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26-1042: Bjarkarímur is a 15th-century Icelandic rímur cycle on the Skjöldungs (the Scyldings of Beowulf ), and retells among other things the adventures of Hróarr ( Hroðgar ) and his brother Helgi ( Halga ), and those of Böðvarr Bjarki . It appears to be based on the lost Skjöldunga saga and is one of the extant sources of information on that work. References [ edit ] Jónas Kristjánsson, Eddas and Sagas: Iceland's Medieval Literature , trans. by Peter Foote (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenska bókmenntafélag: 1988), p. 353. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bjarkarímur&oldid=892210084 " Categories : Old Norse poetry Rímur Skj%C3%B6ldung According to Anglo-Saxon legends recounted in Widsith and other sources such as Æthelweard ( Chronicon ),

52-581: A burial cairn, and ordered that he should be buried in it on his death, with his royal ornaments and armour, his horse and saddle-furniture, and other valuable goods; and many of his descendants followed his example. But the burning of the dead continued, long after that time, to be the custom of the Swedes and Northmen. In his Brevis historia regum Dacie , the 12th-century historian Sven Aagesen mentions Danu Elatus, 'the Proud,' presumably Dan Mikilláti, and makes him

78-550: A scribe who thought it was an abbreviation for the name of the poem's hero, who is quite a different person). Halfdan/Healfdene seems to be the direct son of Beaw in the poem. But all Scandinavian sources that mention both Skjöld and Halfdan put Halfdan some generations after Skjöld and make no mention of King Beaw (save for a genealogy in the Prologue to Snorri Sturluson 's Edda which is taken from English traditions). According to Saxo Grammaticus ' Gesta Danorum (Book 1), Skjöld

104-436: A single monarch into multiple figures or properly distinguishing those whom others have confused. Saxo begins his history with two brothers named Dan and Angul , sons of one Humbli, who were made rulers by the consent of the people because of their bravery. However, they were not referred to as 'kings,' as that usage was not common at the time. Angul is the eponym of the region of Angul , and from his people eventually came

130-613: A very great age; then by his son, Fróði Mikilláti, or the Peace-loving, who was succeeded by his sons Halfdan and Fridleif, who were great warriors. This peaceful Fróði appears to be a duplicate of the earlier Fróði . In his preface to the Heimskringla (which includes the Ynglinga saga ), Snorri writes: The Age of Cairns began properly in Denmark after Dan Mikilláti had raised for himself

156-475: Is Fróði under whose reign the world achieves peace. This Fróði is also the father of a son named Fridleif according to Saxo. There are other differing accounts of Halfdan's ancestors. The names, number, and order of legendary Danish kings are very inconsistent in extant texts and it would appear that different writers and story tellers differently arranged what tales of legendary Danish kings they knew in whatever order seemed best to them. In all accounts Halfdan

182-615: Is father of Helgi (called Halga in Beowulf ) and Hróar (called Hrothgar in Beowulf ). Helgi is father of the famous Hrólf Kraki (called Hrothulf in Beowulf ). In Beowulf , another son of Healfdene/Halfdan named Heorogar is father of Heoroweard who corresponds to Hjörvard in the Old Norse accounts where Hjörvard's parentage is not told. The Old Norse accounts make Hjörvard to be the husband of Hrólf's sister and tell how Hjörvard rebelled against King Hrólf and burned him in his hall. But Hjörvard

208-573: Is known both as Fróði Mikilláti and Fróði the Peace-lover and looks suspiciously like a duplicate of the other peaceful Fróði. Snorri makes this second Fróði the father of Halfdan and of another son named Fridleif. Saxo in Books 4–5, long after the reign of Halfdan and the fall of the Skjöldung dynasty, also introduces a king named Dan, the third king with that name in his account, whose son is Fridleif whose son

234-594: Is the father of Danp, who is the father of Dan. The title Mikilláti can be translated as 'Magnificent' or 'Proud'. Snorri does not clarify whether this Dan is also descended from King Fridfrodi , or Peace-Fróði, whom Snorri presents as ruling in Zealand as a contemporary of Fjölnir , son of Frey , six generations before King Dygvi. Snorri writes further: In the time when the kings we have been speaking of were in Uppsala, Denmark had been ruled over by Dan Mikilláti, who lived to

260-605: Is the father of Frothi. In this lineage, one can recognize Fridleif and his son Fróði, both of whom are often mentioned in Norse sources. The latter, at least by parentage, is the Peace-Fróði introduced by Snorri early in the Ynglinga saga . Kings of the Danes are in bold and marked with an asterisk (*). Kings of the Swedes are marked with a dagger (†). Name spellings are derived from Oliver Elton 's 1905 translation, The First Nine Books of

286-457: Is the father of the famous hero Skioldus . The second king called Dan appears much later in Book 4 as the son of Uffi, son of Vermund (that is, Offa of Angel , son of Wermund ). However, Saxo mentions him only briefly, describing him as a warlike king who scorned his subjects and squandered his wealth, having greatly degenerated from his ancestors. He is succeeded by King Huglek, followed by Fróði

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312-646: The Swedes . Dan apparently first ruled in Zealand , as the Chronicle states that it was when he saved his people from an attack by Emperor Augustus that the Jutes and the men of Fyn and Scania also accepted him as king. Consequently, the resulting expanded country of Denmark was named after him. Dan's wife was named Dana, and his son was named Ro. Kings of the Danes are in bold and marked with an asterisk (*). The source used for

