Gunnhild Mother of Kings
Encyclopedia
Gunnhild konungamóðir or Gunnhild Gormsdóttir (c. 910 – c. 980) is a character who appears in the Icelandic Sagas, according to which she was the wife of Eric Bloodaxe
(king of Norway 930–34, 'King' of Orkney c. 937–54, and king of Jórvík
948–49 and 952–54). Many of the details of her life are disputed, including her parentage. Although she is treated in the sagas as a historical person, even her historicity is a matter of some debate. Gunnhild appears prominently in many Norse sagas, including Fagrskinna
, Egil's Saga, Njal's Saga
, and Heimskringla
. What details of her life are known come largely from Iceland
ic sources, which generally asserted that the Icelandic settlers had fled from Harald's tyranny. While the historicity of such sources as the Landnamabok
is disputed, the perception that Harald had exiled or driven out many of their ancestors led to an attitude among Icelanders generally hostile to Erik and Gunnhild. Scholars such as Gwyn Jones
therefore regard some of the episodes reported in them as suspect.
The sagas relate that Gunnhild lived during a time of great change and upheaval in Norway. Her father-in-law Harald Fairhair
had recently united much of Norway under his rule. Shortly after his death, Gunnhild and her husband were overthrown and exiled. She spent much of the rest of her life in exile in Orkney, Jorvik
and Denmark
. A number of her many children with Erik became co-rulers of Norway in the late tenth century.
, king of Denmark
, and Erik and Gunnhild met at a feast given by Gorm. Modern scholars have largely accepted this version as accurate. In their view, her marriage with Erik was a dynastic union between two houses, that of the Norwegian Ynglings and that of the early Danish monarchy (who may have claimed descent from Ragnar Lodbrok
), in the process of unifying and consolidating their respective countries. Erik himself was the product of such a union between Harald and Ragnhild, a Danish princess from Jutland
.
Gwyn Jones in particular supported the identification of Gunnhild as the daughter of Gorm, and regarded the stories of her origins in Halogaland
in northern Norway
and her tutelage by Finnish wizards as part of a general Icelandic hostility towards Gunnhild and Erik.
Heimskringla and Egil's Saga, on the other hand, assert that Gunnhild was the daughter of Ozur Toti
, a hersir
from Halogaland. Accounts of her early life vary between sources. Egil's Saga relates that "Eirik fought a great battle on the Northern Dvina
in Bjarmaland
, and was victorious as the poems about him record. On the same expedition he obtained Gunnhild, the daughter of Ozur Toti, and brought her home with him."
Gwyn Jones regarded many of the traditions that grew up around Gunnhild in the Icelandic sources as fictional. However, both Theodoricus monachus
and the Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum
report that when Gunnhild was at the court of Harald Bluetooth after Erik's death, the Danish king offered marriage to her; if valid, these accounts call into question the identification of Gunnhild as Harald's sister, but their most recent editors follow Jones in viewing their accounts of Gunnhild's origins as unreliable.
Heimskringla relates that Gunnhild lived for a time in a hut with two Finnish
wizards and learned magic from them. The two wizards demanded sexual favors from her, so she induced Erik, who was returning from an expedition to Bjarmland, to kill them. Erik then took her to her father's house and announced his intent to marry Gunnhild. The older Fagrskinna, however, says simply that Erik met Gunnhild during an expedition to the Finnish north, where she was being "fostered and educated ... with Mǫttull, king of the Finns
". Gunnhild's Finnish sojourn is described by historian Marlene Ciklamini as a "fable" designed to set the stage for placing the blame for Erik's future misrule on his wife.
, Erling, Gudrod, and Sigurd Sleva. Egil's Saga mentions a son named Rögnvald, but it is not known whether he can be identified with one of those mentioned in Heimskringla, or even whether he was Gunnhild's son or Erik's by another woman.
Gunnhild was widely reputed to be a völva
, or witch. Prior to the death of Harald Fairhair, Erik's popular half-brother Halfdan Haraldsson the Black
died mysteriously, and Gunnhild was suspected of having "bribed a witch to give him a death-drink
." Shortly thereafter, Harald died and Erik consolidated his power over the whole country. He began to quarrel with his other brothers, egged on by Gunnhild, and had four of them killed, beginning with Bjørn Farmann
and later Olaf
and Sigrød in battle at Tønsberg
.
