Everything about Yngling totally explained
» For other uses, see Yngling (disambiguation).
The
Ynglings were the oldest known Scandinavian dynasty. It can refer to the following
clans:
- The Scylfings (Old Norse: Skilfingar), the semi-legendary royal Swedish clan during the Age of Migrations, with kings such as Eadgils, Onela and Ohthere. When Beowulf and Ynglingatal were composed sometime in the 8th-10th centuries, the respective scop and skald expected his audience to have a great deal of background information about these kings, which is shown in the allusiveness of the references.
- The Fairhair dynasty, descending from the kings of Oppland, Norway. According to surviving early sources, such as Ynglingatal and Íslendingabók these kings were descended from the Swedish Scylfings of Uppland, Sweden.
- The House of Munsö, a Swedish dynasty. The earliest kings of this dynasty that historians generally agree are historical are Eric the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung.
Some early kings were probably mythical, whereas others probably existed in real life. Especially,
Egil,
Ottar,
Ale and
Adils are mentioned in several sources and are very likely to have been real kings.
Names
In the Scandinavian sources they're the descendants of
Yngvi-
Frey of
Vanaheim.
Yngling means
descendant of Frey, and in the
Gesta Danorum of
Saxo Grammaticus they're called the
sons of Frey.
Several of these kings appear in
Beowulf:
Eadgils (Adils),
Onela (Ale) and
Ohthere (Ottar Vendelkråka), but here they're called
Scylfings (see the
Beowulf section below).
Snorri Sturluson hints at a less divine origin in
Skáldskaparmál for this dynasty:
One war-king was named Skelfir; and his house is called the House of Skilfings: his kindred is in the Eastern Region (Sweden is the eastern part of Scandinavia, and the Swedish kings could be called
east kings).
Another origin for the name
skilfing is possible: Snorri described
Erik and Alrik, the sons of
Skjalf to be the de facto ancestors of this
Norse clan.
» The kings who resided at Upsal had been the supreme chiefs over the whole Swedish dominions until the death of Agne, when, as before related, the kingdom came to be divided between brothers (Alrek and Erik). After that time the dominions and kingly powers were spread among the branches of the family as these increased; but some kings cleared great tracts of forest-land, and settled them, and thereby increased their domains.(External Link
)
From Sweden to Norway
According to
Snorri Sturluson, the dynasty led the settlement of the Swedish provinces and established themselves as the kings of its provinces, accepting the overlordship of the Swedish king at
Uppsala, until the dynasty all but exterminated itself with
Ingjald Ill-Ruler and his downfall. A survivor
Olof Trätälja was the ancestor of the Norwegian branch.
Remaining in Sweden?
However, both Snorri (as in the earlier quote) and
Saxo described the clan as remaining in Sweden after this date.
Saxo on the
Battle of Bråvalla (ca
750):
» Now the bravest of the Swedes were these: Arwakki, Keklu-Karl (Kelke-Karl), Krok the Peasant, (from Akr), Gudfast and Gummi from Gislamark. These were kindred of the god Frey, and most faithful witnesses to the gods. Ingi (Yngwe) also, and Oly, Alver, Folki, all sons of Elrik (Alrek), embraced the service of Ring (Sigurd Ring); they were men ready of hand, quick in counsel, and very close friends of Ring. They likewise held the god Frey to be the founder of their race. Amongst these from the town of Sigtun (Old Sigtuna) also came Sigmund, a champion advocate, versed in making contracts of sale and purchase; besides him Frosti surnamed Bowl: allied with him was Alf the Lofty (Proud?) from the district of Upsala (Old Uppsala); this man was a swift spear-thrower, and used to go in the front of the battle.(External Link)
Moreover, both in Icelandic sources and in the
Gesta Danorum, king
Sigurd Ring would become the ancestor of the houses of
Ragnar Lodbrok and would thus be the semi-legendary ancestor of later Swedish and Danish royal houses. (See the
House of Munsö.)
The line
The name Scylfing
In
Old English several kings who are generally identified as Ynglings are called
Scylfings.
The genealogy is given as:
Ongentheow
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Eadgils Eanmund
Ohthere (
Ottar) also occurs as the father of Aedgils (
Adils) in
Ynglingatal. There Skilfing (
Skilfingr) appears as a synonym of Yngling, in a line on
Egil, the father of
Ottar, so that Ongentheow is considered identical to
Egil.
» Ok lofsæll
:ór landi fló » Týs óttungr
Tunna ríki, » en flæming
farra trjónu » jötuns eykr
á Agli rauð. » Sás of austr
áðan hafði » brúna hörg
of borinn lengi, » en skíðlauss
Skilfinga nið » hœfis hjörr
til hjarta stóð.(External Link)
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» The fair-haired son of Odin's race,
:Who fled before fierce Tunne's face, » Has perished by the demon-beast
Who roams the forests of the East. » The hero's breast met the full brunt
Of the wild bull's shaggy front; » The hero's heart's asunder torn
By the fell Jotun's spear-like horn."(Laing's translation (External Link))
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Likewise in the
Skáldskaparmál the Scylfings are described as an eastern family and
East King was a conventional
kenning for a Swedish king.
However, in the
Ættartolur, (the genealogies attached to
Hversu Noregr byggdist), the Skilfings are of
Norwegian origin and include a family identified as
Skjöldungs. In the eddic poem
Grímnismál (stanza 55),
Skilfing appears as one of
Odin's names, the information there also appearing in the
Gylfaginning..
