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House Of Munsö
The House of Munsö (), also called the House of Björn Ironside (Swedish: ), the House of Uppsala (Swedish: ) or simply the Old dynasty (Swedish: ), 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. A long and elaborate sequence of kings of the Munsö dynasty can be found in 12th and 13th century Icelandic sagas, but the sagas are overwhelmingly considered unreliable, with the kings that appear in them seen as legendary figures. The sequence of kings in the sagas is contradicted by more contemporary German sources such as the 9th century writings of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anund Jacob
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 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. Accession The main sources for Anund Jacob's reign are the near-contemporary ecclesiastic chronicle of Adam of Bremen and several Norse histories from the 12th and 13h centuries, in par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ynglinga Saga
''Ynglinga saga'' ( ) is a Kings' saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his ''Heimskringla''. It was first translated into English and published in 1844 by Samuel Laing. Snorri Sturluson based his work on an earlier ''Ynglingatal'' which is attributed to the Norwegian 9th-century skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, and which also appears in ''Historia Norwegiae''. It tells the most ancient part of the story of the House of Ynglings (''Scylfings'' in ''Beowulf''). Snorri described the descent of the kings of Norway from this royal house of Sweden. ''Ynglinga saga'' is the first part of Snorri's history of the ancient Norse kings, the ''Heimskringla.'' Snorri's work covers the history of the Norwegian kings from the mythical prehistoric age until 1177, with the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla. Interwoven in this narrative are references to important historical events. The saga deals wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olof Skötkonung
Olof Skötkonung, (Old Norse: ''Óláfr skautkonungr'') sometimes stylized as ''Olaf the Swede'' (c. 980–1022), 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, because he was the first Christian king of the Swedes, who were the last to adopt Christianity in Scandinavia. He is associated with a growing influence of the church in what is today southwestern and central Sweden. Norse beliefs persisted in parts of Sweden until the 12th century. Olof was victorious alongside Sweyn Forkbeard when the kings created an alliance to defeat the Norwegian king Olaf Trygg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birka
Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of the European continent and the Orient. Björkö is located in Lake Mälaren, 30 kilometers west of contemporary Stockholm, in the municipality of Ekerö. Birka was founded around AD 750 and it flourished for more than 200 years. It was abandoned c. AD 975, around the same time Sigtuna was founded as a Christian town some 35 km to the northeast. It has been estimated that the population in Viking Age Birka was between 500 and 1000 people. The archaeological sites of Birka and Hovgården, on the neighbouring island of Adelsö, make up an archaeological complex which illustrates the elaborate trading networks of Viking Scandinavia and their influence on the subsequent history of Europe. Generally regarded as Sweden's oldest town, Birka (along with Hovgården) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mälaren
Mälaren ( , , or ), historically referred to as Lake Malar in English, is the third-largest freshwater lake in Sweden (after Vänern and Vättern). Its area is 1,140 km2 and its greatest depth is 64 m. Mälaren spans 120 kilometers from east to west. The lake drains, from south-west to north-east, into the Baltic Sea through its natural outlets Norrström and Söderström (as it flows around Stadsholmen island) and through the artificial Södertälje Canal and Hammarbyleden waterway. The easternmost bay of Mälaren, in central Stockholm, is called Riddarfjärden. The lake is located in Svealand and bounded by the provinces of Uppland, Södermanland and Västmanland. The two largest islands in Mälaren are Selaön (91 km2) and Svartsjölandet (79 km2). Mälaren is low-lying and mostly relatively shallow. Being a quite narrow and shallow lake, Mälaren has bridge crossings between Eskilstuna and Västerås with two crossings on the western end at Kvicksund and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamla Uppsala
Gamla, alt. sp. Gamala ( he, גַּמְלָא, The Camel) was an ancient Jewish city on the Golan Heights. It is believed to have been founded as a Seleucid fort during the Syrian Wars which was turned into a city under Hasmonean rule in 81 BCE. During the Great Revolt, it became an important stronghold for rebels and because of this Gamla is a symbol for the modern state of Israel and an important historical and archaeological site. It lies within the current Gamla nature reserve and is a prominent tourist attraction. History Situated at the southern part of the Golan, overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Gamla was built on a steep hill shaped like a camel's hump, from which it derives its name (''Gamla'' meaning 'the camel' in Aramaic). Early history Archaeological excavations have shown that in the place of Gamla there was