Ragnvald Heidumhære (or Rognvald) was a semi-historical petty king or chieftain of
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 ...
in what is today
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
in the 9th century, according to '' Ynglingatal'' and to ''
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 ...
'' in '' Heimskringla''. He was apparently a member of 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 (, ) in ''Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal'' were composed sometime ...
clan (mentioned in later Norse and Anglo-Saxon literature, such as ''
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 ...
''). His name ''Heiðumhæri'' could be translated as ''highly honoured''Gokstadhøvdingen og hans tid Edited by Tore Frost. Sandefjordsmuseene, 1997. . Page 56
His greatest contribution to posterity was that he asked 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 ...
Þjóðólfr of Hvinir
Þjóðólfr ór Hvini (; anglicized as Thjódólf of Hvinir or Thiodolf; fl. late 9th–early 10th c. AD), was a Norwegian skald, said to have been one of the court-poets of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair. His name suggests that he was fro ...
to compose a poem about his ancestry. This poem is known as '' Ynglingatal'' and is not only one of the oldest, but also one of the most famous and debated of the Old Norse poems.
Þjóðólfr ended the poem with these lines:
Family
Traditional sources differ as to whether Ragnvald Heidumhære was the son of
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok (Old Norse: ''Ragnarr loðbrók'', ), according to legends, was a Viking hero and a Legendary Kings of Sweden, Swedish and Legendary kings of Denmark, Danish king.Olaf Geirstad-Alf.
The 13th-century account in '' Heimskringla'', which uses ''Ynglingatal'' as a source, makes Ragnvald a cousin of Harald Fairhair.
A dubious, later pedigree attributes to Ragnvald a daughter, Åsa Ragnvaldsdatter (''Aseda Rognvaldsdatter''), who married Eystein Ivarsson. It is through this line that Ragnvald Heidumhære is a purported ancestor of
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...