The Battle of Brávellir or the Battle of Bråvalla was a legendary battle, said to have taken place c. 770, that is described in the
saga
Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia.
The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...
s as taking place on the
Brávellir between
Sigurd Hring, king of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
and the
Geats
The Geats ( ; ; ; ), sometimes called ''Geats#Goths, Goths'', were a large North Germanic peoples, North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the Late Middle Ages. They are one of ...
of
Västergötland
Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden.
Vä ...
, and his uncle
Harald Wartooth
Harald Wartooth or ''Harold Hiltertooth'' (Old Norse: ''Haraldr hilditǫnn''; Modern Swedish and Danish: Harald Hildetand; Modern Norwegian: ''Harald Hildetann'')Röreksson was a semi- legendary king of Denmark who is mentioned in several tradit ...
, king of
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
and the Geats of
Östergötland
Östergötland (; English exonym: East Gothland) is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish) in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland and the Baltic Sea. In older English li ...
.
Sources
The battle is recounted in several sources such as the Norse sagas ''
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks'', ''
Bósa saga ok Herrauðs
''Bósa saga ok Herrauds'' or ''Saga of Bósi and Herraud'' is a legendary saga, relating the fantastic adventures of the two companions Herrauðr, Herraud (Old Norse language, Old Norse ''Herrauðr'') and Bósi. It is first attested in three ma ...
'' and ''
Sǫgubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum'', but it is most extensively described in the nationalistic Danish history ''
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 and is an essentia ...
'' by
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus (), 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. He is the author ...
.
Cause
Harald had inherited Sweden from his maternal grandfather
Ivar Vidfamne, but ruled Denmark and East Götaland, whereas his subordinate king, Sigurd Hring, was the ruler of Sweden and West Götaland. According to legend, Harald realised that he was now old and might die of old age and therefore not go to
Valhalla
In Norse mythology, Valhalla ( , ; , )Orchard (1997:171–172) is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. There were five possible realms the soul could travel to after death. The first was Fólkvang ...
. He consequently asked Sigurd if he would let him leave this life gloriously in a great battle.
Odin
Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...
is also implicated.
Preparation
According to
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus (), 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. He is the author ...
, both hosts prepared for seven years, and mustered armies of 200,000 men. Harald was joined by the legendary heroes Ubbe of Friesland, Uvle Brede, Are the One-eyed, Dag the Fat, Duk the Slav, Hroi Whitebeard and Hothbrodd the Indomitable as well as 300
shieldmaidens led by Hed, Visna of the Slavs and Hedborg. Sigurd recruited the legendary heroes
Starkad, Egil the Bald, Grette the Evil (a Norwegian), Blig Bignose, Einar the Fatbellied and Erling Snake. Famous Swedes were Arwakki, Keklu-Karl, Krok the peasant, Gummi and Gudfast from Gislamark. They were joined by scores of
Norwegians
Norwegians () are an ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the Norsemen, Norse of the Early ...
,
Slavs
The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...
,
Finns
Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...
,
Estonians
Estonians or Estonian people () are a Finnic ethnic group native to the Baltic Sea region in Northern Europe, primarily their nation state of Estonia.
Estonians primarily speak the Estonian language, a language closely related to other Finni ...
,
Curonians
:''The Kursenieki are also sometimes known as Curonians.''
The Curonians or Kurs (; ) were a medieval Balts, Baltic tribe living on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the 5th–16th centuries, in what are now western parts of Latvia and Lithuania. ...
,
Bjarmians,
Livonians
The Livonians, or Livs, are a Balto-Finnic people indigenous to the Livonian Coast, in northwestern Latvia. Livonians historically spoke Livonian language, Livonian, a Uralic language closely related to Estonian language, Estonian and Finnish lan ...
,
Saxons
The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
,
Angles,
Frisians
The Frisians () are an ethnic group indigenous to the German Bight, coastal regions of the Netherlands, north-western Germany and southern Denmark. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland an ...
,
Irish,
Rus', and others, all picking a side. Whole forests were chopped down in order to build 3000
longships to transport the Swedes. Harald's Danes built so many ships that they were able to walk on them across
Øresund
Øresund or Öresund (, ; ; ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Denmark–Sweden border, Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width var ...
.
Location
The ''Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks'' speaks of "Brávelli à eystra Gautlandi" (Bråvalla in East Götaland) and in ''Sǫgubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum'' the battle is said to have taken place south of
Kolmården
Kolmården () is a long and wide densely forested rocky ridge that separates the Swedish provinces of Södermanland and Östergötland, two of the country's main agricultural areas, from each other, and in historic times, along with Tylöskog ...
