Sæmingr was a king of

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 ...

according to

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 ...

euhemerized Euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exagge ...

accounts or

Hålogaland Hålogaland was the northernmost of the Norway, Norwegian provinces in the medieval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a Monarchy, kingdom extending between the Namdalen valley in Trøndelag county and ...

. He was said to be the son of

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 ...

or Yngvi-Freyr. According to the prologue of the ''Prose Edda'', Sæmingr was one of the

sons of Odin Various gods and men appear as sons of Odin or sons of Wodan/Wotan/Woden in old Old Norse language, Old Norse and Old High German and Old English language, Old English texts. Thor, Baldr, Víðarr and Váli Four gods, Thor, Baldr, Víðarr and ...

and the ancestor of the kings of Norway and of the jarls of Hlaðir. Snorri relates that Odin settled in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and: :After that he went into the north, until he was stopped by the sea, which men thought lay around all the lands of the earth; and there he set his son over this kingdom, which is now called Norway. This king was Sæmingr; the kings of Norway trace their lineage from him, and so do also the jarls and the other mighty men, as is said in the ''

Háleygjatal Háleygjatal is a skaldic poem by Eyvindr Skáldaspillir written towards the end of the 10th century to establish the Hlaðir dynasty as the social equals of the Hárfagri dynasty The poem is only partially preserved in disjoint parts quoted in ' ...

''. : ::—Prologue of the ''Prose Edda'' (11)Brodeur's translation
In the ''

Ynglinga saga ''Ynglinga saga'' ( ) is a Kings' saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his ''Heimskringla''. It was first translated into English and published in 1844 ...

'', Snorri adds that Sæmingr's mother was

Skaði In Norse mythology, Skaði (; Old Norse: ; sometimes anglicized as Skadi, Skade, or Skathi) is a jötunn and goddess associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains. Skaði is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th cen ...

: : Njord took a wife called Skade; but she would not live with him and married afterwards Odin, and had many sons by him, of whom one was called Saeming; and about him Eyvind Skaldaspiller sings thus:''Háleygjatal'', stanza 3. -- : ::"To Asa's son Queen Skade bore ::Saeming, who dyed his shield in gore, -- ::The giant-queen of rock and snow, ::Who loves to dwell on earth below, ::The iron pine-tree's daughter, she ::Sprung from the rocks that rib the sea, ::To Odin bore full many a son, ::Heroes of many a battle won." : :To Saeming Earl Hakon the Great reckoned back his pedigree. : ::—''The Ynglinga Saga'' (9)
Laing's translation
Sæmingr is also listed among the sons of Odin in the '' þulur''. But in the prologue of the ''

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 ...

'' Snorri mentions that according to a lost stanza of Eyvindr skáldaspillir's ''Háleygjatal'', Sæmingr was the son of Yngvi-Freyr. The late Saga of Hálfdan Eysteinsson also reports that Sæmingr was Odin's son. The saga adds that he reigned over

. He married Nauma and had a son called Þrándr. A Swedish king by the name ''Semingr'' (likely the very same name as the Norwegian king of Folklore in an alternate rendering) becomes victim to a

draugr The draugr or draug ( non, draugr, plural ; modern is, draugur, fo, dreygur and Danish language, Danish, Swedish language, Swedish, and no, draug) is an undead creature from the Scandinavian saga literature and folktale. Commentators extend t ...

who wields a legendary sword in The Saga of Hromund Gripsson. A similar name, "Sámr", appears related to characters in both

Hrafnkels saga ''Hrafnkels saga'' (; ) or ''Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða'' (O.N.: ; Ice.: ) is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It tells of struggles between chieftains and farmers in the east of Iceland in the 10th century. The eponymous main character, Hrafnkell, st ...

Njáls saga ''Njáls saga'' ( ), also ''Njála'' ( ), ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' ( ) or ''"The Story of Burnt Njáll"'', is a thirteenth-century sagas of Icelanders, Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 and 1020. The saga deals with a process of ...

Notes

References

* Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (trans.). 1916.
Snorri Sturluson: The Prose Edda
'. New York:

The American-Scandinavian Foundation The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) is an American non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting international understanding through educational and cultural exchange between the United States and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway ...

. * Laing, Samuel (trans.), Anderson, Rasmus B. (rev., notes). 1907. ''Snorre Sturlason: The Heimskringla: a history of the Norse kings''. London: Norrœna society. First published: 1844. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saemingr Sons of Odin Kings in Norse mythology and legends