already a settlement in the Early Bronze Age. The settlement was probably agricultural, as archaeologists have found evidence of long-term use of flint s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic using particular sources, techniques, and theoretical approaches. Scholars discuss historiography by topic—such as the historiography of the United Kingdom, that of WWII, the British Empire, early Islam, and China—and different approaches and genres, such as political history and social history. Beginning in the nineteenth century, with the development of academic history, there developed a body of historiographic literature. The extent to which historians are influenced by their own groups and loyalties—such as to their nation state—remains a debated question. In the ancient world, chronological annals were produced in civilizations such as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. However, the discipline of his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, and the Runes, runic alphabet, and depicts him as the husband of the goddess Frigg. In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, the god was also known in Old English as ', in Old Saxon as , in Old Dutch as ''Wuodan'', in Old Frisian as ''Wêda'', and in Old High German as , all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic theonym *''Wōðanaz'', meaning 'lord of frenzy', or 'leader of the possessed'. Odin appears as a prominent god throughout the recorded history of Northern Europe, from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania (from BCE) through movement of peoples during the Migration Period (4th to 6th centuries CE) and the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries CE). In the modern pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yngling
The Ynglings were a dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem ''Ynglingatal''. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings (Old Norse ''Skilfingar'') in ''Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal'' were composed sometime in the eighth to tenth centuries, the respective scop and skald (poet) expected his audience to have a great deal of background information about these kings, which is shown in the allusiveness of the references. According to sources such as ''Ynglingatal'' and ''Íslendingabók'', the Fairhair dynasty in Oppland, Norway was in fact a branch of the Ynglings. Saxo Grammaticus held that Eric the Victorious, whom modern regnal lists usually begin with, and his House of Munsö, descendents were also Ynglings, but this does not tally with Icelandic sources. The dynasty claimed descent from the gods Freyr and Njörðr, and other kings were likely mythical as well, whereas others may have been real: especially Ongenþeow, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the ''Gesta Danorum'', the first full history of Denmark, from which the legend of Amleth would come to inspire the story of ''Hamlet'' by Shakespeare. Life The '' Jutland Chronicle'' gives evidence that Saxo was born in Zealand. It is unlikely he was born before 1150 and it is supposed that his death could have occurred around 1220. His name Saxo was a common name in medieval Denmark. The name ''Grammaticus'' ("the learned") was first given to him in the ''Jutland Chronicle'' and the ''Sjælland Chronicle'' makes reference to Saxo ''cognomine Longus'' ("with the byname 'the tall'"). He lived in a period of warfare and Danish expansion, led by Archbishop Absalon and the Valdemars. The Danes were also being threatened ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gesta Danorum
''Gesta Danorum'' ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history. It is also one of the oldest known written documents about the history of Estonia and Latvia. Consisting of sixteen books written in Latin on the invitation of Archbishop Absalon, ''Gesta Danorum'' describes Danish history and to some degree Scandinavian history in general, from prehistory to the late 12th century. In addition, ''Gesta Danorum'' offers singular reflections on European affairs in the High Middle Ages from a unique Scandinavian perspective, supplementing what has been handed down by historians from Western and Southern Europe. Books The sixteen books, in prose with an occasional excursion into poetry, can be categorized into two parts: Books 1–9, which deal with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viking Expansion
Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norsemen, Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as far as Russia, and through the Mediterranean as far as Constantinople and the Middle East, acting as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries. To the west, Vikings under Leif Erikson, the heir to Erik the Red, Norse colonization of North America, reached North America and set up a short-lived settlement in present-day L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland, Canada. Longer lasting and more established Norse settlements were formed in History of Greenland#Norse settlement, Greenland, Settlement of Iceland, Iceland, the Norse settlement in the Faroe Islands, Faroe Islands, Russia, Viking activity in the British Isles, Great Britain, History of Ireland (800–1169), Ireland and Duchy of Normandy#Norse settlement, Normandy. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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