Skagul Toste

Last updated February 22, 2019

Skoglar Toste or Skoglar Tosti (there are several variations) was a legendary chieftain from the Swedish province of West Götaland. His name (skoglar, skauglar or skagul) was reportedly due to his experience in battle. ^[1]

Toste is mentioned in several sagas, most notable in Heimskringla . According to Snorri Sturluson, he was the father of Sigrid the Haughty. For some time he gave refuge to Harald Grenske, who later came back to woo Sigrid, only to be killed by her for his persistence. According to the sagas, Skagul Toste was also the father of Ulf Tostesson, father of Ragnvald Ulfsson and grandfather of Stenkil who became the King of Sweden in 1060.^[2]

Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (1178/79–1241) ca. 1230. The name Heimskringla was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts.

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker to the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He was the author of the Prose Edda or Younger Edda, which consists of Gylfaginning, a narrative of Norse mythology, the Skáldskaparmál, a book of poetic language, and the Háttatal, a list of verse forms. He was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of Egil's saga.

Sigrid the Haughty, also known as Sigríð Storråda, is a queen appearing in Norse sagas as wife, first of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, then Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. Sigrid appears in many sagas composed generations after the events they describe, but there is no reliable evidence as to her existence as they describe her. The figure of Sigrid appears mainly in late Icelandic sagas, while more contemporary sources such as Thietmar of Merseburg and Adam of Bremen instead claim that Sweyn was married to a Polish princess, identified as Świętosława. Snorri Sturluson gives conflicting information and in one place says that Sweyn was married to Sigrid and in another that he was married to a Gunhild of Wenden.

Toste is said to have collected great riches when he demanded danegeld as he led a Viking army to England in 970. At Vallentuna, near Stockholm, the runestone of Orkesta (U 344) reads:

The Danegeld was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources. It was characteristic of royal policy in both England and Francia during the ninth through eleventh centuries, collected both as tributary, to buy off the attackers, and as stipendiary, to pay the defensive forces. The term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century. In Anglo-Saxon England tribute payments to the Danes was known as gafol and the levy raised to support the standing army, for the defence of the realm, was known as heregeld (army-tax). Danegeld was mostly taken by the Norsemen from Sweden and Denmark.

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.

Vallentuna is a Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden with 33,219 inhabitants in 2018. Vallentuna's cultural landscape is well preserved, and human habitation in the area has been traced back as far as the stone age. Archeological excavations in southern Vallentuna near Lilla Gävsjö uncovered remains of a stone age settlement.

in ulfr hafir onklati * Þru kialtakat Þit uas fursta Þis tusti * Þa ---Þurktil * Þa kalt knutr

Translation: "And Ulf of Borresta (Ulf) has taken three payments in England. That was the first that Toste (tusti) paid. Then Thorkell the Tall (Þurktil ) paid. Then Canute the Great (knutr) paid.^[3]

Ulf of Borresta was a runemaster in the eleventh century Uppland, Sweden, and a successful Viking who returned from England three times with a share of the Danegeld. He is named after his estate which in modern Swedish is called Borresta or Bårresta.

Thorkell the Tall, also known as Thorkell the High in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was a prominent member of the Jomsviking order and a notable lord. He was a son of the Scanian chieftain Strut-Harald, and a brother of Jarl Sigvaldi. Thorkell was the chief commander of the Jomvikings and the legendary stronghold, Jomsborg, on the Island of Wollin.

Related Research Articles

Olaf Trygvasson was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken, and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of Norway.

Hole is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Ringerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vik. Hole is located around lake Tyrifjorden and extends to the woodland around Oslo. The soil is fertile and suited to growing fruit, berries and other agricultural products.

Olof Skötkonung was King of Sweden, son of Eric the Victorious and, according to Icelandic sources, Sigrid the Haughty. He succeeded his father in c. 995. He stands at the threshold of recorded history, since he is the first Swedish ruler about whom there is substantial knowledge. He is regarded as the first king known to have ruled both the Swedes and the Geats.

