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Ohthere

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This article is about the Swedish king. For the Norwegian voyager by the same name, seeOhthere of Hålogaland.
Ohthere's Mound located atVendelparish,Uppland,Sweden.

Ohthere,alsoOhtere(Old Norse:Óttarr vendilkráka,Vendelcrow;in modern SwedishOttar Vendelkråka), was asemi-legendary king of Swedenof the house ofScylfings,who is said to have lived during theGermanic Heroic Age,possibly during the early 6th century (fl. c. 515 – c. 530[1]).

His name can be reconstructed asProto-Norse*Ōhta-harjazor *Ōhtu-harjaz.Theharjazelement is common inGermanic namesand has a meaning of "warrior, army" (whence Englishharry); by contrast, theohtelement is less frequent, and has been tentatively interpreted as "fearsome, feared".[2]

A prince of the Swedes, Ohthere and his brotherOnelaconducted successful raids against theGeatsafter King Hrethel had died. In 515, their fatherOngentheowwas killed in battle by the Geats, and Ohthere succeeded his father as the king ofSweden.Ohthere led an army against the Geats, and besieged one of their armies. He nearly killed the Geatish kingHygelacbut lost many of his forces in the conflict. Ohthere managed to get back to Sweden. In the 520s, Ohthere led a large raid toDenmarkand plundered the Danish coast. A Danish army led by two Jarls, however, was waiting for him. Battle broke out. The Danish were reinforced, and Ohthere was killed in the battle. His corpse was taken back to Sweden and buried in an earthwork mound.

Beowulf[edit]

In theOld EnglishpoemBeowulf,the name of Ohthere appears only in constructions referring to his fatherOngenþeow(fæder Ohtheres),[3]mother (Onelan modor and Ohtheres),[4]and his sonsEadgils(suna Ohteres,[5]sunu Ohteres[6]) andEanmund(suna Ohteres).[7]

When Ohthere and his actions are concerned, he is referred to asOngenþeow's offspring,together with his brotherOnela.The following section deals with Ohthere and Onela pillaging theGeatsat the death of their kingHreðel,restarting theSwedish-Geatish wars:

Þa wæs synn and sacu Sweona and Geata,
ofer wid wæter wroht gemæne,
here-nið hearda, syððan Hreðel swealt,
oððe him Ongenþeowes eaferan wæran
frome fyrd-hwate, freode ne woldon
ofer heafo healdan, ac ymb Hreosna-beorh
eatolne inwit-scear oft gefremedon.[8]
There was strife and struggle 'twixt Swede and Geat
o'er the width of waters; war arose,
hard battle-horror, when Hrethel died,
and Ongentheow's offspring grew
strife-keen, bold, nor brooked o'er the seas
pact of peace, but pushed their hosts
to harass in hatred by Hreosnabeorh.[9]

Later, it is implied in the poem that Ohthere has died, because his brother Onela is king. Ohthere's sons Eadgils and Eanmund fled to the Geats and the wars began anew.

Scandinavian sources[edit]

Ynglingatal,Ynglinga saga,Íslendingabók,andHistoria Norvegiaeall present Óttarr as the son of Egill (calledOngenþeowinBeowulf) and as the father of Aðísl/Aðils/athils/Adils (Eadgils).

According to the latest source,Ynglinga saga,Óttarr refused to pay tribute to the Danish kingFróðifor the help that his father had received. When Fróði sent two men to collect the tribute, Óttarr answered that the Swedes had never paid tribute to the Danes and would not begin with him. Fróði gathered a vast host and looted in Sweden, but the next summer he pillaged in the east. When Óttarr learnt that Fróði was gone, he sailed to Denmark to plunder in return and went into theLimfjordwhere he pillaged inVendsyssel.Fróði's jarls Vott and Faste attacked Óttarr in the fjord. The battle was even and many men fell, but the Danes were reinforced by the people in the neighbourhood and so the Swedes lost (a version apparently borrowed from the death of Óttarr's predecessorJorund). The Danes put Óttarr's corpse on a mound to be devoured by wild beasts, and made a wooden crow that they sent to Sweden, with the message that the wooden crow was all that Óttarr was worth. After this, Óttarr was calledVendelcrow.