338-450: The Active, and then by the third Dan . Saxo does not specifically provide the parentage of any of these kings. Of this Dan, Saxo recounts only an anecdote: when Dan was twelve years old and tired of the arrogance of Saxon ambassadors who demanded tribute under the threat of war, he bridged the river Elbe with ships, crossed over, and won a great victory. This Dan is the father of Fridlef, who

364-480: The Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus , via Wikisource . The ' Song of Eric ' was once considered a valuable source for Migration Period history but is now regarded as inauthentic fakelore created during the 16th century. The ballad deals with Eric, the first king of Geatland ( fyrsti konunger i Götalandinu vidha ). He sent a troop of Geats southward to a country named Vetala, where no one had yet cultivated

390-619: The English, who gave their name to England. Dan fathered two sons, Humblus and Lotherus , by his wife Grytha. Neither son is otherwise known, although a king named Humli is a leader of the Huns in the Old Norse Battle of the Goths and Huns . Lotherus may have some relation to the Norse god Lóðurr or to the exiled king Heremod mentioned in Beowulf , or possibly to both. According to Saxo, Lotherus

416-578: The Old English poem Beowulf . Dan initially ruled in Jutland but later conquered Zealand from King Aleif , creating the kingdom of Denmark. Snorri Sturluson 's Ynglinga saga relates the story of King Dygvi of Sweden: Dygvi 's mother was Drótt, a daughter of King Danp, the son of Ríg, who was first called konungr ['king'] in the Danish tongue [( Old Norse )]. His descendants always afterwards considered

442-452: The Prose Edda , giving Old Norse forms for some of the names. The following list gives the supposed pedigree. The number, names, and order of the Skjöldung kings vary greatly in different texts until one comes to Halfdan /Healfdene. All Old English texts call Scyld's son and successor Beaw or some similar name. (The name was expanded to Beowulf in the poem Beowulf , probably in error by

468-563: The earliest ancestor of Scyld was a culture-hero named Sceaf , who was washed ashore as a child in an empty boat, bearing a sheaf of wheat. This is said to have occurred on an island named Scani or Scandza ( Scania ), and according to William of Malmesbury ( Gesta regum Anglorum ) he was later chosen as King of the Angles, reigning from Schleswig . His descendants became known as Scefings, or more usually Scyldings (after Sceldwea ). Snorri Sturluson adopted this tradition in his Prologue to

494-536: The father of a king Frotho I who is father of Haldanus I . Snorri Sturluson in his Edda , along with some other Old Norse texts, makes Skjöld to be father of Fridleif father of Fróði under whose reign the world was at peace. Snorri mentions this Fróði son of Fridleif in the Ynglinga saga also. But in this work Snorri also introduces a second, later Fróði, said to be son of certain Dan Mikilláti. The second Fróði

520-496: The genealogical information and name spellings is the English translation provided by Mischa Hooker of Augustana College . The Eddic poem Rígsthula tells how the god Ríg (said to be Heimdall ) fathered a mortal son named Jarl. Jarl had twelve sons with Erna Herse's daughter, the youngest of whom was named Kon the Young (Old Norse Konr Ungr ). This name is understood to be the origin of

546-546: The successor to Uffi, that is, Offa , son of Wermund , thus agreeing with the Skjöldungasaga . He states that this Dan was such a powerful king that he had another king as his page and two nobles to hold his horse. Kings of the Danes are in bold. The source used for the genealogical information and name spellings is the English translation by Eric Christiansen . Saxo Grammaticus , in his Gesta Danorum , presents three different Danish monarchs named Dan, either splitting

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572-408: The title konungr ('king'), although the etymology is, in fact, untenable. One day, while hunting and snaring birds in the forest, a crow spoke to him and suggested that he would gain more by going after men, praising the wealth of "Dan and Danp." The poem breaks off incomplete at that point. According to Arngrímur Jónsson 's Latin epitome of the lost Skjöldungasaga , made in 1597: Ríg (Rigus)

598-421: The title of konungr the title of highest dignity. Dygvi was the first of his family to be called konungr , for his predecessors had been called dróttinn ['chieftain'], and their wives dróttning , and their court drótt ['war band']. Each of their race was called Yngvi, or Ynguni, and the whole race together Ynglingar. Queen Drótt was a sister of King Dan Mikilláti, from whom Denmark took its name. Here, Ríg

624-580: Was a man not the least among the great ones of his time. He married the daughter of a certain Danp [Old Norse Danpr ], lord of Danpsted, whose name was Dana; and later, having won the royal title for his province, left as his heir his son by Dana, called Dan or Danum, all of whose subjects were called Danes. This tradition is similar to that of the Rígsthula . This Dan married Olof, the daughter of Wermund , and thus became brother-in-law to Offa of Angel , mentioned in

650-588: Was himself soon slain and with him the rule of the Skjöldung dynasty ended. A later lineage said to be of Skjöldung descent: Dan (Danish) Dan (or Halfdan ) is the name of one or more of the legendary earliest kings of the Danes and Denmark , as mentioned in medieval Scandinavian texts. The Chronicle of Lejre ( Chronicon Lethrense ), written around 1170, introduces a primeval King Ypper of Uppsala , whose three sons were Dan, who later ruled Denmark; Nori , who later ruled Norway ; and Østen, who later ruled

676-416: Was succeeded by a son named Gram . Since gram is also a simple adjective meaning "fierce" and a common kenning for "king", it might be that Saxo or a source has misunderstood some account referring to Beaw as being gram or a gram and wrongly taken it here as a personal name. Saxo has much to tell of this Gram who becomes the father of Hadingus of whom he has even more to relate, Hadingus in turn becomes

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