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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Þjóð Yt 21I

[All]: As father to the Norwegian Yngling king Hálfdan hvítbeinn ‘White-bone’, Óláfr trételgja ‘Wood-cutter’ ushers in the transition from the Swedish to the Norwegian Ynglingar. His nickname trételgja also appears in HN (2003, 78): Eius filius Olauus cognomento Tretelgia … ‘His son Óláfr nicknamed Tretelgia …’. According to Snorri (Context above) and Saxo (Saxo 2005, I, 7, 11, 7, p. 502-3) he ruled in Värmland, to where he had emigrated after the death of his father. Värmland was presumably regarded as part of Sweden by Þjóðólfr, who refers to Óláfr trételgja as a ruler of the Swedes (jǫfri Svía, l. 8), and also in HN (2003, 78), which reports that Óláfr died in Sweden. Snorri’s interpretation of Óláfr’s cremation as a sacrifice to Óðinn and as a brenna, in which a building is set on fire so that its occupants burn to death, is not matched in the other prose sources.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. HN = Historia Norwegiæ. In MHN 69-124.
  3. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.

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