Hálfdan Long-Legs
Halfdan Long-Leg (Old Norse: ''Hálfdan háleggur'', Norwegian: ''Halvdan Hålegg'') was a Viking-Age warrior who lived in the latter half of the 9th century. He was the son of King Harald Fairhair and a Sami woman named Snæfrithr Svásadottir. Snorri Sturluson in ''Heimskringla'' states that Halfdan was one of Harald's many sons who were involved in a power struggle with one another. Harald Fairhair had pushed Halfdan and his brothers away after the death of their mother. Halfdan and his brother Gudrød Ljome were responsible for murdering Rognvald Eysteinsson and 60 of his men by burning them inside a structure in an attempt to claim his lands. Upon learning of this event, Harald flew into a rage and sent out a great force against Gudrød who was put under Harald's personal observance. Rognvald's son Torf-Einarr performed the Blood eagle The blood eagle was a method of ritually executing a chosen member as detailed in late skaldic poetry. According to the two instances menti ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their Viking expansion, overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 7th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid-to-late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old West Norse, ''Old West Norse'' or ''Old West Nordic'' (often referred to as ''Old Norse''), Old East Norse, ''Old East Norse'' or ''Old East Nordic'', and ''Ol ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Norwegian Language
Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional varieties; some Norwegian and Swedish dialects, in particular, are very close. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. While the two Germanic languages with the greatest numbers of speakers, English and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. Today there are two official forms of ''written'' Norwegian, (literally ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Viking Age
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germanic Iron Age. The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of Scandinavia but also to any place significantly settled by Scandinavians during the period. The Scandinavians of the Viking Age are often referred to as ''Vikings'' as well as ''Norsemen'', although few of them were Vikings in sense of being engaged in piracy. Voyaging by sea from their homelands in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the Norse people settled in the British Isles, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, and the Baltic coast and along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes in eastern Europe, where they were also known as Varangians. They also briefly settled in Newfoundland, becoming the first Europeans to reach North America. The Norse-Gaels, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harald Fairhair
Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagre Modern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first King of Norway. Supposedly, two of his sons, Eric Bloodaxe and Haakon the Good, succeeded Harald to become kings after his death. Much of Harald's biography is uncertain. A couple of praise poems by his court poet Þorbjörn Hornklofi survive in fragments, but the extant accounts of his life come from sagas set down in writing around three centuries after his lifetime. His life is described in several of the Kings' sagas, none of them older than the twelfth century. Their accounts of Harald and his life differ on many points, but it is clear that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Harald was regarded as having unified Norway into one kingdom. Since the nineteenth century, when Norway was in a personal union with Sweden, Harald has become a na ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sami People
Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise network of malaria researchers People * Samee, also spelled Sami, a male given name * Sami (name), including lists of people with the given name or surname * Sámi people, indigenous people of the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia and Finland ** Sámi cuisine ** Sámi languages, of the Sami people ** Sámi shamanism, a faith of the Sami people Places * Sápmi, a cultural region in Northern Europe * Sami (ancient city), in Elis, Greece * Sami Bay, east of Sami, Cephalonia * Sami District, Gambia * Sami, Burkina Faso, a district of the Banwa Province * Sami, Cephalonia, a municipality in Greece * Sami, Gujarat, a town in Patan district of Gujarat, India * Sami, Paletwa, a town in Chin State, Myanmar * Sämi, a village in L ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Snæfrithr Svásadottir
