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Table of Contents

A.C. 70 to A.D. 1001.

UNCERTAINTY AND CONTRADICTION IN THE CHRONOLOGICAL SERIES OF KINGS EXPLAINED BY THE FACT THAT THE GOTHS AND SWIONES WERE UNDER DISTINCT RULERS—HENCE THEIR CONFUSION.—THE YNGLINGS, OR SACRED FAMILY OF ODIN, REIGN AT UPSAL.—KINGS OF THAT RACE: ODIN—NIORD—FREYR—FREYA—FIOLNER—SWEGDIR—VANLAND—VISBUR—DOMALD—DOMAR—DYGVE—DAG—AGNE, ETC.—FATE OF THE PRINCES OF THIS HOUSE, OF WHOM MOST DIE TRAGICALLY.—LEGEND OF AUN THE OLD.—INGIALD ILLRADA.—CONQUEST OF SWEDEN BY IVAR VIDFADME.—GOTHIC KINGS FROM GYLFO TO IVAR VIDFADME.—KINGS OF THE SWEDES AND THE GOTHS.

In the Introduction to the present volume we have added the tabular list of kings by archbishop Joannes Magnus, as illustrative of the difficulty which must accompany all researches into the ancient history of Sweden.^[117] The exploits of those kings, their chronological order, their very names, rest under a deep cloud. Where, indeed, no two authors agree—where the names, not merely of two or three sovereigns, but of nearly one half, are as different as the actions ascribed to them—what can be inferred but this, that little dependence is to be placed on any one of them? Compare, for example, the list given by the archbishop with that which modern Swedish critics approve^[118]; and what must be the reader’s surprise to find—110 in the former case, and 37 in the other; the names, too, for the most part, dissimilar as the number! If we take that given by the authors of our Universal History^[119], we shall, indeed, have some approximation in respect to the number, but little in regard to the names, of the kings. Other lists might be produced equally contrasting with the one contained in the Norwegian authorities. Whence this diversity, which modern historians have pronounced to be hopelessly irreconcileable? It arises from a very simple cause. When the Swiones, the attendants of Odin—his companions from his Asiatic kingdom—arrived in the north, they found a Gothic tribe, the Gothones, under Gylfo their king, seated along the maritime coast, and extending to the centre of Sweden. How long this tribe had been settled there when the Swiones arrived would be vain to inquire. By what means Odin and his followers obtained a portion of the country, and established the seat of his new empire at Upsal, has been already related. Here, then, were two distinct tribes, the Gothones or Goths, and the Swiones or Swedes, to say nothing of the original tribes, or, at least, fragments of those tribes, who had been located in these regions many centuries before the arrival of the Goths. Now the kings whom Joannes Magnus, Torfœus, Loccenius, the authors of our Universal History, and other writers enumerate, were the kings of the Goths and Swedes, while those contained in the Landfedgatal, the Heimskringla, and other Icelandic authorities, were sovereigns of the Swedes only. That the two people, and, consequently, the districts which they inhabited, were for many centuries under distinct rulers, is one of the best ascertained facts of history. The former called themselves kings of the Goths, or of Gothland, only; the latter, now kings of the Swedes, now of Upsal. This distinction was not only observed from the very dawn of their history, but is at this day preserved in the title of the monarch, who is styled “King of the Swedes and of the Goths.” Hence the two lists of kings—the two kingdoms—the distinction of history in both; all which have hitherto been confounded, and so completely as to baffle the keenest criticism. Not that the king of the one people was not sometimes the king of both. This could not be otherwise, when two conterminous nations, jealous of each other’s prosperity, were eager for the ascendancy. The superiority, no doubt, was assumed by the sovereigns of the divine race, the descendants of Odin; but those of Gothland were sometimes the rulers, and hailed as monarchs of the Swedes. On the other hand, the kings of the Swedes—those who reigned at Upsal—were still more frequently victors over their Gothic neighbours. Hence the confusion which, notwithstanding the important distinction we have been so careful to indicate, will often be found in the regal lists of this country.^[120]

