Ring of Sweden

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Ring of Sweden
Proto-historic King of the Swedes
Reignc. 936 or earlier
Predecessor Olof
Successor Eric Ringsson
House Munsö (?)

Ring was a Swedish monarch or local ruler who ruled at Uppsala, an important early Swedish political center, around or before the year 936. He either ruled before or together with his two sons Eric and Emund. Virtually nothing is known about him beyond his name.

Contents

Bishop Unni's visit

The Archbishopric of Bremen had conducted Christian mission in Central Sweden during the 9th century, but the effort lapsed in the second half of the century for various reasons. The German Kingdom came into closer contact with Scandinavia when King Henry the Fowler defeated the Danes in 934 and gained influence in the important emporium Hedeby in South Jutland. [1] The German ecclesiastic chronicler Adam of Bremen, writing in c. 1075, relates that the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, Unni, arrived to Denmark to appoint priests for the churches in the realm. [2] From Denmark he traveled over the Baltic Sea and arrived, with some discomfort, to Birka in the Swedish kingdom. This happened in 935 or 936. According to Adam, almost no Christian teachers had visited Birka for seventy years. [3] "The believer in the Lord went ashore in this port and proceeded to make contact with the population for his unusual purpose. For the Swedes and Geats, or to put it better, the Norsemen, had, during the period of barbaric raids of conquest, when many kings exercised a bloody rule during a few consecutive years, entirely forgotten the Christian religion and could not now be easily persuaded to believe in it. I have heard from the often-quoted King Sweyn (of Denmark, ruled 1047-1076), that the Swedes at this time were ruled by a certain Ring together with his sons Eric and Emund. This is the same Ring who was preceded by Anund, Björn and Olof, about whom one may read in the biography of Ansgar, and others who are not mentioned. And it is likely that the warrior of God, Unni, turned to these kings although they were not believers, and preached the word of God in the land of the Swedes with their permission ... Swedes and Geats, among whom the Holy Ansgar had first spread the seeds of faith, but reverted to paganism, were once again called to faith by the Holy Father Unni [4] ... When the messenger of God had completed his missionary task and eventually decided to go home, he fell ill in Birka and left his tired body there." [5]

Name and place

Unni died on 17 September 936, though it is unclear if Adam's assertion of him and King Ring being contemporaries is the author's guesswork. King Ring is not mentioned in the Norse king lists and sagas, such as Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. The name is however borne by the Swedish ruler who was victorious in the legendary Battle of Bråvalla, Sigurd Ring. It is not otherwise attested among the members of the Viking Age royal family. It has sometimes been speculated that his true name was Olof (Anlaufr), represented in Latin chronicles as Anulo, which could have been misinterpreted as Latin annulus, meaning "ring". [6] There has also been some speculation about the location of Birka where Unni died. A runic inscription on a cross at the church of Sund in Åland has been interpreted by local scholars as Wini (Unni), which would call for a radical reinterpretation of the historical geography of Viking Age Sweden. [7] The dominating view among historians and archaeologists is nevertheless that Birka was situated on Björkö in Lake Mälaren. [8]

The German encroachment on Scandinavia, which resulted in Unni's visit, may also have alerted the rulers of Birka. The family of Danish rulers who were defeated in 934 is said to have come from Sweden, although this statement has been much-disputed by modern scholars. [9] [10] At any rate Birka apparently had strong commercial relations with Hedeby. The fortifications of Birka were strengthened around 940 as the gravel walls were heightened, and palisades seem to have been erected. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

Ansgar

Ansgar, also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" because of his travels and the See of Hamburg received the missionary mandate to bring Christianity to Northern Europe.

Birka archaeological site on the island of Björkö in Sweden

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History of Sweden (800–1521)

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Eric the Victorious King of Sweden

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, and the Norse sagas' accounts of a Björn Eriksson are considered unreliable.

Emund Eriksson, , was a Swedish king whose historicity is only known from a single source, the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum which was written by Adam of Bremen in c. 1075.

Anund Uppsale or Anoundus, 'Anund of Uppsala',, a son of Erik Björnsson of the House of Munsö, ruled Sweden together with his brother Björn at Haugi, according to Hervarar saga. He is called Uppsale because he stayed at Old Upsala, the era's religious centre. He and Björn are sometimes identified with similarly-named kings mentioned in Rimbert's Vita Ansgari and by Adam of Bremen.

Olof was a Swedish monarch or local ruler who ruled over Birka, an important port town, and possibly Uppsala, an important early Swedish political center, in about 852, when the Catholic missionary Saint Ansgar made his second voyage from Germany to Birka in about the year 851 or 852 A.D. He had an ambivalent attitude to Christianity, and was known as a successful warrior king in the Baltic region.

Björn Eriksson Legendary king of Sweden

Björn according to the Hervarar saga and Harald Fairhair's saga was the father of Olof (II) Björnsson and Eric the Victorious, also a grandfather of Styrbjörn the Strong. According to the two sagas, he was the son of an Erik who fought Harald Fairhair and who succeeded the brothers Björn at Hauge and Anund Uppsale:

Eric Anundsson or Eymundsson was a semi-legendary Swedish king who supposedly ruled during the 9th century. The Norse sagas describe him as successful in extending his realm over the Baltic Sea, but unsuccessful in his attempts of westward expansion. There is no near-contemporary evidence for his existence, the sources for his reign dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. These sources, Icelandic sagas, are generally not considered reliable sources for the periods and events they describe.

