The Early Intercourse of the Franks and Danes. Part II Author(s): Henry H. Howorth Reviewed work(s): Source: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 7 (1878), pp. 1-29 Published by: Royal Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3677882 . Accessed: 30/12/2012 11:59 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Historical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:59:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYALHISTORICAL SOCIETY. THE EARLY INTERCOURSE OF THE FRANKS AND DANES. PART II. BY HENRY H. HOWORTH, ESQ., F.S.A., Fellow of the Royal HistoricalSociety. THERE is a passage in one of the Frankish annals which has not received the attentionwhich it deserves,and which I believe throws a great deal of light on the historyof the Danish revolutionsof the early part of the ninth century. This chronicle was writtenin verse by a Low Saxon monk some time during the reign of Arnulph, who died in 899. Under the year 807 we read that a Norman chief named Alfdeni,accompanied by a great following,submitted to Char- lemagne, and made a perpetualpact with him (Pertz, I, 263). This notice I consider is very important. It is quite clear, fromwhat we know of Norse modes of thought and habits, that this was no plebeian, but some distinguishedchief. It is furtherclear that no Danish chief would put his head under the yoke of the Frank empire except under compulsion. That such a one should have willinglyand freelysubjected himselfto the mightyKaizer Charles is incredible; nor,again, is it to be supposed that a statement like this,in whichan uncommon name is mentioned by the Saxon poet, was an inventionof his own. The only alternative that remains is the view I would urge, namely,that he was a fugitiveand an VII. B 2 This content downloaded on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:59:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. outcast. If a fugitive,he was in all probabilityescaping from the dominantchief of Denmark at this time,namely, Godfred. In my formerpaper I argued that Godfredwas the Gudrod the Magnificentof Snorro,the chief of the Inglings,and that he was a strangerand a conqueror in Denmark. He first appears as king there in 804, the mentionof him previously in 782 by Regino being, as I have shown,in all probabilitya mistake. What more probable,therefore, than that Halfdene was the King of Denmark, or rather,perhaps, of Jutland,who was dispossessed by Godfred? This view,which I believe is new, also explains some very crooked parts of the history of this period. Halfdene was doubtless the same Halfdene who was sent to the Emperor as an envoy with Osmund by the Danish king Sigfred in the year 782. It is not improbable,as I shall show presently,that on submittingto the Emperor in 807 he received the grant of an appanage, was allowed to settle in Friesland, and Godfred's campaign in Friesland in 8Io was perhaps decided against him. I forgotto mention a curious incident of that campaign referredto by Saxo, in which he tells us that when peace was made with the Frisians they had to pay a large sum of money whichthe conqueror caused to be throwninto the hollow of a shield,and he judged by the sound whetherthe metal was pure or not: assuredly he must have had a good ear forthe ringof honest coin. If my contentionbe right, then it is clear that on Godfred's death therewould be a dispossessed and rival dynastywith betterclaims than his own to the allegiance of the Danes. Let us now shortlyconsider anotherfact, which has been somewhat overlooked. Under the year 808 we read that in a fightwith the Obotriti there fell Reginold, the nephew of Godfred, "who was the first afterhim in the kingdom" (Einhardt, Pertz, I, I95; Chron. Moiss. id. 2, 258). Godfred,as we know,left a number of sons behind himnt;how thenwas his nephew called the next after him in the kingdom,unless the succession among the Norsemenwas the sameas in many Eastern nations, where This content downloaded on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:59:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE EARLY INTERCOURSE OF THE FRANKS AND DANES. 