, which separated
Svealand
Svealand (), or Swealand, is the historical core region of Sweden. It is located in south-central Sweden and is one of the three historical lands of Sweden, bounded to the north by Norrland and to the south by Götaland. Deep forests, Tive ...
(Sweden proper) from East Götaland and is where
BrÃ¥viken is located: "Kolmerkr, er skilr SvÃþjóð ok Eystra-Gautland ... sem heitir BrávÃk". Saxo ends his account by saying "thus ended the battle of BrÃ¥vik". Most historians have held the battle to have taken place near BrÃ¥viken,
but in the 17th century
a minority view appears to have located it in
Småland
Småland () is a historical Provinces of Sweden, province () in southern Sweden.
Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name ''Småland'' literally means "small la ...
at
Lake Ã…snen.
Battle
The accounts found in ''Gesta Danorum'' and the ''Sǫgubrot'' saga are essentially the same.
At first the two armies fought collectively, but after a while Ubbi was in the centre of attention. He slew first Ragnvald the Wise Councilor, then the champion Tryggvi and three Swedish princes of the royal dynasty.
Humbled, King Sigurd Hring sent forth the champion
Starkad, who managed to wound Ubbi but was himself even more seriously wounded. Then Ubbi killed Agnar, and took the sword in both hands and slashed a path through the Swedish host, until he fell riddled with arrows from the archers of
Telemark
Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...
. Then the
shieldmaiden Veborg killed the champion Soti and managed to give additional wounds to Starkad, who was greatly angered. She was killed by the champion Thorkell.
Furious, Starkad went forth in the Danish army, killing warriors all around him, and cut off the Wendish shieldmaiden Visna's arm, which held the Danish banner. Starkad then proceeded to slay the champions Brai, Grepi, Gamli and Haki.
When Harald had observed these heroic feats, he stood on his knees in his chariot with one sword in each hand and killed a great many warriors both to his left and to his right. After a while, Harald's steward Bruni deemed that his liege had amassed enough glory and crushed the king's skull with a club.
Outcome
Sigurd won the battle and became the sovereign ruler of all of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
and
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
(40,000 warriors had died).
Historicity
The general agreement on the historicity of the battle has turned back and forth during the last two centuries depending on what was the prevalent ideology among Scandinavian historians. In 1925, the Swedish archaeologist
Birger Nerman summarized the ebbs and tides of its historicity.
[Nerman, B. (1925:253):
] He stated that older scholarship had treated the accounts of the battle uncritically and perceived the accounts as largely historical.
During the last decades of the 19th century, however, the hypercritical school considered the battle as entirely fictional and considered even the area where it took place as mythical.
The pendulum turned and during the first decades of the 20th century, the opinion was once again in favour of its historicity, although the contemporary scholarship regarded it as a fictionalized historic event.
In 1990, the Swedish encyclopedia ''
Nationalencyklopedin
(; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia with several hundred thousand articles. It is available both online and via a printed version.
History
The project was ...
'' summed up the debate by claiming that the historicity of the battle is impossible to verify.
[''Bråvallaslaget'' in '']Nationalencyklopedin
(; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia with several hundred thousand articles. It is available both online and via a printed version.
History
The project was ...
'' (1990):
There is also a hypothesis relating the battle to the events of 827 when
Harald Klak
Harald 'Klak' Halfdansson (c. 785 – c. 852) was a king in Jutland (and possibly other parts of Denmark) around 812–814 and again from 819–827."Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories" (1970), translation by Bernh ...
was expelled from Denmark.
[ Baranauskas T.br>Saxo Grammaticus on the Balts]
, ''Saxo and the Baltic Region. A Symposium'', edited by Tore Nyberg, dense:University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004, p. 63–79.
Notes
External links
''Sögubrot af Nokkrum fornkonungum à Dana ok SvÃaveldi''- ch. 7.9: ''..Kolmerkr, er skilr SvÃþjóð ok Eystra-Gautland ... sem heitir BrávÃk..''
- ch. 15: ''Brávelli à eystra Gautlandi''
- Saxo on the Battle of Bråvalla.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brávellir
8th-century conflicts
Battle of Bravellir
Battles involving the Vikings
Battles of the Dano-Swedish wars
Battles involving Estonia
War in mythology
Battles of the Middle Ages
Östergötland