A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones date from the late Viking Age. Most runestones are located in Scandinavia, but there are also scattered runestones in locations that were visited by Norsemen during the Viking Age. Runestones are often memorials to dead men. Runestones were usually brightly coloured when erected, though this is no longer evident as the colour has worn off. Most Runestones are found in present day Sweden.

Canute I was king over all of Sweden from 1173 to 1195. He was a son of King Eric the Saint and Queen Christina, who was a granddaughter of the Swedish king Inge the Elder.

Harald Wartooth or Harold Hiltertooth was a legendary king of Denmark who is mentioned in several traditional sources. He is held to have 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 semi-legendary Battle of Bråvalla (c.770).

Björn was the father of Olof (II) Björnsson and Eric the Victorious, and he was the grandfather of Styrbjörn the Strong, according to the Hervarar saga and Harald Fairhair's saga. 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:

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 contemporary 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.

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, however with an accommodating stance towards the old Pagan religion. His brief reign saw an armed conflict with Norway.

The House of Stenkil was a dynasty on the Swedish throne from c. 1060 to c. 1125. Stenkil probably originated from Västergötland.

Sigurd Syr was a Norwegian petty king of Ringerike, a region in Buskerud. He was notable in Norwegian history largely through his association with Kings Harald Hardrada and Olaf II of Norway. By his marriage with Åsta Gudbrandsdatter after her first husband Harald Grenske had died, Sigurd Syr was stepfather of King Olaf and the father of King Harald.

Świętosława was a Polish princess, daughter of Mieszko I of Poland and Dobrawa of Bohemia, and sister of Boleslaw I of Poland. She was married first to Eric the Victorious of Sweden and then Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, according to German chroniclers, and gave them the sons Olof, and Canute and Harald, respectively. The name is only known through an inscription that gives the name of Canute's sister and the assumption that this sister was named for her mother.

Åsta Gudbrandsdatter was the mother of two Norwegian kings, King Olaf II of Norway and King Harald III of Norway. The primary source for the life of Åsta is Snorri Sturluson's saga Heimskringla, a 13th-century collection of tales about the lives of the Norwegian kings. In the chronicle, Åsta is described as "generous and high-minded" and as a keen political player and guiding influence on her royal husbands and children. Her parents were Gudbrand Kula and Ulfhild.

Harald Grenske was a petty king in Vestfold in Norway.

The Orkesta Runestones are 11th century runestones engraved in Old Norse with the younger futhark that are located at the church of Orkesta north-east of Stockholm in Sweden.

The England runestones is a group of about 30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England. They constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other countries, and they are comparable in number only to the approximately 30 Greece Runestones and the 26 Ingvar Runestones, of which the latter refer to a Viking expedition to the Middle East. They were engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark.

Estrid Svendsdatter of Denmark, was a Danish princess and titular Queen, a Russian princess and, possibly, Duchess of Normandy by marriage. She was the daughter of Sweyn Forkbeard and perhaps Gunhild of Wenden and sister of Cnut the Great. By Ulf Jarl, she was the mother of the later King Sweyn II Estridson and Beorn Estrithson. The dynasty that ruled Denmark in 1047–1412 was named after her. She was known in Denmark as Dronning Estrid, despite the fact that she was not married to a King and not a queen regnant.

The Uppland Runic Inscription 328 stands on a hill in a paddock at the farm Stora Lundby, which is about four kilometers west of Lindholmen, Stockholm County, Sweden, in the historic province of Uppland. The runestone is one of several runestones that have permitted scholars to trace family relations among some powerful Viking clans in Sweden during the 11th century.

References

↑ "Skoglar Toste". Bergans Historiasidor. May 15, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
↑ Claus Krag. "Harald Grenske, Småkonge". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
↑ "Runes and Runic". An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions. May 5, 2006. Retrieved October 24, 2015.

Other sources

Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 241-5, 243A-20

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.

[1] "Skoglar Toste". Bergans Historiasidor. May 15, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.

[2] Claus Krag. "Harald Grenske, Småkonge". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved October 24, 2015.

[3] "Runes and Runic". An English Dictionary of Runic Inscriptions. May 5, 2006. Retrieved October 24, 2015.