As a result of Erik's tyrannical rule (which was likely greatly exaggerated in the sagas) he was expelled from Norway when the nobles of the country declared for his half-brother, Haakon the Good.
s Arnkel and Erlend Turf-Einarsson. Gunnhild went with Erik to Jorvik
when, at the invitation of Bishop Wulfstan
, the erstwhile Norwegian king settled as client king over northern England
. At Jorvik, both Erik and Gunnhild may have been baptized.
Following Erik's loss of Jorvik and subsequent death at the Battle of Stainmore
(954), the survivors of the battle brought word of the defeat to Gunnhild and her sons in Northumberland
. Taking with them all that they could, they set sail for Orkney, where they exacted tribute from the new jarl, Thorfinn Skullsplitter.
Ultimately, however, Gunnhild decided to move on; marrying her daughter Ragnhild to Jarl Thorfinn's son Arnfinn, she took her other children and set sail for Denmark.
It is worth noting that some modern historians call into question the identification of the Erik who ruled over Jorvik with Erik Bloodaxe. None of the English sources for Erik's reign in Northumbria
identify him as Norwegian or as the son of Harald Fairhair. A thirteenth-century letter from Edward I to Pope Boniface VIII
identifies Erik as Scottish
in origin. Lappenberg, Plummer and Todd, writing in the late nineteenth century, identified Erik as a son of Harald Bluetooth, a claim Downham discounts as untenable. Downham, however, regards Erik the king of Jorvik as a distinct individual from Erik Bloodaxe, and thus views Gunnhild's sojourn in Orkney and Jorvik as the construct of later saga-writers who conflated different characters between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.
, who was a friend of the prince, and the brothers were originally on good terms with Erik and Gunnhild. However, during a sojourn in Norway around 930, Egil got into an inheritance dispute with certain members of Erik's court, during which he killed Bárðr of Atley, one of the king's retainers.
Gunnhild ordered her two brothers to kill Egil and Thorolf. Egil killed the pair when they confronted him, greatly increasing the Queen's thirst for revenge.
Erik then declared Egil an outlaw in Norway. Berg-Önundr gathered a company of men to capture Egil, but was killed in his attempt to do so. During his escape from Norway, Egil killed Rögnvald Eriksson
, Erik's son. He then cursed Erik and Gunnhild by setting a horse's head on a pole in a shamanic ritual (the pillar was a níðstöng or "níð-pole"; níð translates, roughly, to 'scorn' or 'curse'.) and saying:
The last encounter between Egil and Gunnhild occurred around 948 in Jorvik. Egil was shipwrecked on a nearby shore and came before Erik, who sentenced him to death. But Egil composed a drápa called "Höfuðlausn
" in Erik's praise over a single night. When he recited it in the morning, Erik gave him his freedom and forgave the killing of Rögnvald, against Gunnhild's wishes.
After the death of her husband, Gunnhild took refuge with her sons at the court of Harald Bluetooth at Roskilde
. Tradition ascribes to Gunnhild the commissioning of the skald
ic poem Eiríksmál
in honor of her fallen husband.
In Denmark, Gunnhild's son Harald was fostered by the king himself, and her other sons were given properties and titles. As King Harald was involved in a war against Haakon's Norway, he may have sought to use Gunnhild's sons as his proxies against the Norwegian king. One of her sons, Gamle, died fighting King Haakon around 960.
in 961. Ironically, the battle was a victory for Haakon's forces but his death left a power vacuum which Gunnhild's son Harald, with Danish aid, was able to exploit. With her sons now ensconced as the lords of Norway, Gunnhild was from this time known as konungamóðir, or "Mother of Kings."
During the reign of Harald Greyhide
, Gunnhild dominated the court; according to Heimskringla she "mixed herself much in the affairs of the country." Gunnhild's sons killed or deposed many of the jarls and petty kings that had hitherto ruled the Norwegian provinces, seizing their lands. Famine, possibly caused or exacerbated by these campaigns, plagued the reign of Harald.
Among the kings slain (around 963) was Tryggve Olafsson
whose widow Astrid Eriksdotter fled with her son Olaf Tryggvason
to Sweden
and then set out for the eastern Baltic
. According to Heimskringla Astrid's flight and its disastrous consequences were in response to Gunnhild having sent soldiers to kidnap or kill her infant son.