Erik Ringsson was a Swedish king and the son of Ring, according to the German ecclesiastic chronicler Adam of Bremen. He is said to have ruled together with his father and his brother Emund in about 936, and later presumably reigned in his own name.

House of Munsö

The House of Munsö, also called the House of Björn Ironside, the House of Uppsala or simply the Old dynasty, is the earliest reliably attested royal dynasty of Sweden, ruling during the Viking Age. None of the names suggested for the dynasty are universally accepted and most are problematic; the name "House of Munsö" derives from a questionable and speculative theory that they would have ruled from the island of Munsö and the name "House of Björn Ironside" derives from the supposed founder of the dynasty, Björn Ironside, who is often seen as a legendary, rather than historical, figure.

Anund Jacob King of Sweden

Anund Jacob or James, Swedish: Anund Jakob was King of Sweden from 1022 until around 1050. He is believed to have been born on July 25, in either 1008 or 1010 as Jakob, the son of King Olof Skötkonung and Queen Estrid. Being the second Christian king of the Swedish realm, his long and partly turbulent reign saw the increasing dissemination of Christianity as well as repeated attempts to influence the balance of power in Scandinavia. Through out his regin he tried to subvert the raising Danish hegemony in Scandinavia by supporting the Norwegian monarchy. He also supported the reign of Yaroslav the Wise in Kievan Rus, his brother-in-law. He is referred to in positive terms in German and Norse historical sources. His reign was one of the longest in Sweden during the Viking age and Middle Ages.

Emund the Old or Edmund was King of Sweden from c. 1050 to c. 1060. His short reign was characterised by disputes with the Archbishopric of Bremen over church policies, and a historically debated delimitation of the Swedish-Danish border.

Stenkil King of Sweden

Stenkil was a King of Sweden who ruled c. 1060 until 1066. He succeeded Emund the Old and became the first king from the House of Stenkil. He is praised as a devout Christian, but with an accommodating stance towards the old Pagan religion. His brief reign saw an armed conflict with Norway.

Olof was a king who, according to a late source, ruled in Denmark in about 900 after usurping power. Evidence for his historicity is only circumstantial, since he belongs to a period of Danish history when very little is known from textual sources.

Gunnhildr Sveinsdóttir or Gunnhildr Haraldsdóttir, Guda or Gyda was, according to the traditional view, a queen consort of King Anund Jacob of Sweden and of king Sveinn II of Denmark. However, the sources are so vague that several modern historians maintain that there were actually two queens of that name, of Sweden and Denmark respectively. She is sometimes called Gude or Gyridje, but this is probably because of confusion with her daughter, Gyda, who is also known under her mother's name Gunnhildr.

Astrid Njalsdotterof Skjalgaätten, was a Norwegian noblewoman who married Ragnvald the Old and became the ancestress of the Swedish Stenkil dynasty. She is sometimes assumed to have been a Swedish queen, though the evidence is inconclusive.

Björn was a Swedish monarch or local ruler who ruled over Birka, an important port town, and possibly Uppsala, an important early Swedish political center, around the year 829. His existence is attested by the nearly contemporary account Vita Ansgari, written by the missionary Rimbert, who visited Sweden alongside Ansgar in c. 829. Attempts have been made to identify the king with the legendary figure Björn at Haugi, but these attempts have to be considered unverifiable and unreliable. Though the genealogy of early Swedish local rulers is not known, Björn is assumed to have been of the House of Munsö, which would later produce Eric the Victorious, generally considered to be Sweden's first king.

References

  1. ↑ Adam av Bremen (1984), Historien om Hamburgstiftet och dess biskopar. Stockholm: Proprius förlag, p. 57-8 (Book I, Chapter 57).
  2. ↑ Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 58 (Book I, Chapters 58-59).
  3. ↑ Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 60 (Book I, Chapter 60).
  4. ↑ Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 60-2 (Book I, Chapter 61).
  5. ↑ Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 62 (Book I, Chapter 62).
  6. ↑ Birger Nerman (1916) "Torgny lagman", Arkiv för nordisk filologi 28 311 ; Carl Bernadotte et al. (eds) (1956), Sveriges hundra konungar. Stockholm: Biblioteksböcker, p. 74-6, 92.
  7. ↑ Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 61.
  8. ↑ Åke Hyenstrand (1996), Lejonet, draken och korset; Sverige 500-1000. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
  9. ↑ Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 52-3 (Book I, Chapter 48). For an archaeological view of Swedes in Hedeby, see Heiko Steuer (1984), "Zur ethnischen Gliederung der Bevölkerung von Haithabu anhand der Gräberfelder", p. 209
  10. ↑ Niels Lund (1982) "Svenskevældet i Hedeby", Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1980 København: Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab - Nationalmuseet, p. 114-125.
  11. ↑ Carl Bernadotte et al. (eds) (1956), p. 93.
Ring of Sweden
Preceded by King of the Swedes Succeeded by
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