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CM 2014 ombrukket3.qxp_CM 30.04.15 15.46 Side 6 Slavic Raid on Konungahella ROMAN ZAROFF The article explores the naval raid of the Slavic forces on the coastal norwegian port set - tlement of Konungahella in the mid 1130s. The paper analyses the raid in the context of regional politics and from the perspective of Baltic Slavs. It also encompasses the wider political context of contemporary imperial and Polish politics. It addresses the issue of the timing of the raid, participation of other than Pomeranian Slavs, and the reasons why it took place. It focuses on the reasons behind the raid which are surrounded by contro - versy and various interpretations. The paper postulates an alternative explanation to the politically motivated explanations previously accepted. One of the least known and researched historical events in Scandinavian mediaeval history appears to be the Slavic ride and plunder of the important norwegian port and settlement of Kungahälla-Konungahella 1, that took place around 1135/1136. Be - fore we analyse the reasons, causes and implication of this raid, we will concentrate on some background issues including a short description of the expedition and assault on Konungahella. Sources Regretfully our knowledge about this event comes solely from a single historical source, that being Saga of Magnus the Blind and of Harald Gille by Snorri Sturluson. he was an Icelander who was born in 1179 and died in 1249. The Saga of Magnus the Blind and of Harald Gille is part of a larger work known as Heimskringla – a saga or history of the kings of norway. It was written sometime between 1220 and 1230 in Iceland. Snorri, besides his literary and historical works was also heavily involved in the politics of Iceland and norway since the turn of the thirteenth century. On at least two occasions he spent a long time in norway at the royal court and in upper class circles. Moreover, according to English scholar Eric Christiansen, Snorri’s fos - ter-father Jón Loptsson lived in Konungahella at the time of the Slavic raid we are 1 Konungahella is the name of the settlement usually used in English language literature, and this spelling is to be used in this work. It is called Konghelle in norwegian, Kungahälla in modern Swedish, and another known spelling is: Konunghalla. Collegium Medievale 2014 CM 2014 ombrukket3.qxp_CM 30.04.15 15.46 Side 7 Slavic Raid on Konungahella 7 concerned with, as well as a number of other people who Snorri appears to have known. 2 It is very likely, if not certain, that they provided the chronicler with eye - witness accounts. Taking all this into consideration, and despite the usual mediaeval exaggerations, biases, and God-given omens in his accounts, his works should be re - garded as a relatively reliable historical source. Location and importance Konungahella under the name of Cuneghella appears in the writings of English chronicler of norman background, Orderic (Ordericus) Vitalis (who lived circa 1075– 1142). he wrote contemporary chronicles of eleventh- and twelfth-century normandy and Anglo-norman England. Orderic named Konungahella as one of the six most important norwegian civitates , or coastal port-towns, of this period in the following order: Berga (Bergen), Cuneghella (Konungahella), Copenga (identified as Trondheim), Burgus (identified as Sarpsborg), Alsa (a medieval settlement within modern Oslo) and Turesburga (Tønsberg) (Ordericus Vitalis, X.6 (pp. 214–215, n2)). As the list is not alphabetical and does not follow geographical directions it clearly shows the im - portance of Konungahella at this period. Snorri’s other accounts indicate that around 1064 it was already a port of some significance (Snorri, Saga of Harald Hardrade , ch. 74). It is also known that the norwegian king Sigurd I (1103–1130) gave Konunga - hella an important status upon his return from his Crusade to the “holy Land”: ... and King Sigurd came eastward, where he remained all winter, and was long in Ko - nungahella, which town he greatly enlarged and improved. he built there a great castle of turf and stone, dug a great ditch around it, and built a church and several houses within the castle. (Snorri, Saga of Sigurd , ch. 24) however, as Swedish scholar Lars hermanson has pointed out, archaeological evi - dence shows that Konungahella was not as important a commercial or trading centre as described by Snorri. So, its importance must have been more symbolic and ideo - logical as it was a royal norwegian residence, and a local church possessed a widely venerated relic assumed to be a splinter from the holy Cross. At the same time a legacy of crusader king Sigurd I could contribute to the prestige of the settlement (herman - son 