Gunnhild was the patron and lover of Hrut Herjolfsson (or Hrútur Herjólfsson), an Icelandic chieftain who visited Norway during the reign of Gunnhild's son Harald. This dalliance was all the more scandalous given the difference in their ages; the fact that Gunnhild was a generation older than Hrut was considered noteworthy. Gunnhild engaged in public displays of affection with Hrut that were normally reserved for married couples, such as putting her arms around his neck in an embrace. Moreover, Gunnhild had Hrut sleep with her alone in "the upper chamber." Laxdaela Saga in particular describes the extent to which she became enamored of Hrut:
She helped Hrut take possession of an inheritance by arranging the death of a man named Soti at the hands of her servant, Augmund and her son Gudrod. When Hrut returned home, Gunnhild gave him many presents, but she cursed Hrut with priapism
to ruin his marriage to Unn, daughter of Mord Fiddle
; the two ultimately divorced.
Gunnhild also showed great favor to Olaf the Peacock
, Hrut's nephew, who visited the Norwegian court after Hrut's return to Norway. She advised him on the best places and items to trade and even sponsored his trade expeditions.
, jarl of Hlaðir, arranged the death of Harald Greyhide around 971 with the connivance of Harald Bluetooth, who had invited his foster-son to Denmark to be invested with new Danish fiefs. Civil war broke out between Jarl Haakon and the surviving sons of Erik and Gunnhild, but Haakon proved victorious and Gunnhild had to flee Norway once again, with her remaining sons Gudrod and Ragnfred. They went to Orkney, again imposing themselves as overlords over Jarl Thorfinn. However, it appears that Gunnhild was less interested in ruling the country than in having a place to live quietly, and her sons used the islands as a base for abortive raids on Haakon's interests; the government of Orkney was therefore firmly in the hands of Thorfinn.
According to the Jomsvikinga Saga
, Gunnhild returned to Denmark around 977 but was killed at the orders of King Harald by being drowned in a bog. The Ágrip and Theodoricus Monachus's Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium contain versions of this account.
In 1835, the body of a murdered or ritually sacrificed
woman, the so-called Haraldskær Woman
, was unearthed in a bog in Jutland
. Because of the account of Gunnhild's murder contained in the Jomsviking Saga and other sources, the body was mistakenly identified as that of Gunnhild. Based upon the belief of her royal personage, King Frederick VI of Denmark
commanded an elaborate sarcophagus
be carved
to hold her body. This royal treatment of Haraldskær Woman’s remains explains the excellent state of conservation of the corpse; conversely, Tollund Man
, a later discovery, was not properly conserved and most of the body has been lost, leaving only the head as original material in his display. Later radiocarbon dating
demonstrated that the Harakdskær Woman was not Gunnhild, but rather a woman who lived in the 6th century BCE.
's 1934 novel Olaf the Glorious
, a fictionalized biography of Olaf Tryggvason. She is the central character of the novel Mother of Kings
by Poul Anderson
, (which makes her a granddaughter of Ragnvald Eysteinsson
, accepts the version of her living with the Finnish warlocks and emphasizes her being a witch) and also appears in Cecelia Holland
's The Soul Thief. In The Demon of Scattery by Poul Anderson and Mildred Downey Broxon, the main characters, the Viking Halldor and the Irish
ex-nun
Brigit, become Gunnhild's paternal grandparents.
Eric Bloodaxe
Eric Haraldsson , nicknamed ‘Bloodaxe’ , was a 10th-century Scandinavian ruler. He is thought to have had short-lived terms as the second king of Norway and possibly as the last independent ruler of the kingdom of Northumbria Eric Haraldsson (Eric, anglicised form of ; died 954), nicknamed...
(king of Norway 930–34, 'King' of Orkney c. 937–54, and king of Jórvík
Jórvík
Scandinavian York is a term, like the terms Kingdom of Jórvík or Kingdom of York, used by historians for the kingdom of Northumbria in the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century, when it was dominated by Norse warrior-kings; in particular, it is used to refer to the city controlled by...
948–49 and 952–54). Many of the details of her life are disputed, including her parentage. Although she is treated in the sagas as a historical person, even her historicity is a matter of some debate. Gunnhild appears prominently in many Norse sagas, including Fagrskinna
Fagrskinna
Fagrskinna is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It takes its name from one of the manuscripts in which it was preserved, Fagrskinna meaning 'Fair Leather', i.e., 'Fair Parchment'. Fagrskinna proper was destroyed by fire, but copies of it and another vellum have been preserved...
, Egil's Saga, Njal's Saga
Njál's saga
Njáls saga is one of the sagas of Icelanders. The most prominent characters are the friends Njáll Þorgeirsson, a lawyer and a sage, and Gunnarr Hámundarson, a formidable warrior...