|A.C. 40 to A.D. 14.|

We commence with the hallowed race, the pontiff kings of the Swedes, who reigned at Upsal. On the death of Odin, Niord succeeded, as prophet, priest, and king, in the capital of Sigtuna. It was then, no doubt, the head of a very small state. Many were the kings which held Sweden at this time: besides Gothia, which was subject to chiefs, who, in the sequel, were generally at war with the Swiones, each province had its king. Several of the states were bound in alliance with Niord. Odinsey, in Fionia, was held by a chief of this nature; Skiold, the son of Odin, reigned at Ledra, in Zealand; Freyr was the pontiff chief of Upsal; Heimdal was over the temple at Hemenbiorg; Thor was at Thrudvang, and Balder at Breidablik.^[121] And though Scania was a possession of the Goths, and not yet subject to the Danish chiefs, it appears to have been held by some one of the Asser. The reign of Niord was a happy one; the gifts of nature were extraordinarily abundant, and the benefit was referred to his influence with the gods. Before his death he wounded himself as Odin had done. After it, his body was laid on the funeral pyre, and he was long worshipped as a deity. The sceptre was now transferred to Freyr, the son of Niord. His reign, too, was prosperous, and he was the idol of his people. He it was who built the great temple at Upsal, and made it the seat of his government, in preference to Sigtuna. Here he received the tribute furnished by his subjects; hence the progressive enrichment of that place. Universal peace distinguished his administration. He was held in greater esteem than his predecessors, and his surname of Yngve became the proudest distinction of his descendants, who were thenceforth called Ynglings. His death—we know not for what reason—was concealed for three years; the only reason assigned is, that a magnificent tomb was erecting for him during that period. His son did not immediately ascend the throne of the Swedes; there was Freya, the last of the divine personages who had accompanied Odin from Asia to the north. She was celebrated in her life, and still more after her death: her body was not burned on the funeral pyre, because it was believed she had returned to the gods; and her statue, as everybody knows, in conjunction with those of Thor and Odin, long adorned the temple at Upsal. Fiolner^[122], the son of Freyr, succeeded. He was contemporary with Frode I., king of Denmark. Both were equally inclined to peace, and they lived in perfect harmony. More than once did he visit king Frode at Ledra, whose hospitality was the admiration of that age. But one of his visits proved fatal. Whatever might be his other virtues, sobriety was not of the number; his potations were long and deep; and one night, having occasion to rise, he fell into a huge vessel of mead which was in the cellar, the trap door of which had been incautiously left open.^[123] The throne now passed to Swegdir, his son. This prince, accompanied by twelve nobles, went into Asia for the purpose of inquiring into the family and exploits of Odin. He wandered over “Turkland” and Great “Swionia,” the Asheim or Godheim of the Swedes. Here he found many of his own blood. While in the territory of the Vanir^[124], he married a lady of that nation, and by her had a son, whom he called Vanland. At the end of five years, he returned to Upsal; but if any reliance is to be placed on tradition, he afterwards took a second journey to those distant regions, and never returned. A wondrous legend has been invented to account for his death. “To the east of Great Fionia,” says Snorro, “there is a large villa called Stein, a rock, from one being placed there so huge, as to equal a house. One evening, after sunset, as the king was about to pass from his cups to his bed, he saw a fairy sitting under that great rock. He and his companions, being excited by wine, ran towards the place, and the fairy desired Swegdir to enter if he wished to converse with Odin. He did enter, and was seen no more.”^[125]

