Ongentheow
Ongentheow(Old English:Ongenþeow,Ongenþio,Ongendþeow;Old Norse:Angantýr) (died ca. 515) was the name of a semi-legendarySwedishking of the house ofScylfings,who appears in Old English sources.
He is generally identified with the Swedish kingEgil Vendelcrowmentioned inYnglingatal,Historia Norwegiaeand inYnglinga saga.[1][2][3][4] The reason why they are thought to have been the same is that each has the same position in the line of Swedish kings and is described as the father ofOhthereand grandfather ofEadgils.[5]
The name Ongentheow contains as its second elementþeōw"servant, slave". The first appears to beongēan"against, opposite".[6]
Old English sources[edit]
Beowulf[edit]
In theOld Englishepic poemBeowulf,Ongentheow is described as a fearsome warrior, and it took two Geatish warriorsEoforandWulf Wonredingto take him down.
The epic tells that theGeatsunder their new kingHæþcyncaptured the Swedish queen, but old king Ongenþeow saved her, at ahill fortcalledHrefnesholt,although they lost her gold.[7]Ongenþeow killed Hæþcyn,[8]and besieged theGeatsat Hrefnesholt.[9]The Geats were, however, rescued byHygelac,Hæþcyn's brother,[10]who arrived the next day with reinforcements.[11]Having lost the battle, but rescued his queen, Ongenþeow and his warriors returned home.[12]
However, the war was not over. Hygelac, the new king of the Geats, attacked the Swedes.[13]The Geatish warriors Eofor and Wulf fought together against the hoary king Ongenþeow.[14]Wulf hit Ongentheow's head with his sword so that the old king bled over his hair, but the king hit back and wounded Wulf.[15]Then, Eofor retaliated by cutting through the Swedish king's shield and through his helmet,[16]giving Ongentheow a death-blow.[17]Eofor took the Swedish king's helmet, sword and mail and carried them to Hygelac.[18]When they came home, Eofor and Wulf were richly rewarded,[19]and Eofor was given Hygelac's daughter.[20]Because of this battle, Hygelac is referred to as Ongentheow's slayer.[21]
Widsith[edit]
Ongentheow is also mentioned in passing by the earlier poemWidsithas the king of Sweden:
| lines 30–33: | |
| Wald Woingum, Wod þyringum, | Wald [ruled] the Woings, Wod theThuringians, |
| Sæferð Sycgum,Sweom Ongendþeow, | Saeferth the Sycgs,the Swedes Ongendtheow, |
| Sceafthere Ymbrum, Sceafa Longbeardum | Sceafthere the Ymbers,SceafatheLombards, |
Egil[edit]
InAri Þorgilsson'sÍslendingabókand inHistoria Norwegiae,he was called Egil Vendelcrow (Vendilcraca/Vendilkráka,a name traditionally given to those living at the royal estate ofVendelin Sweden).[22]Snorri Sturluson,however, gave the name Vendelcrow to Egil's son Ottar (Ohthere). In these sources, Egil was the son ofAunthe Old, and like him, not very warlike. After he had made thethrallTunni (orTonne) responsible for thetreasury,Tunni rebelled against Egil. They fought eight battles after which Egil fled to Denmark, according to theYnglinga saga(Ynglingataldoes not mention where he fled andHistoria Norwegiaedoes not mention any escape at all). Snorri wrote thatFróði,theDanishking, aided Egil in defeating Tunni, and made Egil a tributary to the Danish king.
Egil was killed by a bull during the sacrifices atGamla Uppsala.
Ok lofsæll
ór landi fló
Týs ôttungr
Tunna ríki.
En flæmingr
farra trjónu
jǫtuns eykr
á Agli rauð,
sás of austmǫrk
áðan hafði
brúna hǫrg
of borinn lengi.
En skíðlauss
Skilfinga nið
hœfis hjǫrr
til hjarta stóð.[23]
- Translation: ‘And the famous descendant of Týr <god> [= Swedish king] fled the country before the power of Tunni. And the roamer, the draught-animal of the giant [BULL], which before had long borne the cairn of the brows [HEAD] about the eastern forest, reddened its weapon of the bull [HORN] upon Egill. And the sheathless sword of the bull [HORN] stuck in the heart of the descendant of the Skilfingar [= Swedish king].’[23]
TheHistoria Norwegiæpresents a Latin summary ofYnglingatal,older than Snorri's quotation:
|
Auchun vero genuit Eigil cognomento Vendilcraco, quem proprius servus nomine Tonne regno privavit, et cum domino pedisseqvus VIII civilia bella commisit, in omnibus victoria potitus, in nono tandem devictus occubuit; sed paulo post ipsum regem truculentus taurus confodiens trucidavit. Cui successit in regnum filius suus Ottarus [...][24] |
Aukun's son was Egil Vendelkråke, whose own bondman, Tunne, drove him from his kingdom; and though a mere servant he joined in eight civil combats with his master and won supremacy in all of them, but in a ninth he was finally defeated and killed. Shortly afterwards however the monarch was gored and slaughtered by a ferocious bull. The successor to the throne was his son Ottar, [...][25] |
The even earlier sourceÍslendingabókalso cites the line of descent inYnglingataland it also gives Egil as the successor of Aunn and the predecessor ofÓttarr:xvi Aun inn gamli. xvii Egill Vendilkráka. xviii Óttarr.[26]
Interpretation[edit]
The argument for connection between Ongenþeow and Egil being the same figure are as follows. It is important, though, to note that this is an interpretation of the facts and not definite proof of a connection.