Snæfrithr Svásadottir (or ''Snjófríthr Svásadóttir,'' Norwegian: ''Snøfrid Svåsedatter'') also called ''Snæfride finzsku'' (''Snæfrithr the Finnish/Sami'') was, according to medieval tradition a wife of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair. The legend is described in both ''Heimskringla'' and '' Ágrip'', and she is briefly mentioned in '' Orkneyinga saga''. She is described as a Sami woman and is according to the sagas, the ancestor of Harald Hardrada. With the exception of Ragnhild the Mighty, she is the only wife of Harald Fairhair mentioned by name outside of ''Heimskringla'.'' Saga account The sagas tell of king Harald being at a yule feast in Gudbrandsdalen at the estate Tofti, when he was visited by a giant called Svási arrived and invited him to his hut. In Svási's hut the king was presented to the giant's Finn (Sami) daughter Snæfrithr. The king was over come with lust and wanted to bed her, but Svási would not allow his daughter to be a concubine so the two ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ''Prose Edda'', which is a major source for what is today known as Norse mythology, and ''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''. He was assassinated in 1241 by men claiming to be agents of the King of Norway. Biography Early life Snorri Sturluson was born in (commonly transliterated as Hvamm or Hvammr) as a member of the wealthy and powerful Sturlungar clan of the Icelandic Commonwealth, in AD 1179. His parents were ''Sturla Þórðarson the Elder'' of ''Hvammur'' and his second wife, ''Guðný Böðvarsdóttir''. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heimskringla
''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts (''kringla heimsins'', "the circle of the world"). ''Heimskringla'' is a collection of sagas about Swedish and Norwegian kings, beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177. The exact sources of the Snorri's work are disputed, but they include earlier kings' sagas, such as Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna and the 12th-century Norwegian synoptic histories and oral traditions, notably many skaldic poems. He explicitly names the now lost work ''Hryggjarstykki'' as his source for the events of the mid-12th century. Although Sno ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rognvald Eysteinsson
Rognvald Eysteinsson (''fl.'' 865) was the founding Jarl (or Earl) of Møre in Norway, and a close relative and ally of Harald Fairhair, the earliest known King of Norway. In the Norse language he is known as Rǫgnvaldr Eysteinsson (''Mǿrajarl'') and in modern Norwegian as Ragnvald Mørejarl. He is sometimes referred to with bynames that may be translated into modern English as "Rognvald the Wise" or "Rognvald the Powerful". The earliest available sources regarding Rognvald are mutually contradictory and were compiled long after he died. The best known are the Norse Sagas, although modern scholars highlight many inconsistencies and improbable claims regarding Rognvald in the sagas, and believe that they must be treated with caution: The texts of the sagas were compiled three centuries after the events described and their accuracy in regard to Rognvald's life and historical significance is now questioned. Hence some scholars instead emphasise other accounts, closer to the histo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Torf-Einarr
Einarr Rognvaldarson ( early 890s–c. 910), often referred to by his byname Torf-Einarr (sometimes anglicised as Turf-Einar), was one of the Norse earls of Orkney. The son of the Norse ''jarl'' Rognvald Eysteinsson and a concubine, his rise to power is related in sagas which apparently draw on verses of Einarr's own composition for inspiration. After battling for control of the Northern Isles of Scotland and a struggle with Norwegian royalty, Einarr founded a dynasty which retained control of the islands for centuries after his death. He is portrayed as a successful warrior and has various characteristics in common with the Norse God Odin but his historicity is not in doubt. The reasons for his nickname of "Turf" are not certain. Sources The sources for Einarr's life are exclusively the Norse sagas, none of which were written down during his lifetime. The '' Orkneyinga saga'' was first compiled in Iceland in the early 13th century and much of the information it contains is "h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blood Eagle
The blood eagle was a method of ritually executing a chosen member as detailed in late skaldic poetry. According to the two instances mentioned in the Sagas, the victims (in both cases members of royal families) were placed in a prone position, their ribs severed from the spine with a sharp tool, and their lungs pulled through the opening to create a pair of "wings". Until the 1980s, there was continuing debate about whether the rite was a literary invention, a mistranslation of the original texts, or an authentic historical practice. Accounts The blood-eagle ritual-killing rite appears in just two instances in Norse literature, plus oblique references some have interpreted as referring to the same practice. The primary versions share certain commonalities: the victims are both noblemen (Halfdan Haaleg or "Long-leg" was a prince; Ælla of Northumbria a king), and both of the executions were in retaliation for the murder of a father. Einarr and Halfdan There are two sources that ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |