- Ongendus
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Ongendus (Angantyr in Danish) was a king of the Danes, reigning c. 710.
About 710, Saint Willibrord visited the Danes whilst Ongendus was ruling and returned with 30 boys to instruct in missionary work. No further details are given about Ongendus, other than that he was "more savage than any beast and harder than stone" — the ideal of man in the Viking Age. Against Willibrord's account, however, one should also consider that he was apparently well received, could travel in peace through Ongendus' realm and was allowed to return with his potential disciples, so the savagry of Ongendus may well be overstated. It may just have been the obligatory classification of any heathen ruler.
He may have founded Ribe,[1] and reinforced Danevirke in 737.[2]
Further reading
- Alcuin's Life of St. Willibrord, translated in C. H. Talbot, "The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany" (London and New York, 1954), especially pp. 9-10.
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Myhre, Bjørn (2003), "The Iron Age", The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, pp. p. 87., ISBN 0521472997
- ^ Skovgaard-Petersen, Inge (2003), "The making of the Danish kingdom", The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, pp. p. 172., ISBN 0521472997
Categories:- Danish monarchs
- Mythological kings of Denmark
- 8th-century rulers in Europe
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