, and Heimskringla
Heimskringla
Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
. What details of her life are known come largely from Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic sources, which generally asserted that the Icelandic settlers had fled from Harald's tyranny. While the historicity of such sources as the Landnamabok
Landnámabók
Landnámabók , often shortened to Landnáma, is a medieval Icelandic written work describing in considerable detail the settlement of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries AD.-Landnáma:...
is disputed, the perception that Harald had exiled or driven out many of their ancestors led to an attitude among Icelanders generally hostile to Erik and Gunnhild. Scholars such as Gwyn Jones
Gwyn Jones (author)
Gwyn Jones was a Welsh novelist and story writer, and a scholar and translator of Nordic literature and history.Jones was a native of New Tredegar, Monmouthshire...
therefore regard some of the episodes reported in them as suspect.
The sagas relate that Gunnhild lived during a time of great change and upheaval in Norway. Her father-in-law Harald Fairhair
Harald I of Norway
Harald Fairhair or Harald Finehair , , son of Halfdan the Black, was the first king of Norway.-Background:Little is known of the historical Harald...
had recently united much of Norway under his rule. Shortly after his death, Gunnhild and her husband were overthrown and exiled. She spent much of the rest of her life in exile in Orkney, Jorvik
Jórvík
Scandinavian York is a term, like the terms Kingdom of Jórvík or Kingdom of York, used by historians for the kingdom of Northumbria in the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century, when it was dominated by Norse warrior-kings; in particular, it is used to refer to the city controlled by...
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. A number of her many children with Erik became co-rulers of Norway in the late tenth century.
Origins
According to the 12th century Historia Norvegiae, Gunnhild was the daughter of Gorm the OldGorm the Old
Gorm the Old , also called Gorm the Sleepy , was the first historically recognized King of Denmark, reigning from to his death . He ruled from Jelling, and made the oldest of the Jelling Stones in honour of his wife Thyra. Gorm was born before 900 and died .-Ancestry and reign:Gorm is the reported...
, king of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, and Erik and Gunnhild met at a feast given by Gorm. Modern scholars have largely accepted this version as accurate. In their view, her marriage with Erik was a dynastic union between two houses, that of the Norwegian Ynglings and that of the early Danish monarchy (who may have claimed descent from Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
), in the process of unifying and consolidating their respective countries. Erik himself was the product of such a union between Harald and Ragnhild, a Danish princess from Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
.
Gwyn Jones in particular supported the identification of Gunnhild as the daughter of Gorm, and regarded the stories of her origins in Halogaland
Hålogaland
Hålogaland was the northernmost of the Norwegian provinces in the mediaeval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a petty kingdom extending between Namdalen in Nord-Trøndelag and Lyngen in Troms.-Etymology:...
in northern Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and her tutelage by Finnish wizards as part of a general Icelandic hostility towards Gunnhild and Erik.
Ozur Toti
Ozur Toti was a 9th-century Norwegian hersir who lived in Halogaland. In the Heimskringla and Egil's Saga, he is identified as the father of Gunnhild Mother of Kings, the wife and queen of Erik Bloodaxe, though elsewhere she is identified as a daughter of Gorm the Old.Heimskringla and Egil's Saga...
, a hersir
Hersir
A hersir was a local military commander of a hundred and owed allegiance to a jarl or king. They were also aspiring landowners, and, like the middle class in many feudal societies, supported the kings in their centralization of power. The hersir was often equipped with a conical helmet and a short...
from Halogaland. Accounts of her early life vary between sources. Egil's Saga relates that "Eirik fought a great battle on the Northern Dvina
Northern Dvina
The Northern Dvina is a river in Northern Russia flowing through the Vologda Oblast and Arkhangelsk Oblast into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. Along with the Pechora River to the east, it drains most of Northwest Russia into the Arctic Ocean...
in Bjarmaland
Bjarmaland
Bjarmaland was a territory mentioned in Norse sagas up to the Viking Age and - beyond - in geographical accounts until the 16th century. The term is usually seen to have referred to the southern shores of the White Sea and the basin of the Northern Dvina River and - presumably - some of the...
, and was victorious as the poems about him record. On the same expedition he obtained Gunnhild, the daughter of Ozur Toti, and brought her home with him."
