Brännö

Brännö is an island in the Southern Göteborg Archipelago of Sweden with about 800 inhabitants. Its urban area is also known as Brännö, and has about 620 inhabitants (2000). Administratively it belongs to the parish of Styrsö within Gothenburg Municipality.

History

Due to its geographical location, Brännö has throughout the centuries been a strategic location for seafarers and chieftains, from both Sweden and the adjacent Norway and Denmark.

It is believed that its inhabitants are the same as the Brondings who are referred to in the Anglo-Saxon poems "Beowulf" and "Widsith". "Beowulf", England's national epic, relates that Breca was the childhood friend of the hero Beowulf and "Widsith" tells that Breca later was the lord of the Brondings. [1]

Brännö is mentioned in the icelandic Sagas as the location of several important thing assemblies in the Viking Age and later. [2] The "Laxdaela saga" relates that the beautiful Irish princess Melkorka was sold as a thrall to the Icelandic chieftain Höskuld Dalakollson, during a fair on Brännö, in the 10th century.

External links

*Note 1: The Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, the posthumous dictionary by Joseph Bosworth (1898), see [http://dontgohere.nu/oe/as-bt/read.htm?page_nr=127 bróc - brot]
*Note 2: sv icon [http://www.branno.nu/Branno_Nu19.htm Brännö History] Local fan site dedicated to Brännö (in Swedish)