The LangfeðgatalSometimes written Langfedgetal or Langfedgatal (Old Norse pronunciation: , ) is a 12th-century Icelandic genealogy of Scandinavian kings. The anonymous Icelandic Langfeðgatal is preserved in a manuscript that is part of the

Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection The Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection ( da, Den Arnamagnæanske Håndskriftsamling, is, Handritasafn Árna Magnússonar) derives its name from the Icelandic scholar and antiquarian Árni Magnússon (1663–1730) — Arnas Magnæus in Latinised ...

(AM 415), a body of medieval Scandinavian works collected by the late-17th/early-18th century scholar and collector Árni Magnússon. The text was published, along with a Latin translation, in 1772 by Jacob Langbekin the first volume of ''Scriptores Rerum Danicarum Medii Ævi''. Langfeðgatal falls within a group of medieval manuscripts that trace the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon royalty back to legendary and divine progenitors.

Raymond Wilson Chambers Raymond Wilson Chambers (12 November 1874 – 23 April 1942) was a British literary scholar, author, librarian and academic; throughout his career he was associated with University College London (UCL). Life Chambers was educated at Univer ...

suggested that it, together with the

Anglian collection ''The Anglian collection'' is a collection of Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies and regnal lists. These survive in four manuscripts; two of which now reside in the British Library. The remaining two belong to the libraries of Corpus Christi College, ...

, the Ættartölur and the "West Saxon Regnal List from 494 to Reign of

Æthelred Æthelred (; ang, Æþelræd ) or Ethelred () is an Old English personal name (a compound of '' æþele'' and '' ræd'', meaning "noble counsel" or "well-advised") and may refer to: Anglo-Saxon England * Æthelred and Æthelberht, legendary prin ...

" were influenced by a common

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- ...

archetypal genealogy that existed around 970 CE. The Langfeðgatal genealogies are split into two branches, a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

line of

legendary progenitor A legendary progenitor is a legendary or mythological figure held to be the common ancestor of a dynasty, people, tribe or ethnic group. Overview Masculinity, femininity and ''"ghenos"'' or lineage linked to legendary progenitors were fundame ...

s leading to

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

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 Nor ...

and a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

line leading to Danish

, Horda-Knute. These lines converge on

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, v ...

, who takes the place of the

Woden 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, v ...

of the

Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies A number of royal genealogies of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, collectively referred to as the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, have been preserved in a manuscript tradition based in the 8th to 10th centuries. The genealogies trace the succession of th ...

. Though it then parallels the Anglo-Saxon pedigrees for several generations, but again diverges to trace a line that includes

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...

Priam In Greek mythology, Priam (; grc-gre, Πρίαμος, ) was the legendary and last king of Troy during the Trojan War. He was the son of Laomedon. His many children included notable characters such as Hector, Paris, and Cassandra. Etymology Mo ...

of Troy, and

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

before connecting with the

Generations of Noah The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or Origines Gentium, is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible (Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after the Flood, focusing on the major known socie ...

via

Japheth Japheth ( he, יֶפֶת ''Yép̄eṯ'', in pausa ''Yā́p̄eṯ''; el, Ἰάφεθ '; la, Iafeth, Iapheth, Iaphethus, Iapetus) is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis, in which he plays a role in the story of Noah's drunk ...

Noah Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

's son. The exact relationship of the genealogies contained in Langfeðgatal to similar trees in other Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sources is unclear. Alexander M. Bruce suggested that

Snorri Sturlson 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 ...

was in possession of the Langfeðgatal or a closely related text when he composed the detailed list of gods and heroes given in the ''

Prologue to the Prose Edda The Prologue is the first section of four books of the ''Prose Edda'', and consists of a euhemerized account of the origins of Norse mythology: the Norse gods are described descended from the Thracians. Regarding the euhemerization in the ''Pr ...

''. Anthony Faulkes suggests transmission in the opposite direction: a set of incomplete notes from the English Anglian collection manuscript T (or a closely related text) found their way to Iceland, and Faulkes sees Snorri's ''Prologue'' as an intermediate between these notes and the form of the mythical pedigrees take in Langfeðgatal.; Langfeðgatal has also been used as a generic description of this type of genealogical text, tracing royal lineages back to Biblical and classical forebears, such as Adam, Noah or the Trojan King Priam, like what is found in the second appendix to Islendingabok. This generic usage appears in Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen's ''

Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder ''Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformationstid'' ('A cultural-historical encyclopaedia of the Nordic Middle Ages, from the Viking Age to the Reformation period') was a major Nordic encyclopaedia. It was multil ...

''.Quinn, Judy, "From orality to literacy in medieval Iceland", p. 48 in Margaret Cluneis Ross (ed.) ''Old Icelandic Literature and Society'', Cambridge University Press, , 2000.]

References

External links

Langfeðgatal in Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Manuscript AM 415 - Alfræði íslenzk III: Landalýsingar et al. Copenhagen, 1917–18, Pages 57–8]
Heimskringla
The full text in Icelandic, Norwegian and English as parallel texts
Germanic Lexicon Project - lang-feðgar, langfeðga-tal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Langfedgatal Scandinavian royal houses