![Offa acclamé par son père Varmund](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Offa_acclam%C3%A9_par_son_p%C3%A8re_Varmund.jpg)
Wermund, Vermund
or Garmund is an ancestor of the Mercian royal family, a son of
Wihtlaeg and father of
Offa. The ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' makes him a grandson of
Woden
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered 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, victory ...
, but the ''
Gesta Danorum
''Gesta Danorum'' ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark an ...
'' written by
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark ...
goes no further than his father, while the ''Brevis Historia Regum Dacie'' of
Sven Aggesen 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 ...
makes Wermund son of king ''Frothi hin Frokni''.
According to the Gesta Danorum, his reign was long and happy, though its prosperity was eventually marred by the raids of a warlike king named
Athislus, who 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 ...
, in battle. Frowinus's death was avenged by his two sons,
Keto and
Wigo, but their conduct in fighting together against a single man was thought to constitute a national disgrace, which was only reconciled by the subsequent single combat of Offa.
It has been suggested that Athislus, though called king of the Swedes by Saxo, was really identical with the
Eadgils, 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 ...
, mentioned 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 ...
, and Frowinus and Wigo are identified with the
Freawine 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 father ...
and
Wig
A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona' ...
who figure among the ancestors of the
kings of Wessex
This is a list of monarchs of Wessex until AD 886. For later monarchs, see the List of English monarchs. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure.
The names are give ...
in 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 ...
. As Eadgils was a contemporary of
Ermanaric, who died about 376, his date would agree with the indication given by the genealogies which place Wermund nine generations before
Penda of Mercia
Penda (died 15 November 655)Manuscript A of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology and History'', 1934) put forward the theor ...
.
He is mentioned in lines 1958-1963 of the Anglo-Saxon epic ''
Beowulf'' as Garmund the father of
Offa of Angel
Offa (nickname for Wulf) is a semi-legendary king of the Angles in the genealogy of the kings of Mercia presented in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. He is the son of Wermund and the father of Angeltheow.
His name is also mentioned in the Old ...
and grandfather of
Eomer.
References
External links
Transcript of Saxo's Danish History.- See Chapter 4 for description of Wermund.
{{s-end
Mythological kings of Denmark
Anglish warriors