The Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern was a 6th-century battle recorded in the

Norse sagas 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 ...

and referred to in the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

epic ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

''. It has been dated to c. AD 530.

The epic Beowulf

Beowulf is an epic poem that refers to the conflict, but not to a battle on Lake Vänern. In Beowulf, the Swedish king

Ohthere Ohthere, also Ohtere (Old Norse: ''Óttarr vendilkráka'', ''Vendelcrow''; in modern Swedish ''Ottar Vendelkråka''), was a semi-legendary king of Sweden of the house of Yngling, Scylfings, who is said to have lived during the Germanic Heroic Ag ...

(Ottar Vendelkråka, who is often called the first historical

king of Sweden The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the #IOG, Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. by law a constitutional monarchy, constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parl ...

)Alf Henrikson, Svensk historia had died and his brother

Onela Onela was, according to ''Beowulf'', a Swedish king, the son of Ongentheow and the brother of Ohthere. He usurped the Swedish throne, but was killed by his nephew Eadgils, who won by hiring foreign assistance. In Scandinavian sagas a Norwegi ...

(Áli) had usurped the Swedish throne. Ottar's sons Eanmund and

Eadgils Eadgils, ''Adils'', ''Aðils'', ''Adillus'', ''Aðísl at Uppsölum'', ''Athisl'', ''Athislus'' or ''Adhel'' was a semi-legendary king of Sweden, who is estimated to have lived during the 6th century. ''Beowulf'' and Old Norse sources present ...

(Adils) had to flee to Geatland and seek refuge with the Geatish king Heardred. This induced Onela to attack 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 ...

and kill both Eanmund and Heardred. In order to avenge his king and kinsman,

decided to help Eadgils gain the throne of Sweden. During the battle Eadgils slew Onela and became the king of Sweden.

Norse sagas

There are a few references in Norse sources that give an account of the battle on the ice of Lake Vänern. Some of the sagas differ from one another in detail. The equivalent of Onela, ''Áli hinn upplenzki'', has been placed in the Norwegian Uplands, rather than Swedish

Uppland Uppland is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The name literally ...

. In

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 th ...

's ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

'', in the ''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'Poetic Diction' or 'The Language of Poetry'; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda'', compiled by Snorri Sturluson. It consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bra ...

'', the battle is mentioned in two verses. In the first account, Snorri cites a fragmentary poem called '' Kálfsvísa'': In the second account, Snorri relates: "They decided to fight on the ice of the water which is called

Vänern Vänern ( , , ) is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the European Union and the third-largest lake in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia. It is located in the provinces of Västergötland, Dalsland, and Värmland in the sou ...

...In this fight king Áli died and a great many of his people. Then king Adils took from him his helmet Hildisvín attle-boarand his horse Hrafn." In the ''

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

'', Snorri relates that King Adils (Eadgils) fought hard battles with the Norwegian king who was called Áli hin upplenzki. They fought on the ice of Lake Vänern, where Áli fell and Adils won. Snorri relates that much is told about this event in the saga of the Sköldungs, and that Adils took ''Hrafn'' (Raven), Áli's horse. The ''

Skjöldunga saga The ''Skjöldunga saga'' (or, in another standardised Old Norse spelling, ''Skjǫldunga saga'') was an Old Norse legendary saga. Dating from c. 1180 – 1200, the saga was lost in its original form. The saga focused on the Danish dynasty of Sc ...

'' is lost but at the end of the 16th century, Arngrímur Jónsson saved a piece of information from this saga in Latin. He wrote: "There was animosity between king Adils of Sweden and the Norwegian king Áli of Uppland. They decided to fight on the ice of Lake Vänern. Adils won and took his helmet, chainmail and horse." Adils would become a famous king of whom much is told in the legends of Hrólf Kraki and in the Danish

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 ...

. According to Snorri, he is buried in

Old Uppsala Gamla Uppsala (, ''Old Uppsala'') is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 17,973 inhabitants in 2016. As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political c ...

Archaeology

The accounts of the Battle on the Ice contain accurate information about this time and the Swedish Vendel Age. This period was characterized by the appearance of mounted warriors who fought on horseback and by the use of boar-crested helmets. In the Battle on the Ice, the combatants are described as fighting on horseback, although the later

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a Viking expansion, large-scale expansion in all direc ...

and

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

who told of this battle in their legends would fight on foot. Likewise, Onela's helmet is called the ''battle-boar'' although the boar-crested helmets were long out of use by the time records of the event were written down. Many instances of boar-crested helmets have been found in extant examples, notably in the burial mounds of Vendel, Valsgärde and Uppsala.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle on the Ice of Lake Vanern Events in Norse mythology English heroic legends Geats 530s conflicts Battles involving early Germanic peoples