Gwyn Jones regarded many of the traditions that grew up around Gunnhild in the Icelandic sources as fictional. However, both Theodoricus monachus
Theodoricus monachus
Theodoric the Monk In Old Norse his name was most likely Þórir munkr. was a 12th century Norwegian Benedictine monk, perhaps at the Nidarholm Abbey. He may be identical with either Bishop Tore at Hamar or Archbishop Tore Gudmundsson, who both went under the name Theodoricus in the Abbey of St...
and the Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum
Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum
Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum or Ágrip is a synoptic history of the kings of Norway, written in Old Norse. The preserved text starts with the death of Hálfdan svarti and ends with the accession of Ingi krókhryggr but the original is thought to have covered a longer period, probably up to the reign of...
report that when Gunnhild was at the court of Harald Bluetooth after Erik's death, the Danish king offered marriage to her; if valid, these accounts call into question the identification of Gunnhild as Harald's sister, but their most recent editors follow Jones in viewing their accounts of Gunnhild's origins as unreliable.
Heimskringla relates that Gunnhild lived for a time in a hut with two Finnish
Saami
Saami or SAAMI can stand for:*Sami people*Sami languages*Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute...
wizards and learned magic from them. The two wizards demanded sexual favors from her, so she induced Erik, who was returning from an expedition to Bjarmland, to kill them. Erik then took her to her father's house and announced his intent to marry Gunnhild. The older Fagrskinna, however, says simply that Erik met Gunnhild during an expedition to the Finnish north, where she was being "fostered and educated ... with Mǫttull, king of the Finns
Saami
Saami or SAAMI can stand for:*Sami people*Sami languages*Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute...
". Gunnhild's Finnish sojourn is described by historian Marlene Ciklamini as a "fable" designed to set the stage for placing the blame for Erik's future misrule on his wife.
Marriage with Erik
Erik's kinslaying and exile
Gunnhild and Erik are said to have had the following children: Gamle, the oldest; then Guthorm, Harald, Ragnfrod, RagnhildRagnhild Eriksdotter
Ragnhild Eriksdotter was the daughter of Eric Bloodaxe and his wife, Gunnhild. According to the Orkneyinga Saga, she was a scheming woman who sought power. Her first marriage was with Arnfinn Thorfinnsson in 954. Gunhildr and her children were returning after Erik's death at Stainmore. Her mother...
, Erling, Gudrod, and Sigurd Sleva. Egil's Saga mentions a son named Rögnvald, but it is not known whether he can be identified with one of those mentioned in Heimskringla, or even whether he was Gunnhild's son or Erik's by another woman.
Gunnhild was widely reputed to be a völva
Völva
A vǫlva or völva is a shamanic seeress in Norse paganism, and a recurring motif in Norse mythology....
, or witch. Prior to the death of Harald Fairhair, Erik's popular half-brother Halfdan Haraldsson the Black
Halfdan Haraldsson the Black
Halfdan Haraldsson or Halfdan the Black was a son of Harald I of Norway by his first wife, Åsa, the daughter of Jarl Håkon Grjotgardsson of Lade. He was made sub-king of the Trondelag by his father, along with his brother Halfdan the White...
died mysteriously, and Gunnhild was suspected of having "bribed a witch to give him a death-drink
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
." Shortly thereafter, Harald died and Erik consolidated his power over the whole country. He began to quarrel with his other brothers, egged on by Gunnhild, and had four of them killed, beginning with Bjørn Farmann
Bjørn Farmann
Bjørn Farmann was the king of Vestfold. Bjørn was one of the sons of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway...
and later Olaf
Olaf Haraldsson Geirstadalf
Olaf Haraldsson , was a reputed son of King Harald Fairhair of Norway with Svanhild Øysteinsdotter, daughter of Øystein Jarl.The saga Heimskringla, written in Iceland in the thirteenth century by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson, gives the ninth century Norwegian founder king Harald Fairhair...
and Sigrød in battle at Tønsberg
Tønsberg
is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, southern Norway, located around north-east of Sandefjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tønsberg....
.
As a result of Erik's tyrannical rule (which was likely greatly exaggerated in the sagas) he was expelled from Norway when the nobles of the country declared for his half-brother, Haakon the Good.
Orkney and Jorvik
According to the Icelandic sagas, Erik set sail with his family and his retainers to Orkney, where they settled for a number of years. During that time Erik was acknowledged as "King of Orkney" by its de facto rulers, the jarlEarl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
s Arnkel and Erlend Turf-Einarsson. Gunnhild went with Erik to Jorvik
Jórvík
Scandinavian York is a term, like the terms Kingdom of Jórvík or Kingdom of York, used by historians for the kingdom of Northumbria in the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century, when it was dominated by Norse warrior-kings; in particular, it is used to refer to the city controlled by...
when, at the invitation of Bishop Wulfstan
Wulfstan I, Archbishop of York
Wulfstan was Archbishop of York between 931 and 952. He is often known as Wulfstan I, to separate him from Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York.-Life:Wulfstan was consecrated in 931....