2009). It was located inland with access through two branches of the Göta River on either side of an island called hisingen. It laid around 2.5 kilometres west from the modern town of Kungälv, in Västra Götaland County, north of Göteborg, in modern Sweden. After its destruction, the settlement was relocated to a site slightly to the west 2 Christiansen, in Saxo 1984: 712–713 n8; and Snorri, Saga of Magnus the Blind , ch. 9. Collegium Medievale 2014 CM 2014 ombrukket3.qxp_CM 30.04.15 15.46 Side 8 8 Roman Zaroff of the original site. Snorri Sturluson, writing nearly a century later, said that Konun - gahella has never completely recovered. (Snorri, Saga of Magnus the Blind , ch. 11; Pier - adzka 1953: 64–65). however, this does not appear to be the case. Konungahella was mentioned on a number of occasions by other sources and Snorri himself, creating the impression that, despite its gruesome fate, it remained an important centre. for ex - ample, during the reign of Canute I of Sweden (c. 1173–1195) there was a royal mint at the town (Christiansen, in Saxo 1987: 733 n79). It remained an important strategic stronghold in the second half of the twelfth century (Snorri, Magnus Erlingson’s saga , chs. 15, 19; Saga of Hakon Herdebreid , chs. 1–2, 12–14). A slow decline of Konungahella only took place towards the end of the Middle Ages. Dating There are two dates placing the raid in a timeframe, the year 1135 or 1136. It is most often accepted that the raid took place in August 1135, and this is based on the notion from Snorri who stated that it occurred during the fifth year after the death of nor - wegian king Sigurd I Magnusson, also known as Sigurd the Crusader (Snorri, Saga of Magnus the Blind , ch. 9), who died on the 26 th of March 1130. however, among some others, the Polish historian Edmund Kosiarz dated the event to 1136 (Kosiarz 1978: 39), though in his work he did not explain how he came up with this date. To understand the timetable of the events leading to the raid on Konungahella we have to look more closely into the broader regional political context. After the death of Danish and Obodrite duke/king Canute Lavard, Denmark went into an internal suc - cession conflict. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into the well known details of that civil war. Briefly however, the internal conflict practically ended after Eric II Emune defeated king niels, his son Magnus nielson (the Strong) and his half- brother harald Kesja at the Battle of fotevik (in Scania) on the 4th of July 1134, where Magnus was killed ( Chronicon Roskildense , ch. XV). Soon after, niels was assassinated in Schleswig and this was followed by the killing of harald Kesja and his eight sons (Chronicon Roskildense , chs. XVI–XVII). Consequently, Eric II became the sole Dan - ish king. A year later, in 1135, he paid homage to the Emperor Lothar III (Turasiewicz 2004: 219), thus bringing him international recognition and legitimizing his claim to the throne of Denmark. According to Saxo Grammaticus, at that time the Slavs, most likely the Ranove of Rügen Island (their political entity to be referred to in the text as the Rugian Principality), ravaged the Danish coast and islands. It must have been a real concern for Eric II, as the chronicler indicated it was an excuse for not inter - vening in the succession conflict in norway on behalf of the then exiled harald IV Collegium Medievale 2014 CM 2014 ombrukket3.qxp_CM 30.04.15 15.46 Side 9 Slavic Raid on Konungahella 9 Gille. The latter took refuge in Denmark after being defeated on 9th August 1134 by Magnus IV Blind at the battle of färlev (Saxo, XIV.1 (p. 352), cf. pp. 712–713 n8). Taking into consideration that färlev is located about 70–75 kilometres north of Ko - nungahella it is extremely unlikely that the Slavs would plan a large naval and coastal operation in an area where two major armies were active. Therefore, we may defi - nitely exclude the year 1134 as the date of the raid. Also, we need to look into events in norway which at that time was also entan - gled in a civil war of succession. The conflict culminated on the 7th of January 1135 when norwegian king Magnus IV the Blind (ruled 1130–1135, 1137–1139) was cap - tured in Bergen and mutilated on the orders of harald IV Gille (ruled 1130–1136) (Snorri, Saga of Magnus the Blind , chs. 6–8). harald IV Gille himself was assassinated on the 14th of December 1136, on the orders of yet another pretender to the throne, Sigurd Magnuson Slembe (ruled 1136 –1139) (Snorri, Saga of Magnus the Blind , ch. 17). Snorri’s account places the raid on Konungahella in the chapters just after the capture and mutilation of Magnus IV (Snorri, Saga of Magnus the Blind , chs.

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