Beowulf
In the Old English poem
Beowulf, the word
Scylfing occurs twice in the singular and twice in the plural. For alliterative purposes the name could be extended, such as the form
Heathoscylfing 'Battle-Scylfing', which occurs once in the singular and twice in the plural. A Scylfing whose name is partly missing but ends in
-ela married the sister of
Hrothgar and
Halga. Specifically identified as Scylfings are
Ongentheow, king of Sweden, and by extension his subject
Wiglaf son of
Weohstan. Wiglaf and Weohstan belonged to the family of the
Wægmundings to which
Beowulf and his father
Ecgtheow also belonged. Another extended form is
helm Scylfinga. This literally means 'Scylfings'-helmet'; it's a pun meaning both "ruler of the Scylfings" and "protector of the Scylfings". The
Beowulf poet uses it to refer to Ongentheow's son
Onela.
In Norse tradition
From the Hyndluljód
The eddic poem
Hyndluljód, in stanza 16 speaks of descendants of an ancient king named
Halfdan the Old:
Hence come the Skjöldungs, hence the Skilfings,
Hence the Ödlings [Ǫðlingar], hence the Ylfings, ...(External Link)
From the Skáldskaparmál
In the
Skáldskaparmál,
Snorri Sturluson speaks of the second group of nine sons of Halfdan the Old, from whom many families of legend descend, one of these sons being
Yngvi, purported ancestor of the Yngling lineage. But neither Skylfings or Skjöldungs are specifically derived from these sons. Snorri continues with examples of famous descendants of three of those lineages, followed by: "Of the house of the
Ylfings was Eirík the Eloquent (
Eiríkr inn málspaki)." But Ylfings have not been previously mentioned. Then follows the names of four ancestors of four lineages not descended from Halfdan, which include Yngvi and the Ynglings a second time. There is obvious confusion or corruption in this passage or its source. The fourth lineage is identified:
One war-king was named Skelfir; and his house is called the House of Skilfings: his kindred is in the Eastern Region.
A connection with the east might mean a connection to Sweden, but the vagueness of expression suggests Snorri knows no more about these Skilfings than he's written.
Snorri also gives
Skilfing as a kenning for "king" and it appears as a kenning for "sword" in the
thulur found in some versions of the
Skáldkskaparmál.
From the Ættartolur
The Ættartolur connected to
Hversu Noregr byggdist are a longer variant of the genealogical passages in the
Skáldskaparmál, also speaking of Halfdan the Old and lineages descended from him and of other notable lineages, but in much greater detail. In this list of the sons of Halfdan, Yngvi the ancestor of the Ynglings is missing and Skelfir the ancestor of the Skilfings appears in his place. This might be a remembrance of an earlier identity or connection of the Swedish Ynglings and the Swedish Scylfings in
Beowulf. But nothing in the following genealogy is
necessarily Swedish though possible Swedish parallels do appear, particular the names Alrek and Eirík as discussed below.
There are many oddities in this account.
It claims Skelfir was king of Vörs (
Vǫrs), modern
Voss in northern
Hordaland in southwestern Norway, but Halfdan's inheritance was in southeastern Norway.
Skelfir was the father of Skjöld (
Skjǫldr). The account ends by saying that lineage of Skelfir was called the Skilfing lineage or the Skjöldung lineage, seemingly identifying the two. But Skjöldungs are normally the legendary royal family of the rulers of
Denmark and no connection with Denmark is made here. Indeed the
Ættartolur later twice gives a quite different list of descendants of the Danish Skjöld who is there made a son of Odin as commonly in Norse texts. Skjöld as son of Skelfir might be related to English traditions of
Scyld being a son or descendant of Sceaf (as discussed under
Sceaf), though here too (at least in
Beowulf) the connection is to Danish matters, not to Norway.
This Norwegian Skjöld, ancestor of the Norwegian Skjöldungs, is father of Eirík, father of Alrek (
Alrekr), father of Eirík the Eloquent, whom the
Skáldskaparmál presented as an Ylfing. These two mentions are the only occurrences of Eirík the Eloquent in Norse texts. But what seems to be the same figure appears prominently in book 5 of
Saxo Grammaticus'
Gesta Danorum as Ericus disertus. This Ericus disertus is indeed a Norwegian, but his father isn't named Alrek but rather Regnerus pugilex, that's Ragnar the Champion. The
Gesta Danorum then somewhat forcibly identifies Ericus disertus with Eirík, a legendary king of Sweden, a king who in the
Ynglinga saga and elsewhere has an elder brother (rather than a father) named Alrek. See
Alrek and Eirík for details.
In the
Ynglinga saga the mother of the Swedish kings Alrek and Eirík is named
Skjálf, which might also be an eponym for Skilfing.
Returning to the
Ættartolur, there Eirík the Eloquent is father of Alrek, father of Víkar (
Víkarr), father of Vatnar. This Víkar is the famous Víkar, king of Hördaland, who was sacrificed to Odin by
Starkad. The chain of descent from Alrek to Víkar to Vatnar is also found in
Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka ('The saga of Hálf and his heroes'). However
Gautreks saga gives an entirely different ancestry and different descendants to Víkar. See
Víkar for details.
This genealogy may have been based on attempts to ascribe a Norwegian origin to both Swedish Scylfings and Danish Skjöldungs and also be related to Saxo's account of the Norwegian Ericus desertus. If so, as it stands, it has been edited to remove material that would obviously conflict with the standard genealogies of the Skjöldungs and Ynglings which also appear in the
Ættartolur.
Variant spellings
Other anglicized spellings: Eirík:
Eirik ;
Eirík the Eloquent:
Eirik the Eloquent,
Eiríkr the Wise in Speech ;
Halfdan the Old:
Hálfdan the Old ;
Skjöld:
Skjold,
Skiold,
Scyld ;
Starkad:
Starkath ;
Víkar:
Vikar ;
Vörs:
Vor.
Misc
In the game The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind an NPC is called Yngling Half-Troll
Further Information
Get more info on 'Yngling'.
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