, the erstwhile Norwegian king settled as client king over northern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. At Jorvik, both Erik and Gunnhild may have been baptized.
Battle of Stainmore
The Battle of Stainmore was a battle, likely between the Earldom of Bernicia, led by Osulf, and the forces of the last Norse king of Jórvík , Eric Bloodaxe...
(954), the survivors of the battle brought word of the defeat to Gunnhild and her sons in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. Taking with them all that they could, they set sail for Orkney, where they exacted tribute from the new jarl, Thorfinn Skullsplitter.
Ultimately, however, Gunnhild decided to move on; marrying her daughter Ragnhild to Jarl Thorfinn's son Arnfinn, she took her other children and set sail for Denmark.
It is worth noting that some modern historians call into question the identification of the Erik who ruled over Jorvik with Erik Bloodaxe. None of the English sources for Erik's reign in Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
identify him as Norwegian or as the son of Harald Fairhair. A thirteenth-century letter from Edward I to Pope Boniface VIII
Pope Boniface VIII
Pope Boniface VIII , born Benedetto Gaetani, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. Today, Boniface VIII is probably best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed him in the Eighth circle of Hell in his Divina Commedia, among the Simonists.- Biography :Gaetani was born in 1235 in...
identifies Erik as Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
in origin. Lappenberg, Plummer and Todd, writing in the late nineteenth century, identified Erik as a son of Harald Bluetooth, a claim Downham discounts as untenable. Downham, however, regards Erik the king of Jorvik as a distinct individual from Erik Bloodaxe, and thus views Gunnhild's sojourn in Orkney and Jorvik as the construct of later saga-writers who conflated different characters between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.
Conflict with Egil Skallagrimsson
Gunnhild was the nemesis of Egil Skallagrimsson, and his saga and poetry present her in a particularly negative light. Egil was introduced to Erik by his older brother ThorolfThorolf Skallagrimsson
Thorolf is a Icelandic character in Egils saga. He is brother of Egill Skallagrímsson, oldest son of Skalla-Grímr and Bera and gets his tall good looks after his uncle Thorolf Kveldulfsson who he was named after....
, who was a friend of the prince, and the brothers were originally on good terms with Erik and Gunnhild. However, during a sojourn in Norway around 930, Egil got into an inheritance dispute with certain members of Erik's court, during which he killed Bárðr of Atley, one of the king's retainers.
Gunnhild ordered her two brothers to kill Egil and Thorolf. Egil killed the pair when they confronted him, greatly increasing the Queen's thirst for revenge.
Rögnvald Eriksson
Rögnvald Eriksson or Ragnvald Eiriksson was, according to Egil's Saga, a son of Erik Bloodaxe. It is unclear whether Rögnvald was Erik's son by his wife Gunnhild or by another woman; the Heimskringla does not mention him among Erik's children with Gunnhild...
, Erik's son. He then cursed Erik and Gunnhild by setting a horse's head on a pole in a shamanic ritual (the pillar was a níðstöng or "níð-pole"; níð translates, roughly, to 'scorn' or 'curse'.) and saying:
"Here I set up a níð-pole, and declare this níð against King Erik and Queen Gunnhildr", — he turned the horse-head to face the mainland — "I declare this níð at the land-spirits there, and the land itself, so that all will fare astray, not to hold nor find their places, not until they wreak King Erik and Gunnhild from the land." He set up the pole of níð in the cliff-face and left it standing; he faced the horse's eyes on the land, and he rist runes upon the pole, and said all the formal words of the curse.
The last encounter between Egil and Gunnhild occurred around 948 in Jorvik. Egil was shipwrecked on a nearby shore and came before Erik, who sentenced him to death. But Egil composed a drápa called "Höfuðlausn
Höfuðlausn
Höfuðlausn or the "Head's Ransom" is a skaldic poem attributed to Egill Skalla-Grímsson in praise of king Eirik Bloodaxe.It is cited in Egils Saga , which claims that he created it in the span of one night. The events in the saga that lead up to the composition and recitation of the poem can be...
" in Erik's praise over a single night. When he recited it in the morning, Erik gave him his freedom and forgave the killing of Rögnvald, against Gunnhild's wishes.
In Denmark
Roskilde
Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....
. Tradition ascribes to Gunnhild the commissioning of the skald
Skald
The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
ic poem Eiríksmál
Eiríksmál
Eiríksmál is a skaldic poem composed sometime in 954 or later on the behest of the Norwegian queen Gunnhild in honour of her slain consort Erik Bloodaxe. Only the beginning of the poem is extant....
in honor of her fallen husband.
