Ongentheow (Old English: ''Ongenþeow'', ''Ongenþio'', ''Ongendþeow''; Old Norse: ''Angantýr'') (died ca. 515) was the name of a semi-legendary Swedish king of the house of Scylfings, who appears in Old English sources. He is generally identified with the Swedish king Egil Vendelcrow mentioned in ''

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 ...

'', '' Historia Norwegiae'' and in ''

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 ...

''. The reason why they are thought to have been the same is that each has the same position in the line of Swedish kings and is described as the father of

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 ...

and grandfather of

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 ...

. The name Ongentheow contains as its second element '' þeōw'' "servant, slave". The first appears to be ''ongēan'' "against, opposite".

Old English sources

''Beowulf''

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 poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

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 ...

'', Ongentheow is described as a fearsome warrior, and it took two Geatish warriors Eofor and Wulf Wonreding to take him down. The epic tells that the Geats under their new king Hæþcyn captured the Swedish queen, but old king Ongenþeow saved her, at a

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

called Hrefnesholt, although they lost her gold. Ongenþeow killed Hæþcyn, and besieged 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 ...

at Hrefnesholt. The Geats were, however, rescued by

Hygelac Hygelac (; ; ; or ''Hugilaicus''; died 516 or 521) was a king of the Geats according to the poem ''Beowulf''. It is Hygelac's presence in the poem which has allowed scholars to tentatively date the setting of the poem as well as to infer tha ...

, Hæþcyn's brother, who arrived the next day with reinforcements. Having lost the battle, but rescued his queen, Ongenþeow and his warriors returned home. However, the war was not over. Hygelac, the new king of the Geats, attacked the Swedes. The Geatish warriors Eofor and Wulf fought together against the hoary king Ongenþeow. Wulf hit Ongentheow's head with his sword so that the old king bled over his hair, but the king hit back and wounded Wulf. Then, Eofor retaliated by cutting through the Swedish king's shield and through his helmet, giving Ongentheow a death-blow. Eofor took the Swedish king's helmet, sword and mail and carried them to Hygelac. When they came home, Eofor and Wulf were richly rewarded, and Eofor was given Hygelac's daughter. Because of this battle, Hygelac is referred to as Ongentheow's slayer.

''Widsith''

Ongentheow is also mentioned in passing by the earlier poem ''

Widsith "Widsith" (, "far-traveller", lit. "wide-journey"), also known as "The Traveller's Song", is an Old English poem of 143 lines. It survives only in the '' Exeter Book'' (''pages 84v–87r''), a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the la ...

'' as the king of Sweden:

Egil

In Ari Þorgilsson's ''

Íslendingabók (, , ; ) is a historical work dealing with early history of Iceland, Icelandic history. The author was an Icelandic priest, Ari Þorgilsson, working in the early 12th century. The work originally existed in two different versions but only the y ...

'' and in '' Historia Norwegiae'', he was called Egil Vendelcrow (''Vendilcraca''/''Vendilkráka'', a name traditionally given to those living at the royal estate of Vendel in Sweden).

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 ...

, however, gave the name Vendelcrow to Egil's son Ottar (

). In these sources, Egil was the son of Aun the Old, and like him, not very warlike. After he had made the

thrall A thrall was a slave or Serfdom, serf in Scandinavia, Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The status of slave (, ) contrasts with that of the Franklin (class), freeman (, ) and the nobleman (, ). Etymology Thrall is from the Old Norse ...

Tunni (or ''Tonne'') responsible for the

treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...

, Tunni rebelled against Egil. They fought eight battles after which Egil fled to Denmark, according to the ''Ynglinga saga'' (''Ynglingatal'' does not mention where he fled and ''Historia Norwegiae'' does not mention any escape at all). Snorri wrote that

Fróði Fróði (; ; Middle High German: ''Vruote'') is the name of a number of legendary Danish kings in various texts including ''Beowulf'', Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda'' and his ''Ynglinga saga'', Saxo Grammaticus' ''Gesta Danorum'', and the ''Gro ...

, the Danish king, aided Egil in defeating Tunni, and made Egil a tributary to the Danish king. Egil was killed by a bull during the sacrifices at

Gamla 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 ...

