Family background
The Hervarar saga (13th century) describes Stenkil as the son of Ragnvald the Old and Astrid Njalsdotter, the daughter of Njal Finnsson from Hålogaland in Norway and a cognatic descendant of Harald Fairhair. Later historians have identified the father of Stenkil as Ragnvald Ulfsson who was the earl of Ladoga and the grandson of the legendary Viking Skoglar Toste, but this presumed family-connection is not supported by any other sources and must therefore be regarded as very uncertain. [6] The Icelandic sagas mention a wife and two sons of Ragnvald Ulfsson but none are identified with Stenkil and his mother Astrid. The contemporary chronicler Adam of Bremen says Stenkil was the nephew (nepos) or stepson (privignus) of the former King Emund the Old, [7] while the Hervarar saga asserts that he was related to the previous dynasty by marriage to Emund's daughter. [2]
Stenkil was probably from Västergötland rather than Uppland or the Mälaren area. [1] The short chronicle appended to the Westrogothic law (c. 1240) clearly states that he spent time in Levene in Västergötland where he was long remembered as the king who "loved West Geats before all his other subjects", [8] and he was lauded as a great archer whose hit marks were long shown with admiration. [1] [2] The tradition that Stenkil was beloved by the Geats appears to be supported by Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla . In a speech by Thorvid, the lawspeaker (lagman) of Västergötland before a battle with Harald Hardrada (see below), the lawspeaker expresses the Geats' (Gautland people) loyalty to Stenkil:
The lagman of the Gautland people, Thorvid, sat upon a horse, and the bridle was fastened to a stake that stood in the mire. He broke out with these words: "God knows we have many brave and handsome fellows here, and we shall let King Steinkel hear that we stood by the good earl bravely. I am sure of one thing: we shall behave gallantly against these Northmen, if they attack us; but if our young people give way, and should not stand to it, let us not run farther than to that stream; but if they should give way farther, which I am sure they will not do, let it not be farther than to that hill." [9]
The statement of the Hervarar saga that Stenkil was originally Jarl in Svíþjóð (in the first hand, the provinces around Lake Mälaren) nevertheless calls for some caution. Historian Peter Sawyer argues that the traditions associating Stenkil with Västergötland may not be reliable, but rather express a later need to advocate Västergötland as the hub of the Swedish kingdom. His active advocacy for a bishopric in Sigtuna may speak for a strong association with the Mälaren Valley. [10]
Support for the Bremen mission
Stenkil appears in history around 1056, during the reign of Emund the Old. At that time he provided support and protection for a delegation from the Archdiocese of Bremen which had been turned away by King Emund and his bishop Osmundus. Later on, a reconciliation between the king and Bremen took place, and Sweden received Adalvard the Elder as its new bishop. Emund died shortly after, in about 1060. As his son and heir Anund was already dead, Stenkil succeeded to the throne without any known commotion. Adam characterises Stenkil as God-fearing and pious. A much less flattering image of the new king is provided by the Icelandic manuscript Morkinskinna (c. 1220), which says: "King Stenkil was a portly man and heavy on his feet. He was much given to drinking parties and not much involved in the business at hand ... he himself liked to be left in peace." [11]
The king duly supported the Christianization of Sweden [2] and cooperated with bishops from the Archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. [3] With the help of Stenkil's emissaries, Adalvard the Younger created the Sigtuna bishopric, one day's journey from the old cult center of Uppsala. According to a historically much-debated passage in Adam's chronicle, Uppsala was the site of a renowned pagan temple where sacrifices of humans and animals were performed every ninth year. [12] After having formally converted the population around Sigtuna, Adalvard the Younger suggested to Bishop Egino in Scania that they should proceed to raze or burn down the temple. This, they hoped, would have the effect of pushing the population into conversion. However, Stenkil apprehended that the people in the area resented the aim of the bishops, and managed to talk them out of the project. As he argued, the bishops would be executed and he himself deposed since he had allowed miscreants into the land. Moreover, those already Christian would surely revert to paganism. [3] The fears were probably justified. According to the Hervarar saga , Stenkil's son Inge the Elder was deposed and exiled for wanting to cancel the pagan sacrifices at the temple. [13] [14] As it was, Adalvard and Egino reluctantly had to follow Stenkil's advice. Instead, they traversed the lands of the Geats which were apparently less resistant to the new faith, and broke any pagan idols they found, making thousands of converts in the process. [15]
