Battle of Brávellir

Infobox Military Conflict


caption=
conflict=Battle of Brávellir
partof=
date=mid-8th century
place=Near Bråviken (Brávik), East Götaland
result=Swedish victory
combatant1=Swedes and Western Geats
combatant2=Danes and Eastern Geats
commander1=Sigurd Ring
commander2=Harald Wartooth†
strength1=
strength2=
casualties1=
casualties2=

The Battle of Brávellir or the Battle of Bråvalla was a legendary battle that is described in the Norse sagas as taking place on the Brávellir between Sigurd Ring, king of Sweden and the Geats of West Götaland, and his uncle Harald Wartooth, king of Denmark and the Geats of East Götaland.

ources

This battle is said to have taken place in the mid 8th century and it is retold in several sources, such as the Norse sagas "Hervarar saga", "Bósa saga ok Herrauds" and "Sögubrot af Nokkrum", but it is most extensively described in the Danish "Gesta Danorum". According to the Swedish journalist and best selling historian Herman Lindquist, the Rök Stone tells of this battle.

Cause

Harald had inherited Sweden from his maternal grandfather Ivar Vidfamne, but ruled Denmark and East Götaland, whereas his subordinate king Sigurd Ring was the ruler of Sweden and West Götaland. According to legend, Harald Wartooth realised that he was growing old (150) and may die of old age and so never go to Valhalla. He consequently asked Sigurd if he would let him leave this life gloriously in a great battle.

Preparation

According to Saxo Grammaticus, both hosts prepared for seven years, and mustered armies of 200 000 men. Harald was joined by the legendary heroes Ubbe of Friesland, Uvle Brede, Are the One-eyed, Dag the Fat, Hroi Whitebeard and Hothbrodd the Indomitable as well as 300 shieldmaidens led by Hed, Visna and Hedborg. Sigurd recruited the legendary heroes Starkad, Egil the Bald, Grette the Evil (a Norwegian), Blig Bignose, Einar the Fatbellied and Erling Snake. Famous Swedes were Arwakki, Keklu-Karl, Krok the peasant, Gummi and Gudfast from Gislamark. They were joined by scores of Norwegians, Finns, Estonians, Curonians, Bjarmians, Livonians, Saxons, Angles, Frisians, Irish, Rus'etc. All picking their sides. Whole forests were chopped down in order to build 3000 longships to transport the Swedes. Harald's Danes had built so many ships that they could walk across The Sound.

The numbers are obviously exaggerated, certainly tenfold or more. For comparison with the 3000 Swedish ships, the leidang fleets of the Scandinavian kingdoms numbered around 300 ships each during the Viking Age.

Location

The " Hervarar saga" speaks about "Brávelli í eystra Gautlandi" (i.e. Bråvalla in East Götaland), and in " Sögubrot af Nokkrum" the battle is said to have taken place south of Kolmården which separated Sweden (i.e. Svealand) from East Götaland and where Bråviken is located: "... Kolmerkr, er skilr Svíþjóð ok Eystra-Gautland ... sem heitir Brávík." and Saxo ends his account by saying "thus ended the battle of Bråvik". Most historians have held the battle to have taken place near Bråviken,. but in the 17th century"Bråvallaslaget" in Ohlmarks, Å. (1994) "Fornnordiskt lexikon". p. 44] He stated that older scholarship had treated the accounts of the battle uncritically and perceived the accounts as largely historical. During the last decades of the 19th century, however, the hypercritical school considered the battle as entirely fictional and considered even the area where it took place as mythical. The pendulum turned and during the first decades of the 20th century, the opinion was once again in favour of its historicity, although the contemporary scholarship regarded it as a fictionalized historic event. In 1990, the Swedish encyclopedia "Nationalencyklopedin" summed up the debate by claiming that the historicity of the battle is impossible to verify."Bråvallaslaget" in "Nationalencyklopedin" (1990):]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.snerpa.is/net/forn/sogubrot.htm Sögubrot af Nokkrum fornkonungum í Dana ok Svíaveldi] - kap 7,9: "..Kolmerkr, er skilr Svíþjóð ok Eystra-Gautland ... sem heitir Brávík.."
* [http://www.snerpa.is/net/forn/hervar.htm Hervarar saga og Heiðreks] - kap 15: "..Brávelli í eystra Gautlandi.."
* [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/DanishHistory/book8I.html Saxo: The Danish History, Book Eight Part I] - Saxo on the Battle of Bråvalla.