In Denmark, Gunnhild's son Harald was fostered by the king himself, and her other sons were given properties and titles. As King Harald was involved in a war against Haakon's Norway, he may have sought to use Gunnhild's sons as his proxies against the Norwegian king. One of her sons, Gamle, died fighting King Haakon around 960.
Return to Norway
Gunnhild returned to Norway in triumph when her remaining sons killed King Haakon at the Battle of FitjarBattle of Fitjar
The Battle of Fitjar took place in Fitjar at Stord in the county of Hordaland, Norway.-Background:The Battle of Fitjar at Stord was the last battle in a war between the sons of Eric Bloodaxe and their uncle King Haakon the Good for power over Norway.It also formed part of a contest between Norway...
in 961. Ironically, the battle was a victory for Haakon's forces but his death left a power vacuum which Gunnhild's son Harald, with Danish aid, was able to exploit. With her sons now ensconced as the lords of Norway, Gunnhild was from this time known as konungamóðir, or "Mother of Kings."
Harald II of Norway
Harald II Greycloak was a king of Norway.Harald Greycloak was the son of Eirik Bloodaxe and a grandson of Harald Fairhair...
, Gunnhild dominated the court; according to Heimskringla she "mixed herself much in the affairs of the country." Gunnhild's sons killed or deposed many of the jarls and petty kings that had hitherto ruled the Norwegian provinces, seizing their lands. Famine, possibly caused or exacerbated by these campaigns, plagued the reign of Harald.
Among the kings slain (around 963) was Tryggve Olafsson
Tryggve Olafsson
Tryggve Olafsson was king of Viken, Norway ....
whose widow Astrid Eriksdotter fled with her son Olaf Tryggvason
Olaf I of Norway
Olaf Tryggvason was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken , and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of Norway.Olaf played an important part in the often forcible, on pain of torture or death, conversion of the...
to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and then set out for the eastern Baltic
Baltic region
The terms Baltic region, Baltic Rim countries, and Baltic Rim refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
. According to Heimskringla Astrid's flight and its disastrous consequences were in response to Gunnhild having sent soldiers to kidnap or kill her infant son.
Gunnhild, the Queen, loved him so much that she held there was not his equal within the guard, either in talking or in anything else. Even when men were compared, and noblemen therein were pointed to, all men easily saw that Gunnhild thought that at the bottom there must be sheer thoughtlessness, or else envy, if any man was said to be Hrut's equal.
She helped Hrut take possession of an inheritance by arranging the death of a man named Soti at the hands of her servant, Augmund and her son Gudrod. When Hrut returned home, Gunnhild gave him many presents, but she cursed Hrut with priapism
Priapism
Priapism is a potentially harmful and painful medical condition in which the erect penis or clitoris does not return to its flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours. There are two types of priapism: low-flow and high-flow. Low-flow...
to ruin his marriage to Unn, daughter of Mord Fiddle
Mord Fiddle
Mord Sighvatsson , better known as Mord "Fiddle" was a wealthy Icelandic farmer and expert on Icelandic law who lived during the late Settlement Period and early Commonwealth Period. According to Njal's Saga, he was the son of Sighvat the Red, but Landnamabok asserts that Mord was Sighvat's grandson...
; the two ultimately divorced.
Gunnhild also showed great favor to Olaf the Peacock
Olaf the Peacock
Olaf the Peacock or Olaf Hoskuldsson was a merchant and chieftain of the early Icelandic Commonwealth, who was nicknamed "the Peacock" because of his proud bearing and magnificent wardrobe. He is a major character in the Laxdaela Saga and is mentioned in a number of other Icelandic sources...
, Hrut's nephew, who visited the Norwegian court after Hrut's return to Norway. She advised him on the best places and items to trade and even sponsored his trade expeditions.
Exile and death
Haakon SigurdssonHaakon Sigurdsson
Haakon Sigurdarsson was the de facto ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995.-Background:Haakon was the son of Sigurd Haakonsson, Jarl of Lade and ruler of Trøndelag and Hålogaland. His mother was Bergljot Toresdatter, daughter of Tore Ragnvaldsson, Earl of Møre...