3 brothersucceeded brotheruntil those of the same generation were extinct,when the successionwent back to thedescendants of the eldest ? This I believe was the case, and Reginold was perhaps the son of Godfred's brother Eystein, who is mentionedby Snorro. On the death of Godfredhis sons fledas I have mentioned; one of them apparentlysucceeded to his father'sdominions in Westfold, namely Olaf. In Jutland,however, he was suc- ceeded by his brother'sson Hemming (Einhardt, Pertz,I, 197, 198; Kruse, 54). He was doubtless a brother of the Reginold just named. The Saga of Olaf Trygveson,which is a verylate authority, calls him a brotherof Godfred,while Saxo makes him a son of Olaf; but these authoritiescannot weigh against the con- temporary Frank annalist. The new king came to terms with the empire,and in a treatymade between them in 81I the Eyder was accepted as the frontierbetween the two kingdoms (Helmold Kruse, 58), and thus the borderdistrict occupied by the Transalbingian Saxons, and the Obotritiof Wagrien, over which Godfred had enacted a kind of suzerainty,was surrenderedto the Franks. This treaty was concluded at a conferenceheld on the Eyder,in whichten chiefson the side of the Franks weremet by an equal number of Danes. The names of the Franks are thus given :--I. Count Walach, son of Bernhard,that is Walach or Wala, afterwards Abbot of Corbey, cousin to Charlemagne,being the son of his uncle Bernard,whom he sent against the Lombard King Desiderius (Kruse 61, note). 2. Count Burchard; he was comes stabuli to the Emperor, and was sent byhim in 807 into Corsica (Einhardt sub ann; Kruse, id.). 3. Count Unroch, the father of Albgar, who was sent into Dalmatia (Einh. sub ann 817; Kruse,62, note I). 4. Count Wodo, or Odo, doubtless the Odo legatus mentioned in 81o as the commanderof Hohbuokhi (Einhardt annales Pertz I, 197). 5. Count Meginhard, the fatherof Eberhardthe Saxon who was killed in 881 by the Norsemen. 6. Count Egbert This content downloaded on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:59:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 4 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL IIISTORICAL SOCIETY. (already named as the founderof a fortressacross the Elbe). 7. Count Theodoric, who was probably a Saxon. 8. Count Abo, probably the Abbio who was baptized with Witekind (Annales Lauriss, and Einh. sub anno 785; Kruse, 62). 9. Count Ostdag, doubtless a Saxon; and Io. Count Wigman, also no doubt a Saxon (a Wigman Saxonis named in 939 (Pertz, I, 619). On behalfof the Danes the deputieswere thus named :-Two brothersof Hemming named Hancwin (pro- bably Hakon, Dahlman) and Augandeo (Augantyr,Dahl. 25), and the followingchief men :-Osfred styledTurdimul ( ? from Islandic tutinn,and meil mouth,Dahl. 25), and Warsteinand Suomi ? and Urm, and anotherOsfrid, the son of Heileg (i. e., Helye), and Osfridof Sconaowe (i.e. of Scania), and Hebbi, and Aowin. It is remarkable,as MM. Warnkoenig and Gerard have that no mention is made here of Godfred's sons, although Hemming's brothers are named; showing his hostile title (Hist. des Car. 2, 2Io). We are told that peace was sworn accordingto the methodof the Danes. The Emperor now divided his army into three sections; one was sent into Brittany,another into Pannonia, and a thirdcrossed the Elbe into the countryof the Linones, which restored the fortressof Hohbuoki, destroyed the previous year by the Wiltzi. The Emperor himselfwent to Bononia (i.e. Boulogne), wherethe ships he had orderedto be built the year beforewere assembled. He restoredthe pharosthere, and caused the nocturnal fire to be relighted. He then went up the Scheldt to Ghent, where he inspected another fleet,and in the middle of November returnedto Aachen, where there came Aowin and Hebbi, the two envoys of the Danish king,bearing gifts. While he thus extended a civil hand to the Norsemen,he carefullyprepared more efficacious defences for the coasts. Hemming died in the early part of the year 8 I2. The verysuspicious narrativeof Saxo makes him be buried at Lethra. The Frankish chronicles introduce us on his death to a fiercestruggle for the vacant throne,and we are told that this This content downloaded on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:59:53 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE EARLY INTERCOURSE OF THE FRANKS AND DANES. 5 struggletook place between "Sigfred,the nephewof Godfred, and Anulo, the nephew or grandson of Harald who was formerly king." This Sigfred, or Sigurd, was doubtless a brother of Reginold and Hemming already named,who succeeded them naturally. Anulo is translated Ringo in Saxo's narrative,and in the Saga of Olaf Trygvason,which at this time seems based on Saxo; and it has been generallyagreed that the person here meant is Sigurd Ring, who in the Sagas was a nephew of Harold Hildetand; but it is far fromclear that this is so.