The war with Harald Hardrada
The later Norse sagas relate that a brief but serious conflict flared up with the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada in 1064–65. One of Harald's foremost men Håkon Ivarsson Jarl, was married to the king's niece Ragnhild and followed Harald on his military expeditions against the Danish ruler Sweyn Estridsen. According to Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla the Norwegians were victorious at the Battle of Nissan in 1062, but Håkon Jarl secretly allowed the defeated Sweyn to escape alive. When this was later reported to Harald Hardrada, the enraged king gave orders to kill Håkon, who however managed to escape to Sweden. The escapee stayed with King Stenkil who made him Jarl of Värmland. [16] According to another saga, Morkinskinna , Håkon Jarl left Norway for Denmark where he was created Jarl of Halland. Meanwhile, Harald Hardrada concluded peace with Sweyn Estridsen in 1064 and then started to harry in Stenkil's realm in Götaland. The worried Stenkil arranged a meeting with King Sweyn and asked for his support. Sweyn replied that he could not break the recent peace treaty, but advised Stenkil to appoint the valiant Håkon Jarl as sub-ruler of Västergötland, from where he could confront King Harald. This was arranged, and Håkon assembled men from Denmark as well as from the two Geatic provinces. He spoke to his troops at an assembly, where he self-assuredly said: "Even though I have a lesser title than King Stenkil, it may be that I will be of no less assistance, for he is used to an easy life, while I am accostumed to battles and hard conditions". [17]
According to all the saga versions, Harald Hardrada reacted to Håkon Jarl's Swedish position by assembling a fleet and invading Stenkil's kingdom in the cold of the winter. At the entrance of the Göta älv, he took the lighter boats and brought them upriver, to Lake Vänern. The ships then rowed eastwards, to the place where he heard that Håkon's troops had assembled. With Håkon was the law-speaker (lagman) of the Geats, Thorvid. However, the Geats were lightly clothed, "as is always the case with the Geats", while Harald's troops were more numerous and better equipped. The Geatic law-speaker lost his head and took to his heels before the battle had begun. In the fight that followed, Håkon's troops were defeated with losses. Nevertheless, Harald did not push his advantage further, but returned to the lake shore with his men. The end of the expedition was inauspicious. Part of Harald's troops were led into a trap, ambushed and massacred by Håkon's men. As the Norwegians sailed down the Göta älv, some more were killed by Geatic archers. [18] In the following year 1066 Harald Hardrada undertook his ill-fated invasion of England, which left the striking power of the Norwegian kingdom crippled. Håkon Jarl ended his life as a magnate in Denmark. It is not clear how much of the internally differing saga accounts can be regarded trustable, but a preserved scaldic verse by þjóðólfr Arnórsson confirms the outlines:
- Stenkil's men who would
- give support to the Jarl
- have been assigned to death
- the ruler caused this.
- Håkon withdrew
- quickly when support failed.
- Thus says the one who wants
- to depict this nicely. [19]
Morkinskinna indicates that the relations between Stenkil and Sweyn Estridsen were amicable. It is likely that the Swedish ruler had an interest in supporting Sweyn against the attempts of Harald Hardrada to subjugate Denmark between 1047 and 1062. Historian Aksel E. Christensen has concluded that the Norwegian-Danish peace treaty of 1064 was a success for the Swedish policy to prevent one king from ruling the kingdoms to the north and the south of Skagerrak. [20] Strangely, the Knytlinga Saga tells that "King Sweyn also had a dispute with the Swedish King Stenkil, who went with his army against King Sweyn, although he did not appropriate any of his territories". [21]
Olof Skötkonung, sometimes stylized as Olaf the Swede, 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. In Sweden, the reign of king Olov Skötkonung is considered to be the transition from the Viking age to the Middle Ages, he was the first Christian king of the Swedes, who central Sweden. Norse beliefs persisted in parts of Sweden until the 12–13th century.
