SVANTE NORR To Rede and to Rown (w) DDigitaligital Decennial Edition 1998-2008 OPIA 17 Published with grants from The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation Abstract Norr, S., 1998. To Rede and to Rown. Expressions of Early Scandinavian Kingship in Written Sources. Occasional Papers in Archaeology 17. Uppsala, 253 pp., 4 plates. Mono- graph, ISSN 1100-6358, ISBN 91-506-1277-8. The subject of this thesis is early Scandinavian kingship, and the analysis is based on a number of written sources and runic inscriptions. A study of early Germanic kingship focuses primarily on the development of Gothic kingship from the fourth to the sixth century. The royal attributes expressed in kennings and heiti in Ynglingatal are analysed, showing that the poem presents the development of kingship as a process in four stages. The dating of this work and its style of composition is also discussed. A study of the chapters in Ynglinga saga which deal with King Ingiald illráði examines the role of coun- sel, the political structure of the Svear and high kingship as a structural problem. Vita Anskarii is analysed with particular emphasis on the interaction between kings, noblemen and the ‘people’ in political decision-making. Finally, the associations between kings and runes are discussed, and the inscription of the Sparlösa stone is reinterpreted as a monument over a royal succession. Keywords: kingship, historical analogy, textual archaeology, written sources, counsel, rune © Svante Norr ISSN 1100-6358 ISBN 91-506-1277-8 Editor of digital decennial edition and new cover design: Svante Norr Cover Design: Alicja Grenberger Series Editor: Bo Gräslund Editor: Christina Bendegard Distributed by the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Sankt Eriks Torg 5, S-753 10 Uppsala, Sweden Printed in Sweden by Repro HSC, Uppsala 1998 SVANTE NORR To Rede and to Rown Expressions of Early Scandinavian Kingship in Written Sources Occasional Papers in Archaeology 17 Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University Uppsala 1998 CONTENTS PREFACE ......................................................................................vii 1. IN THEORY................................................................................... 1 The music of the future? ........................................................................................... 1 The ‘genealogical’ method ..........................................................................................5 Subjectivity ................................................................................................................7 2. OUR DIALOGUE WITH THE DEAD ................................................ 9 Ethics and the Other ..................................................................................................9 Archaeology and written sources ...............................................................................11 Orality and literacy ................................................................................................... 14 Oral transmission of historical facts, an ethnological example .......................................17 The text as a process ................................................................................................18 Between orality and literacy ...................................................................................... 19 Runes and readability ...............................................................................................20 Early stones ............................................................................................................ 21 Late stones .............................................................................................................22 Secondary orality ......................................................................................................24 Textual archaeology .................................................................................................26 3. EARLY GERMANIC KINGSHIP: THE EXAMPLE OF THE GOTHS ...... 29 Historical analogy .....................................................................................................29 Sources and early history of the Goths ..................................................................... 32 The kings of the Tervingi ........................................................................................ 34 The kings of the Greutungi and Ostrogoths ............................................................40 Comparisons: Tacitus’ Cherusci and Bede’s Old Saxons .......................................... 45 The leadership of Arminius ...................................................................................... 45 The Old Saxons .....................................................................................................47 How Gothic kings were made ..................................................................................49 After Theodoric the Great .......................................................................................50 4. AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF YNGLINGATAL .........................................55 Text and translation ................................................................................................. 59 Ynglingatal in archaeological research .......................................................................68 From text to artefacts and back again .......................................................................69 Birger Nerman: a history of events and individuals ...................................................70 The time problem: royal ‘generations’ ....................................................................... 73 Sune Lindqvist: a history of royal culture ................................................................. 75 i Royal attributes in Ynglingatal: kennings and heiti ..................................................79 Symmetry and a subdivision of group B .....................................................................81 Categories and attributes .........................................................................................82 Genealogical reference ..............................................................................................84 Divine ancestry: the connection with Frey ..................................................................84 Frey = Yngvi? ......................................................................................................... 85 Odin between the lines .............................................................................................86 Kings and war ..........................................................................................................90 Negative characterisation ......................................................................................... 91 Peaceful and religious duties .....................................................................................92 Geographical reference .............................................................................................92 Valteins spakfrômuðr ...............................................................................................92 Vôrðr véstalls .......................................................................................................... 93 Domaldi’s death – true or metaphorical sacrifice? ...................................................... 93 The royal attributes in Ynglingatal: a summary ........................................................96 The evolution of kingship according to Ynglingatal ....................................................96 The composition of Ynglingatal: event or process? ...................................................97 An ‘editor’s’ work in strophe 26? ...............................................................................97 The name Ynglingar ..............................................................................................98 Agni as founding-father? ..........................................................................................99 Ynglingatal as genealogy: historical document or ideological instrument? .............. 100 Dating .................................................................................................................... 102 Ynglingatal from pagan origin to Christian composition ......................................... 106 5. THE DEEDS AND DEATH OF INGIALD ILLRÁÐI ........................... 111 Bad counsel makes a bad king ................................................................................. 113 ‘Ræd’ in Old English poetry .................................................................................... 115 Commentary ........................................................................................................ 120 A comparison: ‘râd’ in the Old Saxon Heliand ........................................................ 121 Women and counsel ...............................................................................................123 Ingiald before illráði ................................................................................................127 Bad son - good father ............................................................................................. 129 Ynglinga saga in the light of analogy .......................................................................132 Leadership and loyalty ............................................................................................136