is only known from late Icelandic sources dating from the 13th century.
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.
Ozur Toti was a 9th-century Norwegian hersir who lived in Halogaland. In the Heimskringla and Egil's Saga, he is identified as the father of Gunnhild Mother of Kings, the wife and queen of Erik Bloodaxe, though elsewhere she is identified as a daughter of Gorm the Old.
Alfheim is an ancient name for an area corresponding to the modern Swedish province of Bohuslän.
Þorri is the Icelandic name of the personification of frost or winter in Norse mythology, and also the name of the fourth winter month in the Icelandic calendar.
↑ Much time in the early part of the saga is spent by his family in Hålogaland.
Other sources
Woolf, Alex (2007). From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070. The New Edinburgh History of Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN978-0-7486-1234-5.
Berglund, Birgitta (1994) Helgeland historie (Mosjøen) ISBN82-90148-55-0
Bertelsen, Reidar (1985) Lofoten og Vesteralens historie: Fra den eldste tida til ca. 1500 e (Kommunene i Lofoten og Vesteralen) ISBN978-82-90412-37-6
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
