Ynglingatal

"Ynglingatal" is a skaldic poem listing the kings of the House of Ynglings,citation |first=Maj |last=Odelberg |contribution=Ynglingatal |url=http://histvarld.historiska.se/histvarld/sok/artikel.asp?id=11316 |title=Vikingatidens ABC |publisher=Swedish Museum of National Antiquities |id=ISBN 9171929843 |year=1995] dated by most scholars to the late 9th century.

The original version is attributed to Þjóðólfr af Hvini who was the skald of a Norwegian petty king named Ragnvald the Mountain-High and who was a cousin of Harald Fairhair. The reason was that the Norwegian kings claimed descendance from the Norse gods through the royal dynasty of Sweden, a dynasty which apparently shed glory on the Norwegian kings.

"Ynglingatal" survives in three versions of which the best known is the "Ynglinga saga" in Snorri Sturluson's "Heimskringla". The second version, in "Historia Norwegiae", is a translation into Latin and contains essentially the same information. The third version is the most terse one and is preserved as only a listing of the names in "Íslendingabók" from the early 12th century.

Controversy

The historicity of the matter in "Ynglingatal" has been a contention among scholars since the 19th century. However, in the early 90s even the dating of the poem was disputed.

The late origin hypothesis

The authenticity of this poem has been questioned by Krag (1991), who believed it to be a 12th century propaganda work fabricated to enhance the legitimacy of the Norwegian kings.

Krag claimed that it was based on the teaching of the four elements by Empedocles, in that the first four kings' deaths (Fjölnir, Sveigðir, Vanlandi and Vísburr) are associated to such elements. According to Krag this suggests that "Ynglingatal" is not from the 9th century, but a much later work. He also pointed out that there is an euhemeristic approach in the early parts.

Krag's thesis had a certain success among Scandinavian scholars, during the 1990s, and it became the point of view presented in "Nationalencyklopedin" when the articles were written in the early 90s. However, since then, many critics and other studies have shown serious problems and deficiencies with Krag's thesis.

Evidence against the late hypothesis

Many have asked, if the work actually is a propaganda work from the 12th century, why does it not end with a famous king such as Harald Fairhair? Instead it ends with the less known king Ragnvald the Mountain-High. Krag's defense that it was an old text about Ragnvald that had been inserted is considered farfetched and it actually contradicts his thesis.

Hägerdal (1994) doubts that Christian ideas were unknown in Scandinavia before the 11th century and he (1994:4) has pointed out that "Borre" and "Skiringssal", in the part about the kings of Vestfold, were archaeologically important locations during the Viking Age but not later.

When the royal mounds at Gamla Uppsala and Ohthere's mound were excavated, they confirmed the dating given by "Ynglingatal".Fact|date=October 2007

Sapp (2002:2, 85-98) has studied the language of "Ynglingatal" and other skaldic poems in kviðuháttr. He found that the expletive particle "of" had stopped being productive in the 11th century. Sapp's conclusion is that the poem fits the language of the 9th century best, and to a lesser degree that of the 10th century. Sapp excludes the possibility that the language is an imitation of old language, because the linguistic markers are unambiguous. Moreover, other linguistic traits show the same results: the 9th century.

Sundquist (2004) who has done the most thorough and extensive study of "Ynglingatal", claims that Krag's arguments are rigid and erroneous. Instead Sundquist points out that there are obvious Swedish traditions in "Ynglingatal". This concerns both kennings, place names and proper names. Some traditions go back to the Vendel Age and may be even older, such as the king's role as the keeper of sanctuaries, an aristocratic mounted culture, the divine origins of the kings, presaging, and many other peculiarities. Moreover, some of Krag's objections are not based on "Ynglingatal" but on the version given by Snorri in the "Ynglinga saga", and consequently Krag criticizes the wrong version. Sundquist's conclusion is that Þjóðólfr of Hvinir based his work on an active Swedish tradition in the 9th century.

Footnotes

ee also

* Yngling

References

Åkerlund, W. "Studier över Ynglingatal" (Lund 1939).

Janson, H. "Templum nobilissimum" (Göteborg 1998).

Dómaldi's Death and the Myth of Sacral Kingship, in J. Lindow et al. (Eds.), "Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature" (Odense 1986).

Krag, C. "Ynglingatal og Ynglingesaga: en studie i historiske kilder" (Oslo 1991).

Magerøy, H. 'Ynglingatal', in "Kulturhistoriskt lexikon för nordisk medeltid 20" (Malmö 1976), p. 362-63.

Sapp, C.D. 'Dating Ynglingatal. Chronological Metrical Developments in Kviduhattr', Skandinavistik 2002:2, s. 85-98

Schück, H. "De senaste undersökningarna rörande ynglingasagan' [Svensk] Historisk tidskrift 1895:1, p. 39-88.

Sundquist, O. "Freyr"s offspring. Rulers and religion in ancient Svea society". (2004)

Wallette, A. "Sagans svenskar" (Malmö 2004).

External links

* [http://www.heimskringla.no/original/skaldekvad/ynglingatal.php Ynglingatal] in Old Norse from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.
* [http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/skindex/yt.html Two editions of the Old Norse text]
* [http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/test2.html Ynglingatal] in the manuscript spelling with textual notes, and in normalised Old Norse spelling with prose translation into modern Danish.
* [http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/kultur/did_7124209.asp Svenska Dagbladet]
* [http://www.hum.vxu.se/publ/humanetten/nummer15/art0406.html Online publication by Hägerdal]