|34 to 220.|

By the death of Swegdir, Vanland became the acknowledged head of the Swiones. He was the first of Odin’s descendants who exhibited a warlike character, or rather the first that actually went to war. In the infancy of this theocratic state, when, through weakness, it was compelled to cultivate the good will of its neighbours, of conquest there was no dream; but when the young lion had gained strength, its natural character was unfolded. His conquests, however, have not been recorded; and we can only conjecture that they were chiefly in the provinces bounding on Upland. Nor do we know that it was a warlike expedition that led him into Finland. That country, however, was to him a fatal as well as a romantic one, While there he married the daughter of an old Swede established among the Finns. Her he soon left, with the promise of returning in three years; but ten having elapsed without any tidings of him, she sent Visbur, their son, to his palace at Upsal. Still, as he showed no disposition to visit her, she took counsel with Hulda, a famous witch—and Finland was full of them—how she might compel him to return. The witch readily undertook to bring him, or, if she failed, to destroy him. Her secret charms were immediately exerted, and Vanland, though enthroned at Upsal with the attributes of a demi-god, felt their power. On a sudden his heart was drawn towards Finland; the impulse to return was scarcely resistible: but his friends and counsellors dissuaded him from the voyage, assuring him that he was merely under the temporary influence of magic. Sleep now overcame him; but scarcely was he laid on his couch than he cried out that he was oppressed by that mysterious demon, the nightmare. His attendants hastened to assist him, but in vain: the power of the demon was resistless; and, after violent distortions of his limbs, he was suffocated. His body was burned; on the banks of the Skuta his mighty cairn was erected; and Visbur became the monarch of the Swedes. This prince was not more faithful, as a husband, than his father had been. Having married a lady by whom he had two sons, he unceremoniously dismissed her and them to her father, and took another to his bed. The offspring of this second marriage was Domald, whom his nurse, foreseeing that dangers menaced him, endeavoured to protect by incantations. In the mean time, Gisle and Ondur, sons of the repudiated queen, applied to Visbur for the restoration of their mother’s dowry, especially of a magnificent golden necklace; on his refusal, they prayed that the ornament might be his destruction, and that of his offspring. To effect this object, they had recourse to magic; and Hulda, who had destroyed the father, boasted that she would destroy him, and leave this doom to the whole of the Ynglings—that either their arms should always be turned against one another, or they should perish tragically by some other means. The operations of magic, however, were too slow for their impatience; and they burned their father with the house in which they found him. Domald succeeded; but the fates were not to be averted. During three years a grievous famine afflicted Sweden. The first autumn, oxen were offered to propitiate the gods; the second, human victims bled on the altar. When neither availed, the nobles and priests, assembled at Upsal, decreed that, as the famine was owing to king Domald, he should be the next sacrifice, and the decree was carried into effect. Of the two next kings, Domar, the son of Domald, and Dygve, the son of Domar, nothing is recorded except that they reigned and died; but Dag the Wise, the son of the last-named sovereign, is celebrated in northern history. Well might he enjoy the epithet, if, as tradition asserts, he understood the language of birds. He had a sparrow which performed the same office for him that the ravens did for Odin^[126]; it flew over the earth and brought him intelligence of everything that passed. One day, however, as this bird was picking some grains in a field of Redgothia, a country clown killed it with a stone. Finding that his bird did not return, Dag consulted the gods, and learned its fate. To avenge himself, he led an army against the Goths, and laid waste the region in which the misfortune had happened. Having taken many prisoners, and left many dead on the field, he was returning to his vessels, when a dart from an obscure hand sent him to the halls of Odin.^[127]

