''Hversu Noregr byggðist'' ( non, How Norway was inhabited) is an account of the origin of various legendary Norwegian lineages, which survives only in the ''

Flateyjarbók ''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey") is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes ...

''. It traces the descendants of the primeval Fornjót, a king of ''"Gotland, Kænland and Finnland"'', down to Nór, who is here the eponym and first great king of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, and then gives details of the descendants of Nór (and of his brother Gór) in a following section known as the ''Ættartölur'', 'Genealogies'. The ''Hversu'' account is closely paralleled by the opening of the '' Orkneyinga saga'', which gives a slightly different version of the story and provides details on the descendants of Gór only, including information not found in the ''Hversu'' or ''Ættartölur''. This opening portion of Orkneyingers saga is also known as Fundinn Noregr, 'Founding of Norway'. Much of the material in these two accounts is found nowhere else, especially the tracing of many noble families to the stock of giants rather than to the god Odin which is the tendency elsewhere. The genealogies also claim that many heroic families famed in Scandinavian tradition but not located in Norway were in fact of Norwegian stock, mostly sprung from Nór's great-grandson

Halfdan the Old Halfdan the Old (Old Norse: ''Hálfdanr gamli'' and ''Hálfdanr inn gamli'') was an ancient, legendary king from whom descended many of the most notable lineages of legend. A second Halfdan the Old is the purported great-grandfather of Ragnvald Ey ...

. Almost all the lineages sprung from Halfdan are then shown to reconverge in the person of

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagreModern Icelandic: ( – ) 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 King of N ...

the first king of all Norway. Where the information here is comparable with accounts in other sources, it is sometimes confirmed and sometimes contradicted, as would be expected. There are also minor discrepancies and contradictions within the ''Ættartölur''. Included also is material on the Danish Skjöldung lineage and the

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 (Old Norse ''Skilfingar'') in ''Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal'' ...

lineage as ancestors of Harald Fairhair, including the purported line of descent from

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

to Harald. The ''Ættartölur'' end with a genealogy of Harald's royal descendants down to

Olaf IV of Norway no, Olav Håkonsson , house = House of Bjelbo, Bjelbo , father = Haakon VI of Norway , mother = Margaret I of Denmark , birth_date = , birth_place = Akershus Fortress, Akershus Castle, Oslo , death_date = ...

with the statement the account was written in 1387, a list of the kings of Norway from this Olaf back to Harald Fair-hair, and a mention of the accession of

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular through ...

, Olaf's mother, as direct ruler of Norway.

References

Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum
an
Fundinn Noregr
fro
heimskringla.no
* ''Hversu Noregr byggdist'' ('How Norway was inhabited'), Appendix A in ''The Orkneyingers Saga'' (''Icelandic Sagas, and other historical documents relating to the settlements and descents of the Northmen on the British Isles'', Volume III): Translator George W. Dasent (1894). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Reprinted 1964 by Kraus Reprint
Sacred Texts: Appendix A: Fl. Book 1.21,22: 'How Norway was inhabited'
(The genealogies of the descendants of Nór and the ''Ættartolur'' are not translated here.) * "Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum" in the ''Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda'', Old Norse text of ''Hversu Noregr byggdisk'' (including the ''Ættartolur'') and ''Fundinn Noregr'' a

an

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hversu Noregr byggdist Sources of Norse mythology Genealogy publications Flateyjarbók