Magnus III Olafsson, better known as Magnus Barefoot, was the King of Norway from 1093 until his death in 1103. His reign was marked by aggressive military campaigns and conquest, particularly in the Norse-dominated parts of the British Isles, where he extended his rule to the Kingdom of the Isles and Dublin.
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.
Anund Jacob or James was King of Sweden from 1022 until around 1050. He is believed to have been born on 25 July, 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. Throughout his reign, he tried to subvert the rising 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.
The House of Stenkil was a dynasty on the Swedish throne from c. 1060 to c. 1125. Stenkil probably originated from Västergötland.
Halsten Stenkilsson was King of Sweden from c. 1067 - 1070. The son of King Stenkil and a Swedish princess, he became king some time after his father's death (1066), and he may have ruled together with his brother Inge the Elder. The date of his death is not known.
Håkan the Red was a King of Sweden, reigning for about half a decade in the second half of the 11th century. There is little information on him, and it is mostly contradictory. Nothing is known about his reign.
Inge the Elder was a king of Sweden. In English literature he has also been called Ingold. While scant sources do not allow a full picture of his term of kingship, he is known to have led a turbulent but at length successful reign of more than two decades. He stands out as a devout Christian who founded the first abbey in Sweden and acted harshly against pagan practices. The kingdom was still an unstable realm based on alliances of noblemen, and Inge's main power base was in Västergötland and Östergötland; one of the earliest chronicles that mention his reign knows him as rex gautorum, king of the Geats.
Blot-Sweyn was a Swedish king c. 1080, of disputed historicity, who was said to have replaced his Christian brother-in-law Inge as King of Sweden, when Inge had refused to administer the blóts at the Temple at Uppsala. There is no mention of Sweyn in the regnal list of the Westrogothic law, which suggests that his rule did not reach Västergötland. According to Swedish historian Adolf Schück he was probably the same person as Håkan the Red and was called the Blót Swain as an epithet rather than a personal name.
Geatish kings, ruling over the provinces of Götaland (Gautland/Geatland), appear in several sources for early Swedish history. Today, most of them are not considered historical.
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 Christianization of Scandinavia, as well as other Nordic countries and the Baltic countries, took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The realms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden established their own archdioceses, responsible directly to the pope, in 1104, 1154 and 1164, respectively. The conversion to Christianity of the Scandinavian people required more time, since it took additional efforts to establish a network of churches.
Helena or Elin, possibly also known as Maer, Mär or Mö, was Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Inge the Elder, and a supposed sister of King Blot-Sweyn of Sweden.
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.
Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar is an Old Icelandic king's saga focusing on the career of King Haraldr Sigurðarson of Norway.
Tora Torbergsdatter was a Norwegian royal consort. She was the mother of two kings of Norway. It is possible, but unconfirmed, that she was also queen of Denmark or Sweden.
Eric and Eric, according to Adam of Bremen, were two contenders for the kingship of Sweden around 1066–67, after the death of King Stenkil. They waged war on each other, with disastrous consequences: "[I]n this war all the Swedish magnates are said to have fallen. The two kings also perished then. When the entire royal clan was thus entirely extinct, conditions in the kingdom were changed and Christianity was disturbed to a high degree. The bishops that the Archbishop [of Bremen] had anointed for this land stayed back home due to fear of persecutions. Only the bishop in Scania took care of the churches of the Geats, and the Swedish Jarl Gnif strengthened his people in the Christian faith."