|220 to 448.|

Agne, the son of Dag, mounted the vacant throne of the Swedes. Rich and warlike, he was held in high esteem; but the fate which hung over the sacred line of the Ynglings made him another of its victims. In a successful expedition against the Finns, in which he had slain the Finnish king, and, agreeably to the manners of the times, had made Skiolfa, the orphan daughter of the king, his mistress or wife, he had just returned to Stocksund, disembarked his troops, and pitched his tent on the margin of a wood. Here, to perform with passing splendour the last rites to the memory of Skiolfa’s father, he assembled a great number of guests. The cup went round until the king became intoxicated. As he wore the chain which had belonged to Visbur, Skiolfa besought him to confide the precious ornament to her care; but he fastened it the more closely round his neck and fell asleep. The tent was at the foot of a tree, and Skiolfa, assisted by her Finnish connections, tied a strong cord to the ornament, threw one end over a branch of the tree, and pulling with all their might, the body of Agne was raised, and left to dangle in the nightly breeze. The following morning Skiolfa and her companions were on their voyage to Finland, and nothing remained to the Swedes but the performance of the last rites to the royal victim. Alaric or Elrac and Eric, his two sons, divided the supreme power between them. For a season they were prosperous; but they were doomed to share the fate which hung over the house of Yngve. They were fond of equestrian exercises, especially of taming the most spirited horses. One day they rode at full gallop over an extensive plain; but they were never again seen alive: their corpses were found with their sculls fractured; and, as neither had any arms, it was supposed that they had killed each other with the reins, or that some malignant demon had destroyed them both. Yngve and Alf, the sons of Alaric, shared the government of the Swedes; but they were dissimilar in character. The latter was studious of peace, a man of few words, and severe in manner; the former was fond of war, of his cups, and of conversation, and often protracted his orgies into the silence of night. Two such men, whose jealousy was further increased by the unwise division of power, could not long bear the society of each other. One evening Yngve stabbed his brother; but the victim had strength enough left to return the fatal blow. The supreme power was now held by one, Hugleik, the son of Alf. His end, too, was tragical. Being assailed by Hako, a celebrated sea king and Danish jarl, who numbered among his captains the unrivalled Sterkodder^[128], he was vanquished and slain—Snorro assures us by the hands of Hako; but it was, perhaps, by those of Sterkodder. The victor was not satisfied with the death of Hugleik: he subdued the Swiones, and forced them to acknowledge him as their king. Yet he is not ranked by the Icelandic writers among the lawful kings of the Swedes. He was a usurper whom Jorund and Eric, both sons, both sea kings, assailed and slew in the vicinity of Upsal. But Eric had received a mortal wound, and Jorund was hailed as the monarch of the Swedes. The new sovereign, who, during his exile, had obtained considerable reputation on the deep, retained his attachment for the profession, which he exercised in the summer. But it led to his ruin. During his exile he had slain Gudlaug, king of Halogia: by Gylaug, the son of that chief, he was met, in Limafiord, defeated, and hung. Aun, the son of Jorund, surnamed hinn Gamle, or the Old, now ascended the throne of the Swedes. He was a prudent man, a great worshipper of the gods, and not fond of war. During his reign, says Snorro—and the information is valuable—Dan Mykillati, Frode the Pacific, Halfdan, and Fridleif III. were, in succession, kings of the Danes. His peaceful habits, probably, led to the aggressions which were committed upon him. He was twice expelled from his kingdom—the first time by Halfdan, who reigned twenty-five years in his capital, Upsal, and there died. This remarkable event is mentioned by Saxo; but, in his usual manner of confounding names and dates, the Danish historian calls the Swedish king Eric instead of Aun. He adds that Halfdan was held in great veneration by the Swedes, who, in their deplorable blindness, regarded him as the son of the great Thor. After his twenty-five years’ reign in Gothia, Aun consulted the gods respecting the duration of his life, and, to render them more propitious, he offered his own son on the altar of Odin. The response was, that, though he was now sixty years of age, he should live sixty more. But, if he was to live, he was not to reign that time; for in twenty-five years from the date of this sacrifice, he was again expelled by Ali, the son of Fridleif. At the end of twenty-five years more, Ali, we are told, was slain by Sterkodder. Aun was again obeyed by the Goths. All this is sufficiently fabulous; but the following is more so:—After reigning another period of twenty-five years, he offered his second son to Odin; and the response was, that, if he sacrificed a son every ten years to that deity, he should live for ever; but his vigour was not to be commensurate with his life. After the seventh sacrifice, he was unable, during ten years, to walk, and was carried on a litter. After the eighth, during ten whole years, he was confined to his bed. After the ninth, he was fed like a child with milk from the horn. He had still a son, and would have offered him as the tenth victim had not the Swedes forbidden the sacrifice. So king Aun died; and his name was afterwards used proverbially to denote the diseases inseparable from old age.^[129]

