Gudrød the Hunter (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ''Guðrøðr veiðikonungr'', Norwegian: ''Gudrød Veidekonge'', literally ''Gudrod Hunter-king''; died 820 AD), also known as Gudrød the Magnificent (

: ''enn gǫfugláti'', Norwegian: ''den gjeve''), is a legendary character portrayed 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 ...

as a Norwegian

petty king A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into t ...

in the early 9th century. According to the sagas, he was the father of

Halfdan the Black Halfdan the Black (Old Norse: ''Halfdanr Svarti''; ) was a king of Vestfold. He belonged to the House of Yngling and was the father of Harald Fairhair, the first king of a unified Norway. In sagas According to ''Heimskringla'' and ''Fagrskinna ...

, and thus the grandfather of

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair (; – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first Monarchy of Norway, King of Norway. Supposedly, two ...

, the first king of unified Norway. He is considered by modern historians to be of a more mythical nature than other ancestors of Harald and Halfdan, and he can not be identified historically. Historians have in turn made a number of proposals seeking to identify him with various would-be contemporary historical figures.

Background

Gudrød was a member of the

House of Yngling The Ynglings were a dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem '' Ynglingatal''. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings (, ) in ''Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal'' were composed sometim ...

. He was the son of

Halfdan the Mild Halfdan (, , Medieval : "half Dane") was a late 5th and early 6th century legendary Danish king of the Scylding (Skjöldung) lineage, the son of king named Fróði in many accounts, noted mainly as the father to the two kings who succeeded hi ...

, king of

Romerike Romerike is a Districts of Norway, traditional district located north-east of Oslo, in what is today south-eastern Norway. It consists of the Akershus municipalities Lillestrøm, Lørenskog, Nittedal, Rælingen and Aurskog-Høland in the southern ...

and

Vestfold Vestfold () is a county and a current electoral district in Norway. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it borders Buskerud and Telemark counties. The county administration is located in Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, and the larg ...

, and Liv, daughter of King Dag of Vestmar. Gudrød is mentioned in the

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

ic poem ''

Ynglingatal ''Ynglingatal'' or ''Ynglinga tal'' (Old Norse: 'Enumeration of the Ynglingar') is a Skaldic poem cited by Snorri Sturluson in the ''Ynglinga saga'', the first saga of Snorri's ''Heimskringla''. Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (Thjodolf), who was a poet ...

'', and

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 ...

elaborates on Gudrød's story in ''

Heimskringla () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland. While authorship of ''Heimskringla'' is nowhere attributed, some scholars assume it is written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (117 ...

''. According to Snorri, Gudrød was called both "the Magnificent" and "the Hunter", while ''Ynglingatal'' only refers to him as "the Magnificent".

Legend

While Gudrød is portrayed as a king in

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 some older texts, Snorri writes that his royal estates are in Vestfold. The term Kings of Uppland possibly refers to the great Thing of Kings in Uppsala in Uppland, comprising the Commonwealth of Sweden, encompassing both Danes, Finns, Norse, Vends and more. High King Gudrød first married Alfhild, a daughter of Alfarin, king of Alfheim (now

Bohuslän Bohuslän () is a Provinces of Sweden, Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the ...

). Gudrød inherited half the province of

Vingulmark Vingulmark (Old Norse ''Vingulmǫrk'') is the old name for the area in Norway which today makes up the counties of Østfold, western parts of Akershus (excluding Romerike), and eastern parts of Buskerud ( Hurum and Røyken municipalities), and i ...

. They had a son,

Olaf Geirstad-Alf Olaf Gudrødsson (c. 810 – c. 860), known after his death as Olaf Geirstad-Alf "Olaf, Elf of Geirstad" (Old Norse Ólafr Geirstaðaalfr), was a semi-legendary petty king in Norway. A member of the House of Yngling, he was the son of Gudrød the Hu ...

. When Alfhild died, Gudrød sent his men to the king of

Agder Agder is a counties of Norway, county () and districts of Norway, traditional region in the southern part of Norway and is coextensive with the Southern Norway region. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Au ...

Harald Granraude Harald Granraude (''Haraldr hinn granrauði'') was a semi-legendary Norwegian petty king of Agder who lived in the 9th century. He was father to Åsa Haraldsdottir and great-grandfather of Harald Fairhair (''Haraldr Hárfagri''), the first king ...

, to propose a marriage with his daughter Åsa. When Harald declined, Gudrød decided to take Åsa by force. They arrived at night. When Harald realised that he was being attacked, he assembled his men and fought well, but died together with his son Gyrd. Gudrød thereafter captured Åsa and married her. They had the son

. In the fall, when Halfdan was a year old, Gudrød was having at a feast in an otherwise unknown location called "Stivlesund". He was very drunk and in the evening, as he was walking on the gangway to leave the ship, an assassin thrust a spear through Gudrød, killing him. Gudrød's men instantly killed the assassin, who turned out to be Åsa's page-boy. Åsa admitted that the page-boy had acted on her behalf. After Gudrød was killed, Åsa took the 1 year-old Halfdan and returned to Agder, where Halfdan was raised.

Ancestry

References

Other sources

*Krag, C. ''Ynglingatal og Ynglingesaga: en studie i historiske kilder'' (Oslo 1991) *Salvesen, A., transl. ''Norges historie; Historia Norvegiae'' (Oslo 1978) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gudrod The Hunter Norwegian petty kings European people whose existence is disputed