Euphemia of Rügen (c. 1280 – May 1312) was Queen of Norway as the spouse of Håkon V of Norway. She is famous in history as a literary figure, and known for commissioning translations of

romances Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

Biography

Euphemia was most likely the daughter of Vitslav II,

Prince of Rügen A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

(1240–1302). Older Norwegian historiography claims she was the daughter of Günther, Count of

Arnstein Arnstein () is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Location The town lies on the banks of the river Wern and is roughly 20 km from Schwe ...

and Prince Vitslav her maternal grandfather. This claim has, however, been refuted. Euphemia married Håkon V of Norway in the spring of 1299. Haakon's brother, King Eric II, subsequently died in July 1299 at which time Håkon became king of Norway. The marriage between Euphemia and Haakon had probably been agreed on at a Danish-Norwegian settlement meeting in the autumn of 1298, where Prince Vitslav participated as a mediator and guarantee. The couple resided at

Akershus Castle Akershus Fortress ( no, Akershus Festning, ) or Akershus Castle ( no, Akershus slott ) is a medieval castle in the Norwegian capital Oslo that was built to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. Since the Middle Ages the fortress ha ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. Queen Euphemia was well known for her cultural interests. She loved to read and owned a large collection of books, which was said to have been one of the largest collections in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

at that time. Queen Euphemia represented the emerging chivalric culture. Queen Euphemia, who was eager to cultivate continental culture within the Nordic courts, had translations made of three French and German twelfth-century chivalric romances in verse and sent copies to the Swedish court. The three ballads were titled '' Herr Ivan lejonriddaren'' (1303), ''

Hertig Fredrik av Normandie ''Hertig Fredrik av Normandie'' ("Duke Frederick of Normandy") is an anonymous, 3,310-line Swedish translation of a lost German romance, which according to ''Hertig Fredrik'' was itself translated from French at the behest of the Emperor Otto. By i ...

'' (1301 or 1308) and '' Flores och Blanzeflor'' (probably 1312). Each poem has a final statement that they were translated by initiative from Queen Euphemia. These became known in Swedish as the

Eufemiavisorna The ''Eufemiavisorna'' are a group of three medieval romances translated into medieval Swedish: '' Herr Ivan lejonriddaren'' (1303), ''Hertig Fredrik av Normandie'' (1301 or 1308), and ''Flores och Blanzeflor'' (probably 1312). They are known in S ...

(Norwegian ''Eufemiavisene''), the 'Euphemia ballads', and were popular in both

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and Sweden. Her only surviving child was

Ingeborg of Norway Ingeborg of Norway ( Old Norse ''Ingibjörg Hákonardóttir'', Swedish ''Ingeborg Håkansdotter'', Norwegian ''Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter''; 1301 – 17 June 1361), was a Norwegian princess and by marriage a Swedish royal duchess with a positio ...

. In 1312, Ingeborg married Duke Eric Magnusson of Sweden, who was a younger son of King

Magnus III of Sweden Magnus III ( 1240 – 18 December 1290), also called Magnus Ladulås, was King of Sweden from 1275 until his death in 1290. Name He was the ''first Magnus'' to rule Sweden for any length of time, not generally regarded as a usurper or ...

and the brother of King Birger of Sweden. Their son Magnus Eriksson would succeed both Håkon as king of Norway and Birger as king of Sweden. King Håkon and Queen Euphemia were buried in St. Mary's Church in

. Remains of two people, deemed to be Håkon and Euphemia, were discovered during excavations of the ruins of that church and reinterred in the Royal Mausoleum in

.''Gamlebyen – boligstrøk i Oslo'' (Store norske leksikon)
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References

Sources

* Bandlien, Bjørn (ed.) ''Eufemia: Oslos middelalderdronning'' (biografi) 2012 * Thuesen, Nils Petter ''Norges dronninger gjennom 1000 år'' (Tiden, 1991) {{DEFAULTSORT:Euphemia Of Rugen 1270 births 1312 deaths Norwegian royal consorts Burials at the Royal Mausoleum (Norway) Fairhair dynasty House of Sverre 13th-century Norwegian people 13th-century Norwegian women 14th-century Norwegian people 14th-century Norwegian women