|448 to 545.|

Egil, whose blood should have stained the altar of Odin, became, by his father’s death, monarch of the Swedes. He now experienced an enemy in Tunne, who, though a slave, had been the treasurer of Aun. As Tunne had tasted the sweets of power, he had no wish to revert to his former condition; and when he perceived that no distinction was made between him and his fellows, he repaired to the spot where Aun had buried a large treasure, dug it up, and with it hired a numerous body of men to execute his purposes. At first the new chief betook himself to the less accessible parts of the country; by degrees, as his band increased—and there can be no doubt, by proclaiming a servile war, it rapidly increased—he issued from the mountain or the forest, and swept the neighbouring plains. He was a bandit on a large scale. Egil raised some force, and hastened to chastise the rebel; but, being surprised by night in his camp, he lost many of his followers, and was compelled to consult his safety by flight. This signal event increased the power of the rebel, and though forces were repeatedly brought into the field, victory declared for Tunne in eight consecutive engagements. In this emergency the king fled to the court of the Danish king, Frode V., in Zealand, and offered as the condition of aid an annual tribute. Frode accepted the offer; and, with a Danish reinforcement, Egil triumphed over the rebel. During the three years which intervened between this event and his own death, Egil sent large presents to the Danish king; but he would not allow them to be called tribute. Death was to him, like most of the Ynglings, tragical: it was occasioned by a wild bull, while hunting in the forest. Ottar, the son of Egil, succeeded. Being summoned by the Danish king to pay the tribute which had been promised, he returned a peremptory refusal. Frode invaded Swionia, laid waste the country; while Ottar, equipping a powerful armament, disembarked in Zealand, and committed equal depredations. But the latter was defeated and slain by the Danes, and his body exposed to the fury of wild beasts. Adils, the son of Ottar, was the next king. He was a noted pirate, who, in summer, visited and ravaged most of the coasts round the Baltic. On one occasion he descended on that of Saxony, laid waste the country, took much spoil, among which was Ursa, a lady of surpassing beauty. Of her the victor became enamoured, and he married her: but, being expelled from his kingdom by Helge, the son of Halfdan, who reigned at Ledra, this queen fell into the power of the victor, who, also, married her, and the issue of this union was Rolf Krake. But Ursa, who was discovered to be the daughter of Helge, returned to the court of Adils, with whom she remained during the rest of her life. On the death of Helge, in one of his piratical expeditions, Rolf, or Rollo, young as he was, was acknowledged king of Ledra. Adils did not long survive his enemy; he was killed by the fall of his horse.^[130] Eystein, the son of Adils, next swayed the sceptre of the Swedes. His reign was a troubled one, his kingdom being continually infested by the royal ships of Denmark and Norway, or, what was worse, by the fierce sea kings. “In those days,” says Snorro, “were many sea kings, who levied large forces, though they had no countries to rule. He was esteemed worthy to be a sea king who never slept under a tent, and never emptied his horn by the hearth side.” The most powerful enemy of Eystein was Solvi, a chief of the Jutes, whose piratical expeditions were known on many coasts. One night this marauder advanced to the tent where Eystein was entertaining his friends; and setting fire to the place, all within were consumed. To obtain the royal title, Solvi hastened to Sigtuna; and for a moment he enjoyed it: but the inhabitants rising to avenge their late king, and to free themselves from the new yoke, this adventurer soon bade farewell to empire and to life. The lawful successor of Eystein was his son Yngvar, who, being of a martial disposition, visited many coasts. But in 545 he was slain on that of Esthonia.^[131]