The two versions seem contradictory, but it has been shown that the two stories may very well describe the same event (Schück H. 1907, Nerman B. 1925), and thatYnglingatalwas probably misinterpreted by Snorri due to a different dialectal meaning of the wordfarra.In Ynglingatal, it says
|
If there is any authenticity behind the traditions, the origin of Ynglingatal was most probably a Swedish poem which has not survived (see also Sundquist 2004). In Old Swedish,farradid not mean "bull" but it meant "boar"(cf. Englishfarrowmeaning "young pig" ). Moreover, inOld NorseTrjónanormally meant a pig's snout (modern Scandinaviantryne).Flæmingrmeant "sword" (originally a Flemish sword imported by Vikings).
Moreover, thesword of the snoutcan hardly refer to the horns of a bull, but it is more natural to interpret it as the tusks of a boar. In English, the lines can be translated asbut the giant beast coloured its tusk red on Egil.
InOld English,the nameeoformeant "boar" and consequently Ynglingatal could very well relate of Eofor (the boar) killing Egil with kennings for boars. These kennings, sung originally by Swedes, were later misinterpreted by Norwegians and Icelanders as literal expressions due to the different dialectal meanings offarra.
Moreover, according to Schück, the nameTunniwhich has no meaning in Old Norse should inProto-Norsehave been *Tunþaand derived from *Tunþuz.Consequently, it would have been the same word as theGothicTunþuswhich meant "tooth". This would mean that the name of Egil's enemy, actually meant "tooth" and Tunni and the bull/boar would consequently have been the same enemy, i.e. Eofor.
Some scholars have suggested that the name Ongentheow is connected to the Danish kingOngendus,(fl.c.700) who appears in one sentence ofAlcuin's life ofWillibrord.[27][28]
Notes[edit]
- ^Sune Lindqvist,the articleAngantyrinSvenskt biografiskt lexikon
- ^The articleBeowulfin Åke Ohlmarks'Fornnordiskt lexikon(1994)
- ^Nerman 1925:99ff
- ^Bo Gräslund simply calls Ongentheow "Egil in Beowulf" in his articleGamla Uppsala during the Migration PeriodinMyth, Might and Man(2000)ISBN91-7209-190-8
- ^The identification is due to the sequence of succession only and not based in name,OngenþeowandEgilbeing unrelated etymologically.
- ^The composition of the two elements has been interpreted as meaning "the opposite of a slave" i.e. "king" by N. J. Higham,An English Empire: Bede and the Early Anglo-Saxon Kings,Manchester University Press (1995),p. 239.
- ^Lines 2931–2936
- ^Lines 2483–2485, 2925–2931
- ^Lines 2934–2942
- ^Lines 2434–2435
- ^Lines 2942–2946
- ^Lines 2947–2958
- ^Lines 2959–2965.
- ^Lines 2965–2966.
- ^Lines 2966–2977.
- ^Lines 2977–2982
- ^Lines 2485–2490, 2977–2982
- ^Lines 2987–2990
- ^Lines 2992–2997
- ^Lines 2998–2999
- ^Line 1969
- ^Lagerqvist & Åberg inÖknamn och tillnamn på nordiska stormän och kungligheterISBN91-87064-21-9p. 29
- ^abMarold, Edith (2012)."Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Ynglingatal".In Whaley, Diana (ed.).Poetry from the Kings' Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035.Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages1. Turnhout: Brepols. p. 16.ISBN978-2-503-51896-1.
- ^Storm, Gustav (editor) (1880).Monumenta historica Norwegiæ: Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen,Monumenta Historica Norwegiae (Kristiania: Brøgger), p. 100.
- ^Ekrem, Inger (editor), Lars Boje Mortensen (editor) and Peter Fisher (translator) (2003).Historia Norwegie.Museum Tusculanum Press.ISBN87-7289-813-5,p. 77.
- ^Guðni Jónsson's edition of ÍslendingabókArchived8 May 2007 at theNational and University Library of Iceland
- ^Wallach, Luitpold (1955), "Review ofAlcuin, Friend of Charlemagne: His World and His Workby Eleanor Shipley Duckett ",Speculum,27(1): 102–106,doi:10.2307/2855304,hdl:2027/mdp.39015000676638,JSTOR2855304
- ^C.H. Talbot (1954),Translation of Alcuin'sLife of Willibrord
Primary sources[edit]
Secondary sources[edit]
- Nerman, B.Det svenska rikets uppkomst.Stockholm, 1925.
- Sundquist, O. "Freyr" s offspring. Rulers and religion in ancient Svea society ". (2004)
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