Haddingjar
Encyclopedia
Hasdingi
The Hasdingi were the southern tribes of the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe. They lived in areas of today's southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary...
, the royal dynasty of the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
. The accounts vary greatly.
Origins
It has been suggested that they were originally two Proto-Germanic legendary heroes by the name *Hazdingōz, meaning the "longhairs", and that they were identical to the Alci mentioned by TacitusTacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
. According to Tacitus, the Alci were worshiped as gods by priests in female clothing:
- [...] and the Nahanarvali. Among these last is shown a grove of immemorial sanctity. A priest in female attire has the charge of it. But the deities are described in Roman language as Castor and PolluxCastor and PolluxIn Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces were twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri . Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who visited Leda in the guise of a swan...
. Such, indeed, are the attributes of the divinity, the name being Alcis. They have no images, or, indeed, any vestige of foreign superstition, but it is as brothers and as youths that the deities are worshipped.
Cassius Dio mentioned c. 170 the Astingoi
Hasdingi
The Hasdingi were the southern tribes of the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe. They lived in areas of today's southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary...
as a noble clan among the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
, and the Asdingi
Hasdingi
The Hasdingi were the southern tribes of the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe. They lived in areas of today's southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary...
reappear, in the 6th century in Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
' work as the royal dynasty of the Vandals.
The root appears in Old Icelandic as haddr meaning "women hair", and the motivation for the name Haddingjar/Astingoi/Asdingi was probably that men from Germanic royal dynasties sported long hair as a mark of dignity (cf. the "longhaired Merovingians").
In legend and mythology
- In the Middle High GermanMiddle High GermanMiddle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
heroic lays, there are two brothers named Hartunge, who also appear in the Scandinavian Þiðrekssaga as Hertnið and Hartnið. In later Middle High German works, they appear as OrtnītOrtnitOrtnit, or Otnit, German hero of romance, was originally Hertnit or Hartnit, the elder of two brothers known as the Hartungs, who correspond in German mythology to the Dioscuri.-The story:...
and Hirðir. - In the Hervarar sagaHervarar sagaHervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...
, Gesta DanorumGesta DanorumGesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
, Orvar-Odd's saga and Lay of Hyndla, there are two Haddingjar among the twelve sons of the berserkerBerserkerBerserkers were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested in numerous Old Norse sources...
ArngrimArngrimArngrim was a berserker, who figures in Hervarar saga, Gesta Danorum, Lay of Hyndla, a number of Faroese ballads and Orvar-Odd's saga in Norse mythology.-Hervarar saga:...
. - Oddly, in Orvar-Odd's saga, after his friend Orvar-Odd had killed these two Haddingjar, HjalmarHjálmar- Current :*Þorsteinn Einarsson - Guitar and vocals*Sigurður Halldór Guðmundsson - Keyboards and vocals*Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson - Guitar* Valdimar Kolbeinn Sigurjónsson - Bass* Helgi Svavar Helgason - Percussion- Former :...
mentions in his death song two Haddingjar among his friends back in SigtunaFornsigtunaFornsigtuna , Old Sigtun, Sithun, Signildsberg or Signesberg is located in the parish of Håtuna ca 4 km west of the modern town of Sigtuna, by lake Mälaren, in Sweden...
. - In Hversu Noregr byggðist, there is a Hadding Raumsson who was the king of Haddingdalen in NorwayNorwayNorway , 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...
. He is succeeded by a son and a grandson by the same name. After his great-grandson Högni, there is a succession of three more generations named Hadding, making six Haddingjar in the same line. - The prose section following Helgakviða Hundingsbana IIHelgakviða Hundingsbana IIVölsungakviða in forna, Helgakviða Hundingsbana II or the Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane is an Old Norse poem found in the Poetic Edda...
, there is a Helgi HaddingjaskatiHelgi HaddingjaskatiHelgi Haddingjaskati meaning "Helgi the lord of the Haddingjar" was a legendary Norse hero of which only fragmentary accounts survive.It is said in the end section of Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, a part of the Poetic Edda, that the hero Helgi Hundingsbane and his lover Sigrún were reincarned as...
(Helgi the prince of the Haddingjar, i.e. the Hasdingi of the Vandals) referring to a now lost poem named Káruljóð, which was named after Helgi's beloved, the ValkyrieValkyrieIn Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decides who dies in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle , the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin...
Kára. This poem survives in an altered form as Hrómundar saga GripssonarHrómundar saga GripssonarHrómundar saga Gripssonar or The Saga of Hromund Gripsson is a legendary saga from Iceland. The original version has been lost, but its content has been preserved in the rímur of Hrómundr Gripsson published in Fernir forníslenzkar rímnaflokkar...
, where Helgi fights in the service of two Swedish kings by the name Haldingr. - In the oldest one of the GudrunGudrunGudrun is a major figure in the early Germanic literature centered on the hero Sigurd, son of Sigmund. She appears as Kriemhild in the Nibelungenlied and as Gutrune in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.-Norse mythology:...
lays, the Guðrúnarkviða IIGuðrúnarkviða IIGuðrúnarkviða II, The Second Lay of Gudrún, or Guðrúnarkviða hin forna, The Old Lay of Gudrún is probably the oldest poem of the Sigurd cycle, according to Henry Adams Bellows....
, GudrunGudrunGudrun is a major figure in the early Germanic literature centered on the hero Sigurd, son of Sigmund. She appears as Kriemhild in the Nibelungenlied and as Gutrune in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.-Norse mythology:...
says that the potion of oblivion that her mother had given her contained several runes, and among them the "unshorn corn ear of Haddingland", possibly a magic Vandal rune. - In KálfsvísaKálfsvísaThe Kálfsvísa , sometimes mistakenly called Alsvinnsmál, is a poem partially preserved in Snorri Sturluson’s Skáldskaparmál....
, in Snorri SturlusonSnorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
's SkáldskaparmálSkáldskaparmálThe second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál or "language of poetry" is effectively a dialogue between the Norse god of the sea, Ægir and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined...
, it is said that the king of the Haddingjar (the Vandals) rode a horse named Skævað. - In Gesta DanorumGesta DanorumGesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
there is a Haddingus about whom Saxo GrammaticusSaxo GrammaticusSaxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...
has many things to tell. He is possibly a memory of the HasdingiHasdingiThe Hasdingi were the southern tribes of the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe. They lived in areas of today's southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary...
, the royal clan of the Vandals.
Sources
- Ohlmarks, ÅkeÅke OhlmarksÅke Joel Ohlmarks was a Swedish author, translator and scholar of religion.He worked as a Lecturer at the University of Greifswald from 1941 to 1945...
. (1982). Fornnordiskt lexikon. Tiden. ISBN 91-550-2511-0 - The article Hadding in Nordisk familjebok (1909)