Gundered ( es, Gunderedo; putatively non, Guðrǫðr; sometimes rendered ''Gunrod'' or ''Gunrød'') was a
Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
warlord, known only from a group of twelfth-century Spanish Latin
Chronicles
Chronicles may refer to:
* ''Books of Chronicles'', in the Bible
* Chronicle, chronological histories
* ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', a novel series by C. S. Lewis
* ''Holinshed's Chronicles'', the collected works of Raphael Holinshed
* '' The Idh ...
all of which derive from the lost eleventh-century ''
Chronicle of Sampiro'': the ''
Historia Silense'', the ''
Liber chronicorum of Pelayo of Oviedo''
and ''
Chronica Naierense''. In the account of the ''Historia Silense'':
In the second year of his reign ( Ramiro III, i.e. 968) one hundred ships of Vikings (''Normani'') with their king Gundered penetrated the cities of Galicia and with much slaughter in the lands of Santiago, whose bishop Sisnando perished by the sword. They sacked all Galicia as far as the ''Pirineos montes Ezebrarii''. In the third year of their settlement, God, from whom nothing is hidden, brought down his vengeance upon them; for just as they had carried the Christians away captive and put many to the sword, so many ills fell upon them, until they were forced to go out from Galicia. Count Guillelmus Sánchez, in the name of the Lord, and with the aid of the Apostle Santiago whose lands they had devastated, went out with a great army and with divine aid killed all the pagans, including their king, and burned their ships.[Quoted by Ann Christys, ''Vikings in the South'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), pp. 83-84, citting ''Historia Silense'', ed. by J. Pérez de Urbel (Madrid: CSIC, 1959), p. 171.]
None of the people mentioned here, nor the precise places, can be certainly identified apart from Bishop
Sisnando Menéndez Sisnando Menéndez was a bishop of Iria Flavia
Iria Flavia or simply Iria in Galicia, northwestern Spain, is an Ancient settlement and former bishopric in the modern municipality of Padrón, which remains a Catholic titular see.
History
Loca ...
, though Guillelmus Sánchez might be identifiable as an obscure
Galician count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
of
Visigothic
The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...
descent,
Gonzalo Sánchez, or as
William Sánchez of Gascony
__notoc__
William II Sánchez (also William Sancho, eu, Gilen Antso, french: Guillaume Sanche, Gascon: ''Guilhem Sans'', la, Willelmus Sancio, es, Guillén or ), Duke of Gascony from ''circa'' 961 at least until 996, was the younger illegitimat ...
.
[Ann Christys, ''Vikings in the South'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), p. 84.]
This has not prevented speculation about Gundered's identity. Suggestions include that he was one of two sons of the (possibly fictitious) Norwegian king
Haraldr inn hárfagri named Guðrøðr in the thirteenth-century Icelandic ''
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, derive ...
'';
or that he was a "
Sea-King" (''sækonungr''), possibly a cousin or brother of
Harald II of Norway
Harald Greycloak (Old Norse: ''Haraldr gráfeldr'', lit. "Harald Grey-hide"; Norwegian: ; Danish: ; c. 935 – c. 970) was a king of Norway from the Fairhair dynasty.
Harald acquired his nickname "Gray-hide" after an encounter with the crew of ...
.
See also
*
Vikings in Iberia
Notes
{{reflist
Sources
* Forte, Oram, and Pedersen (2005), Viking Empires, p. 60
* Velasco, Manuel (2008) Breve Historia de los Vikingos, p. 175
* Eduardo Morales Romero (1997) (en gallego). Os vikingos en Galicia. La Coruña.
* A. Fabricius
Forbindelserne mellem Norden og den Spanske Halvø i ældre Tider Copenhague, 1882.
* Eduardo Morales Romero: Los vikingos en España. Revista
Historia de Iberia Vieja, n.º 12, Madrid: HRH * Editores, 2006.
* Rolf Scheen
Viking raids on the spanish peninsula 2006
Viking warriors
10th-century Norwegian people
10th-century Vikings