|545 to 623.|

The next person who filled the throne of the Ynglings, Braut-Onund, was a much wiser man than his predecessors. His great object was, to clear the forests, to drain the marshes of Swionia, and thus, to convert desert and useless into arable and pasture land. His efforts were crowned with success. Where the stagnant pool had stood, golden harvests waved; forests were replaced by huts full of industrious labourers; and highways were made to pass over mountain and fen. “Many,” says Snorro, “were the provincial kings subject to him.” But this patriotic monarch, like so many of the Ynglinga, came to an untimely end: as he and his retinue were one day in the mountains, they were overwhelmed by a huge avalanche. The sceptre now devolved to the unfortunate Ingiald Illrada, son of the deceased king. In his infancy this prince, we are told, was of too gentle, too mild a disposition, for the turbulent people with whom he had to deal. This defect, however, was cured by a peculiar diet—that of roasted wolves’ hearts; and Ingiald became as ferocious as he had formerly been the reverse. But this change of character was not for the happiness of the Swedes; and he was destined to be the last of the Ynglings that should rule at Upsal. His first object was, to exterminate the local kings, who, like mushrooms, had sprung up in the country, and who, though subject to the descendants of Odin, frequently acted as if they were independent. In the entertainment which he gave at Upsal, alike to celebrate the obsequies of his father, and his own inauguration, his character was fully displayed. Here were six kings—all who owed obedience to Ingiald, except the one of Sudermania—with a great number of jarls, and other nobles. On these occasions, the king, or jarl, previous to receiving the homage of all present—a homage expressed by a general shout—seated himself on a low seat at the foot of the one which his predecessor had filled. The Bragacup was then brought, filled with wine to the brim; and this the new heir, after giving some pledge, was expected to quaff before he ascended the high seat. When the cup—a huge horn—was brought to Ingiald, before emptying it, he vowed to Braga, the god, that he would, in every direction, double his dominions, or perish in the attempt. They who applauded the vow little foresaw the fate which awaited them. That very night the six kings and the jarls were burnt, together with the house of feasting. By this atrocious act Ingiald was absolute master of all Swionia, except that district of Sudermania which owed obedience to the absent king, Grammar. This king soon heard of the deed; and knowing that his own life was menaced, he entered into an alliance with a famous sea king, Hiorvardar by name, to whom he gave his daughter Hildegund. The entertainment at which this marriage was first projected is characteristic of the manners of the times. On one high seat was king Granmer; on another, the pirate king; and by the side of each sat his chiefs and friends. To honour the guest, Granmer called for his daughter Hildegund to present the cup. She appeared, beautiful as the day, filled the cup, and approaching Hiorvardar, said, “Hail to the Ilsings! I drink to the memory of Rolf Krake!”^[132] She then emptied the half of the cup, and presented it to Hiorvardar, who, seizing it and her hand, prayed her to sit beside him. “Such,” replied the damsel, “is not the custom of pirates; they do not allow females to sit and drink with them.” “Never mind that custom,” pursued the chief; “but be persuaded to share my seat and cup.” Hildegund yielded; she drank and talked with the chief until the night was far advanced; and the next day she was affianced to him. By this alliance Granmer acquired a valiant ally; and in the battle which both had soon to wage against Ingiald they were the victors. The monarch of the Swedes was compelled to flee; but, through the intervention of friends, peace was concluded, on this condition—that, so long as the three lived, not one of them should molest the others. Granmer could now go to Upsal to join in the great sacrifice and to consult the oracles. The response was, that his days were numbered: and numbered they were. While he and his son-in-law were in one of their rural manors, Ingiald, with a select force, silently approached and consumed with fire both them and the house. He then subjugated the districts which the two kings had ruled, and those of their allies. His surname of Illrada, the Deceitful, sufficiently shows the estimation in which he was held. He had a daughter, Asa by name, who was the heiress of his bad qualities. Married to Gudred king of Scania, she persuaded her husband to murder his brother, Halfdan III., king of Zealand. She then joined in a plot for the destruction of her husband; but this object was no sooner effected than she was obliged to flee for protection to the court of Upsal. Yet here she was not safe. Ivar Vidfadme, the son of Halfdan, in the resolution of avenging his father’s death, invaded Swionia, and wrapped it in blood and flames. When the news of this invasion reached Ingiald, he was at an entertainment, with his daughter and many nobles. He knew that he was hated; that resistance was impossible; that escape was hopeless; and by the advice of Asa he adopted an expedient which would, for ever, make his death as remarkable as his life. This was, to burn himself, his daughter, his guests, together with the house which contained them.^[133]

|623 to 630.|

By the death of Ingiald, his son, Olaf Trætelia, was the last of the Ynglings; but his claim to the throne, however sanctioned by custom or blood, was not likely to avail in opposition to so powerful an enemy as Ivar Vidfadme. At this moment, Ivar was at the head of the Danish, the Swedish, part of the Saxon and Anglian states (the Angles of Holstein); and his career was not to be resisted by a youth without army, without followers. Indeed, Olaf made no effort to resist; he saw that the people were resolved on the expulsion of the Ynglings; and, with the few friends who adhered to him, he hastened to the desert lands north and west of the Vener Lake. There he cleared off the forests—hence his surname of Trætelia, or the Tree-feller—drained them, and not only rendered them habitable, but in a short time made them the foundation of a new state, that of Vermeland. From him descended the famous Harald Harfager, monarch of Norway, the restorer of the ancient glory of the Ynglings.^[134]

The crimes and misfortunes of this dynasty must, to every reader, contrast strangely with its pretended divine origin. Compared to it, the fate of our Stuarts was a happy one. If we except the companions of Odin, the ends of most were tragical. Fiolner was drowned in a butt of mead; Swegdir, whatever the manner of his death, did not leave this world in a natural way; Vanland perished, not by the hands of witches, but those of conspirators; Visbur was burnt to death by his own sons; Domald was sacrificed on Odin’s altar by his subjects; Dag was killed by a slave; Agne was hung by his bride; Alaric and Eric were killed by each other’s hands, or by conspirators; Alf and Yngve certainly slew each other; Hugleik was slain by Hako or Sterkodder; Eric died in battle; Jorund was ignominiously hung; Egil was gored to death by a wild bull; Ottar was killed by the Danes; Adils by the fall of his horse; Eystein perished by the hands of pirates; Ingvar by those of the Esthonians; Braut-Onund by an avalanche; Ingiald Illrada was forced to destroy himself; and Olaf Trætelia was driven into everlasting exile. Thus, out of twenty-two sovereigns, from Fiolner to Olaf, three only died a natural death; for that of Olaf, as we shall soon perceive, was also tragical. Assuredly there was nothing in the pre-eminence, divine as it was, of the Ynglings, to render it an object of envy, either to their own times or to posterity.^[135]