, jarl of Hlaðir, arranged the death of Harald Greyhide around 971 with the connivance of Harald Bluetooth, who had invited his foster-son to Denmark to be invested with new Danish fiefs. Civil war broke out between Jarl Haakon and the surviving sons of Erik and Gunnhild, but Haakon proved victorious and Gunnhild had to flee Norway once again, with her remaining sons Gudrod and Ragnfred. They went to Orkney, again imposing themselves as overlords over Jarl Thorfinn. However, it appears that Gunnhild was less interested in ruling the country than in having a place to live quietly, and her sons used the islands as a base for abortive raids on Haakon's interests; the government of Orkney was therefore firmly in the hands of Thorfinn.
Jómsvíkinga saga
The Jómsvíkinga saga relates of the founding of Jomsborg by Palnatoke, and of the famous Viking brotherhood of the Jomsvikings....
, Gunnhild returned to Denmark around 977 but was killed at the orders of King Harald by being drowned in a bog. The Ágrip and Theodoricus Monachus's Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium contain versions of this account.
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
woman, the so-called Haraldskær Woman
Haraldskær Woman
The Haraldskær Woman is an Iron Age bog body found naturally preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark. Labourers discovered the body in 1835 while excavating peat on the Haraldskær Estate...
, was unearthed in a bog in Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
. Because of the account of Gunnhild's murder contained in the Jomsviking Saga and other sources, the body was mistakenly identified as that of Gunnhild. Based upon the belief of her royal personage, King Frederick VI of Denmark
Frederick VI of Denmark
Frederick VI reigned as King of Denmark , and as king of Norway .-Regent of Denmark:Frederick's parents were King Christian VII and Caroline Matilda of Wales...
commanded an elaborate sarcophagus
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
be carved
Wood carving
Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...
to hold her body. This royal treatment of Haraldskær Woman’s remains explains the excellent state of conservation of the corpse; conversely, Tollund Man
Tollund Man
The Tollund Man is the naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 4th century BC, during the time period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950 buried in a peat bog on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark, which preserved his body. Such a find is...
, a later discovery, was not properly conserved and most of the body has been lost, leaving only the head as original material in his display. Later radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
demonstrated that the Harakdskær Woman was not Gunnhild, but rather a woman who lived in the 6th century BCE.
Appearances in literature
Gunnhild was a villain in Robert LeightonRobert Leighton
Robert Leighton may refer to:*Robert Leighton , Scottish preacher, Bishop of Dunblane, Archbishop of Glasgow, & academic*Robert B. Leighton , American physicist...
's 1934 novel Olaf the Glorious
Olaf the Glorious
Olaf the Glorious may refer to:*One of the nicknames of King Olaf I of Norway*A biographical novel about Olaf I, written in 1929 by Robert Leighton...
, a fictionalized biography of Olaf Tryggvason. She is the central character of the novel Mother of Kings
Mother of Kings
Mother of Kings is a historical novel by Poul Anderson. It was first published in 2001 by Tor Books. The book is an account of the life of Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, a tenth-century queen of Norway and wife of King Eirik Bloodaxe. It is based largely on the accounts of Gunnhild's life given in...
by Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
, (which makes her a granddaughter of Ragnvald Eysteinsson
Ragnvald Eysteinsson
Rognvald "The Wise" Eysteinsson is the founder of the Earldom of Orkney in the Norse Sagas. Three quite different accounts of the creation of the Norse earldom on Orkney and Shetland exist...
, accepts the version of her living with the Finnish warlocks and emphasizes her being a witch) and also appears in Cecelia Holland
Cecelia Holland
-Biography:She was born December 31, 1943 in Henderson, Nevada, and began writing at the age of twelve, recording the stories she made up for her own entertainment. From the beginning, her focus was on history because "being twelve, I had precious few stories of my own...
's The Soul Thief. In The Demon of Scattery by Poul Anderson and Mildred Downey Broxon, the main characters, the Viking Halldor and the Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
ex-nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
Brigit, become Gunnhild's paternal grandparents.
External links
- Bodies of the Bogs: Haraldskaer Woman, ArchaeologyArchaeology (magazine)Archaeology is a bimonthly mainstream magazine about archaeology, published by the Archaeological Institute of America. Its focus is both for archaeologists and non-specialists alike. The magazine was launched in 1948, and is published six times a year....
, Archaeological Institute of AmericaArchaeological Institute of AmericaThe Archaeological Institute of America is a North American nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of public interest in archaeology, and the preservation of archaeological sites. It has offices on the campus of Boston University and in New York City.The institute was founded in 1879,...
, 10 December 1997. - Caveats on Gunnhild's parentage
- Egil's Saga online
- Genealogy of Gunnhild
- Heimskringla online
- Leighton's Olaf the Glorious on Project Gutenberg.