It is only Snorri who uses the epithet Vendelcrow, whereas the older sourcesHistoria NorvegiaeandÍslendingabókuse it for his fatherEgill.Moreover, only Snorri's work tells the story of Óttarr's death inVendsyssel,and it is probably his own invention.[1]Ynglingatalmentions only that Óttarr was killed by the Danish jarls Vott and Faste in a place namedVendel(Laing has been influenced by Snorri's version in his translation):

Féll Óttarr
und ara greipar
dugandligr
fyrir Dana vápnum,
þann hergammr
hrægum fœti
viti borinn
á Vendli sparn.
Þau frá ek verk
Vötts ok Fasta
sœnskri þjóð
at sögum verða;
at eylands
jarlar Fróða
vígframað
um veginn höfðu.[10]
By Danish arms the hero bold,
Ottar the Brave, lies stiff and cold.
To Vendel's plain the corpse was borne;
By eagles' claws the corpse is torn,
Spattered by ravens' bloody feet,
The wild bird's prey, the wild wolf's meat.
The Swedes have vowed revenge to take
On Frode's earls, for Ottar's sake;
Like dogs to kill them in their land,
In their own homes, by Swedish hand.[11]

TheHistoria Norwegiæpresents a Latin summary ofYnglingatal,older than Snorri's quotation (continuing afterEgil):

Cui successit in regnum filius suus Ottarus, qui a suo æquivoco Ottaro Danorum comite et fratre ejus Fasta in una provinciarum Daniæ, scilicet Wendli, interemptus est. Cujus filius Adils [...][12]

The successor to the throne was his son Ottar, who was assassinated in Vendel, a law province of Denmark, by his namesake, a Danish jarl, and this man's brother, Fasta. His son Adils [...][13]

Historia Norvegiæinforms only that Ohthere was killed by the Danish brothersOttar[sic.] and Faste in a Danish province calledVendel.

Ohthere's Barrow[edit]

Ohthere's barrow (Swedish:Ottarshögen) (60°08′N17°34′E/ 60.133°N 17.567°E/60.133; 17.567) is located inVendelparish,Uppland,Sweden.The barrow is 5 metres high and 40 metres wide. In the 17th century, the barrow was known locally asOttarshögen.The term Hög is derived from theOld Norsewordhaugr,meaning mound or barrow.[14]

The barrow was excavated in the period 1914–16.[14]It showed the remains of both a man and a woman, and the finds were worthy of a king.[15]The Swedish archaeologistSune Lindqvist[16]reported that in its centre, there was a wooden vessel with ashes. There were few finds but they were well-preserved. There were some decorative panels similar to those found in the otherVendel eragraves nearby. A comb with a case was found, as well as a golden Roman coin, asolidus,dated to be no later than 477. It had been perforated and was probably used as decoration, but it showed signs of wear and tear and had probably been worn for a longer time. Lindqvist stated that the identification of the barrow as that of Ohthere could not receive more archaeological confirmation than those provided by the excavation.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ab"Ottar",Encyclopedia Nordisk familjebok
  2. ^Peterson, Lena.Lexikon över urnnordiska personnamnPDFArchived2006-09-15 at theWayback Machine
  3. ^Line 2929.
  4. ^Line 2933.
  5. ^Lines 2381,
  6. ^Line 2395.
  7. ^Lines 2613.
  8. ^Lines 2473-2480.
  9. ^Modern English translationbyFrancis Barton Gummere
  10. ^"The original text at Heimskringla Norrøne Tekster og Kvad".Archived fromthe originalon 2005-12-31.Retrieved2006-10-29.
  11. ^Laing's translation at Sacred Texts
  12. ^Storm, Gustav (editor) (1880).Monumenta historica Norwegiæ: Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen,Monumenta Historica Norwegiae (Kristiania: Brøgger), pp. 100-101.
  13. ^Ekrem, Inger (editor), Lars Boje Mortensen (editor) and Peter Fisher (translator) (2003).Historia Norwegie.Museum Tusculanum Press.ISBN87-7289-813-5,p. 77.
  14. ^ab"Ottarshögen",Nationalencyklopedin[permanent dead link]
  15. ^A presentation by the Swedish National Heritage BoardArchived2007-08-24 at theWayback Machine
  16. ^Fornvännen1917, Sune Lindqvist, "Ottarshögen i Vendel", p. 142

References[edit]

  • Nerman, B.Det svenska rikets uppkomst.Stockholm, 1925.
Ohthere
Preceded by Legendary king of Sweden Succeeded by
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