Ingwær (also referred to as Ingvar, Ivar or Ivarr; non, Ívarr) was a Norse

King of Northumbria Northumbria, a kingdom of Angles, in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, was initially divided into two kingdoms: Bernicia and Deira. The two were first united by king Æthelfrith around the year 604, and except for occasional ...

. According to Æthelweard's ''Chronicon'' he was a co-king of Northumbria along with his brothers

Eowils and Halfdan Eowils and Halfdan (Healfdan) were kings in Danish (Viking) ruled Northumbria in the early tenth century. Following the death of Alfred the Great in 899 the throne was disputed between his son Edward the Elder and Æthelwold, a son of Alfred's e ...

, though the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' does not mention him. By Æthelweard's account he died at the

Battle of Tettenhall The Battle of Tettenhall (sometimes called the Battle of Wednesfield or Wōdnesfeld) took place, according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', near Tettenhall on 5 August 910. The allied forces of Mercia and Wessex met an army of Northumbrian Vi ...

alongside his brothers in 910.

Biography

Following the

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 ...

victory at the Battle of the Holme in 902 and the defeat of

Æthelwold's Revolt Æthelwold's Revolt was an attempt by Æthelwold ætheling to seize the Anglo-Saxon throne from Edward the Elder after the death of Alfred the Great in 899. It ended when Æthelwold was killed in battle in 902 while fighting alongside his Danish ...

the three brothers Eowils, Halfdan, and Ingwaer were among the claimants to Viking

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

, and were able to successfully establish their rule. The population of the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian ...

was boosted in 902 by the arrival of the Vikings of Dublin who were ejected from the city that year. Throughout the first decade of the tenth century the Viking kings of Northumbria, and the Viking king of East Anglia, carried out raids on Anglo-Saxon lands to test the resolve of

Edward the Elder Edward the Elder (17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin ...

, the new king of

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

. In 910 the three co-kings marched an army south and attacked Wessex. They were driven back by the Anglo-Saxons, and were pursued until Edward's forces caught up with them at

Tettenhall Tettenhall is an historic village within the City of Wolverhampton, England. Tettenhall became part of Wolverhampton in 1966, along with Bilston, Wednesfield and parts of Willenhall, Coseley and Sedgley. History Tettenhall's name derives fr ...

on the fifth of August. In the ensuing

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

Eowils, Halfdan and Ingwær were killed.

Identity

The identity of Ingwær and his brothers, and the nature of their rule, is subject to some debate. No coins bearing their names are known and it is possible they each ruled different parts of Northumbria, or even that they were simply commanders in the Viking army rather than kings, and their identification as such by contemporary sources is erroneous. Ingwær is known to history through Æthelweard's Latin version of the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''; in the extant

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

manuscripts he does not appear, only his brothers Eowils and Halfdan. The names of the three brothers are equivalent to the names of

Ímar Ímar ( non, Ívarr ; died c. 873), who may be synonymous with Ivar the Boneless, was a Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century who founded the Uí Ímair dynasty, and whose descendants would go on to dominate the Ir ...

Auisle Auisle or Óisle ( non, Ásl or ; died c. 867) was a Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century. He was the son of the king of Lochlann, identified in the non-contemporary ''Fragmentary Annals of Ireland'' as Gofraid, ...

, and

Halfdan Ragnarsson Halfdan Ragnarsson ( non, Hálfdan; oe, Halfdene or ''Healfdene''; sga, Albann; died 877) was a Viking leader and a commander of the Great Heathen Army which invaded the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, starting in 865. One of six sons of R ...

, three Vikings active in the British Isles in the ninth century who may have been brothers.

David Dumville David Norman Dumville (born 5 May 1949) is a British medievalist and Celtic scholar. He attended at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; and received his PhD at ...

has suggested this similarity could indicate Ingwær, Eowils and Halfdan are from the same family as the earlier trio, the

Uí Ímair The Uí Ímair (; meaning ‘''scions of Ivar’''), also known as the Ivar Dynasty or Ivarids was a royal Norse-Gael dynasty which ruled much of the Irish Sea region, the Kingdom of Dublin, the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides ...

. Dumville, pp. 88–89 According to Clare Downham, "the coincidence is perhaps too striking to be ignored".

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ingwaer Anglo-Saxon warriors Monarchs of Jorvik 910 deaths 10th-century English monarchs Year of birth unknown Monarchs killed in action Vikings killed in battle Norse monarchs 10th-century Vikings