. :Translation: ‘And the famous descendant of Týr

Swedish king The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. by law a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parliamentary system: see the In ...

fled the country before the power of Tunni. And the roamer, the draught-animal of the giant

ULL Ull or ULL may refer to: Organisations * SK Ull, a Norwegian Nordic skiing club * Non-Party List (), a short-lived political party in Liechtenstein * Ullensaker/Kisa IL, a Norwegian sports club * University of La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain * Un ...

which before had long borne the cairn of the brows EADabout the eastern forest, reddened its weapon of the bull ORNupon Egill. And the sheathless sword of the bull ORNstuck in the heart of the descendant of the Skilfingar

’ The '' Historia Norwegiæ'' presents a Latin summary of ''Ynglingatal'', older than Snorri's quotation: The even earlier source ''

'' also cites the line of descent in ''Ynglingatal'' and it also gives Egil as the successor of Aunn and the predecessor of Óttarr: ''xvi Aun inn gamli. xvii Egill Vendilkráka. xviii Óttarr''.

Interpretation

The argument for connection between Ongenþeow and Egil being the same figure are as follows. It is important, though, to note that this is an interpretation of the facts and not definite proof of a connection. The two versions seem contradictory, but it has been shown that the two stories may very well describe the same event (Schück H. 1907, Nerman B. 1925), and that ''Ynglingatal'' was probably misinterpreted by Snorri due to a different dialectal meaning of the word ''farra''. ''Ynglingatal'' says If there is any authenticity behind the traditions, the origin of ''Ynglingatal'' was most probably a Swedish poem which has not survived (see also Sundquist 2004). In Old Swedish, ''farra'' did not mean "bull" but it meant "

boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

" (cf. English ''farrow'' meaning "young pig"). Moreover, in

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 ...

''Trjóna'' normally meant a pig's snout (modern Scandinavian ''tryne''). ''Flæmingr'' meant "sword" (originally a Flemish sword imported by Vikings). Moreover, the ''sword of the snout'' can hardly refer to the horns of a bull, but it is more natural to interpret it as the tusks of a boar. In English, the lines can be translated as ''but the giant beast coloured its tusk red on Egil''. In

, the name ''eofor'' meant "boar" and consequently ''Ynglingatal'' could very well relate of Eofor (the boar) killing Egil with kennings for boars. These kennings, sung originally by Swedes, were later misinterpreted by Norwegians and Icelanders as literal expressions due to the different dialectal meanings of ''farra''. Moreover, according to Schück, the name ''Tunni'' which has no meaning in Old Norse should in

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic; Danish and ; ; ; ) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a c ...

have been *''Tunþa'' and derived from *''Tunþuz''. Consequently, it would have been the same word as the Gothic ''Tunþus'' which meant "tooth". This would mean that the name of Egil's enemy, actually meant "tooth" and Tunni and the bull/boar would consequently have been the same enemy, i.e. Eofor. Some scholars have suggested that the name Ongentheow is connected to the Danish king Ongendus, (''fl.'' ''c.'' 700) who appears in one sentence of

Alcuin Alcuin of York (; ; 735 – 19 May 804), also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Ecgbert of York, Archbishop Ecgbert at Yor ...

's life of

Willibrord Willibrord (; 658 – 7 November AD 739) was an Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon monk, bishop, and missionary. He became the first Diocese of Utrecht (695–1580), Bishop of Utrecht in what is now the Netherlands, dying at Echternach in Luxembourg, and ...

.C.H. Talbot (1954)
Translation of Alcuin's ''Life of Willibrord''
/ref>

Notes

Primary sources

(part of the

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 ...

) * Historia Norwegiae *

Secondary sources

* Nerman, B. ''Det svenska rikets uppkomst''. Stockholm, 1925. * Sundquist, O. "Freyr"s offspring. Rulers and religion in ancient Svea society". (2004) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ongeneow 6th-century monarchs in Europe European people whose existence is disputed Characters in Beowulf English heroic legends Semi-legendary kings of Sweden Year of birth unknown