The fortunes of Olaf Trætelia and of his successors may be found in the chapter devoted to the early Norwegian history. Henceforth Sweden, or to speak more precisely, the Swedes, are under the sceptre of the Skioldungs, and not of the Ynglings, though the former, like the latter, were of Odin’s race, being descended from Skiold, whose seat was established at Ledra in Zealand. They did not exercise the sacerdotal functions; they were not pontiff kings; consequently, they were not held in the same veneration as those who were privileged to officiate at Odin’s altar.—Before we proceed with this Swedish branch of the Skioldungian dynasty, we must revert to the Gothic dynasty established in another part of Sweden. At every step we take in the history of this obscure period, we are more fully convinced that the hypothesis we have framed is based on truth; viz., that while the Swiones or Swedes were located in the provinces bordering on Upsal, and were governed by their own kings, the Goths were in the more southern and western provinces, with a dynasty of their own. Where was the seat of this latter dynasty? Probably it was not always stationary. It appears to have been sometimes in West, sometimes in East, Gothland; just as those provinces obeyed one or two kings. Scania too, which, politically, was a province of Denmark, yet geographically a portion of Sweden, was inhabited by Goths, the seat of whose government was Lund. As the kings of Scania, or of East and West Gothia, obtained the preponderance, they were called kings of the Goths. In the same measure, when the Danish star was triumphant, Ledra, or Odensee, or Lund, or some town of Jutland, was regarded as the metropolis of the Goths. But in each of the Gothic provinces of Sweden there was a resident court, and consequently a capital, whose ruler was sometimes dependent on the king of Scania, sometimes on him of Upsal, but more frequently, perhaps, independent of them all. However this be, it is certain that the kings of all these provinces, except Jutland, have been confounded. Hence the uncertainty of regal lists, and, in many instances, their contradiction to one another. In general, the prince who happened to have the preponderance for the moment, whether his seat was in the Gothlands or in Scania, was called king of the Goths. All were, or professed to be, equally descended from Odin; nor is this improbable, when we perceive how frequently a conqueror divided, at his death, his dominions among his sons. This fatal example, as we have seen, was set by Odin himself. Over Scania he placed his son Heimdal; over Zealand and the surrounding islands, his son Skiold; over Jutland and Holstein, his son Balder; over the Swedes at Upsal, his kinsman Freyr; and over the Norwegians, as we shall soon perceive, his son Semming. Such, at least, is the consistent voice of tradition, as perpetuated in the oldest records now extant.^[136]

From the preceding observations, and from many others in this and the last chapter, the reader will be prepared for the amazing variations in the chronological lists of northern kings, as given by Saxo, Snorro Sturleson, and Joannes Magnus. Thus the king of Scania was sometimes the chief of all the Danes, sometimes of all the Goths, sometimes of both; but in general the kings of the two Gothlands were the acknowledged heads of their nation, whether they happened to be independent, or politically subject to the Danes on the one side, or the Swedes on the other. Besides, the intermarriages which constantly took place among these sovereigns would make them, eventually, of one great family, even if most of them had not derived their origin from the warrior god of the north. Still there were kings who had no such boast, who descended from a regal stem more ancient than theirs, whose ancestors were rulers in the Gothic provinces of Sweden, centuries, perhaps, before Odin was born. And for anything we can prove to the contrary, there might, in the interior of Sweden, be reguli who descended from the original, almost indigenous rulers—from the old Finnish stock; for though the Goths, who were there before the arrival of the kindred tribe of the Swiones, were the dominant caste, they would govern the inland provinces through native chiefs. At this distance of time, however, it is impossible to distinguish the two; nor is it often possible to distinguish the earlier from the subsequent Gothic princes—those who sprung from ancestors prior to Odin’s arrival, from those who descended from the Swionian branch.^[137]