Eadgils of the Myrgings is a king of the

Myrgings The Myrgings were a clan and people of Saxon origin who, together with their king Eadgils, are only mentioned in the Old English poem ''Widsith''. They are mentioned as the people of the scop Widsith. They appear to have been the neighbours of th ...

a clan of

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

origin who is mentioned on lines 93-96 in the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

Widsith "Widsith" ( ang, Wīdsīþ, "far-traveller", lit. "wide-journey"), also known as "The Traveller's Song", is an Old English poem of 143 lines. It survives only in the ''Exeter Book'', a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late-10th c ...

''. He would have lived in the 5th century and is mentioned as the lord of the

scop A ( or ) was a poet as represented in Old English poetry. The scop is the Old English counterpart of the Old Norse ', with the important difference that "skald" was applied to historical persons, and scop is used, for the most part, to designa ...

himself in the poem. According to the Old English poem

, before Eadgils became king, the Myrgings had been at war with a tribe called the Mofdings under the previous king Meaca who was probably killed in battle fighting against them resulting in their defeat and forcing the Myrgings to retreat back to the

Eider Eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks, and some other ducks and geese, are used to fill pillows and quilt ...

where Eadgils probably became king, Following Meaca's death Eadgils became a powerful Myrging king by defeating the Mofdings and plundering the

Angles The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ' ...

and their lands as he was determined to rule over them, however the Angles forced the Myrgings to flight. No other source remembers the Myrgings as they were probably assimilated to the surrounding

and only leaving the slightest of traces, This Eadgils has sometimes been confused with the Swedish king

Eadgils Eadgils, ''Adils'', ''Aðils'', ''Adillus'', ''Aðísl at Uppsölum'', ''Athisl'', ''Athislus'' or ''Adhel'' was a semi-legendary king of Sweden, who is estimated to have lived during the 6th century. ''Beowulf'' and Old Norse sources present h ...

who lived almost a century later. Eadgils was at war with the

and plundered their lands, He slew

Frowinus Freawine, ''Frowin'' or ''Frowinus'' figures as a governor of Schleswig in ''Gesta Danorum'' and in the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as an ancestor of the kings of Wessex, but the latter source only tells that he was the son of Friðgar and the fathe ...

, the governor of

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

. Frowinus' sons

Ket and Wig Ket and Wig appear in the ''Gesta Danorum'' as the sons of Frowin, the governor of Schleswig. Wig also appears in the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as the son of Freawine (Frowin) and father of Gewis, eponymous ancestor of the kingdom of Wessex and t ...

avenged their father's death by killing Eadgils, but did so by fighting two against one. Because of this

Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æt ...

decided to fight two Myrging princes, probably the sons of Eadgils, and slew them. After this, the Myrgings were successfully conquered by Offa. The slaying of Eadgils is also mentioned in ''Annales Ryenses'' and by the Danish historian

Svend Aagesen Svend Aggesen (or "Sven"; also known as ''Aggessøn'', ''Aggesøn'' or ''Aagesen'', in Latin ''Sveno Aggonis''; born around 1140 to 1150, death unknown) is the author of '' Brevis historia regum Dacie'', one of the first attempts to write a coherent ...

. The latter says that the shameful act of letting two warriors fight at the same time against the Angle king Offa unable to speak when he was young.

References

''The Chronicle of the Kings of Lejre'', Peter Tunstall's translation
*
The story of Offa of Angel and the Myrgings
' {{s-end Saxon warriors 5th-century Saxon people Legendary Norsemen English heroic legends Legendary rulers