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Hird
The hird (also named "Håndgangne Menn" in Norwegian), in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal army, but also developed into a more formal royal court household. Etymology The term comes from Old Norse ''hirð'', (meaning Herd) again from either Old English ''hir(e)d'' 'household, family, retinue, court'See for instance, 'hirð' in Cleasby-Vigfusson, ''Icelandic-English Dictionary''online copy/ref> or perhaps the old German cognate ''heirat'' 'marriage', both of which can mean "body of men" or more directly linked to the term for hearthguard, or men of one's own home and hearth. History While the term is often used in Norse sagas and law codices, it is a medieval term – the sagas were primarily written down in the 12th century using the language of their own time. There is some uncertainty as to what the term replaced, although the term '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hird
The hird, in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal army, but also developed into a more formal royal court household. Etymology The term comes from Old Norse ''hirð'', again from either Old English ''hir(e)d'' 'household, family, retinue, court'See for instance, 'hirð' in Cleasby-Vigfusson, ''Icelandic-English Dictionary''online copy/ref> or perhaps the old German cognate ''heirat'' 'marriage', both of which can mean "body of men" or more directly linked to the term for hearthguard, or men of one's own home and hearth. History While the term is often used in Norse sagas and law codices, it is a medieval term – the sagas were primarily written down in the 12th century using the language of their own time. There is some uncertainty as to what the term replaced, although the term ''hlid'' or ''lið'' is used in Danish sources for the warrior fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hirdskraa
The Hirdskraa (''Hirðskrá''), 'The book of the hird', is a collection of laws regulating many aspects of the royal hird of late 13th century Norway. Compiled somewhere in the first part of the 1270s at the order of King Magnus VI (r. 1263-1280), it was recopied widely in the 14th century. The earliest extant texts, the AM 322 fol. and NkS 1642 4to (in the Royal Library, Copenhagen), date to around 1300. AM 322 fol. is thought to have originated at the court of King Magnus' son Håkon V's chancellery in Oslo. In the mid-14th century, with the Norwegian kingdom falling into a personal union with first Sweden and then Denmark, the text was copied less in Scandinavia but remained popular in Iceland, where copies exist from as late as the 18th century. The text can be set beside a number of comparable sections in the ''Konungs Skuggsjá''. The Hird The king’s hird (Old Norse ''hirð'', from Old English ''hired'') was more than just a bodyguard and a circle of advisers. Some histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Housecarl
A housecarl ( on, húskarl; oe, huscarl) was a non- servile manservant or household bodyguard in medieval Northern Europe. The institution originated amongst the Norsemen of Scandinavia, and was brought to Anglo-Saxon England by the Danish conquest in the 11th century. They were well-trained, and paid as full-time soldiers. In England, the royal housecarls had a number of roles, both military and administrative, and they fought under Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. Etymology Housecarl is a calque of the original Old Norse term, ''húskarl'', which literally means "house man". ''Karl'' is cognate to the Old English ''churl'', or ''ceorl'', meaning a man, or a non-servile peasant. The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' uses ''hiredmenn'' as a term for all paid warriors and thus is applied to ''housecarl'', but it also refers to ''butsecarls'' and ''lithsmen''. It is not clear whether these were types of ''housecarl'' or different altogether. In Scandinavia As free manserv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Druzhina
In the medieval history of Kievan Rus' and Early Poland, a druzhina, drużyna, or družyna ( Slovak and cz, družina; pl, drużyna; ; , ''druzhýna'' literally a "fellowship") was a retinue in service of a Slavic chieftain, also called ''knyaz.'' The name is derived from the Slavic word ''drug'' ( друг) with the meaning of "companion, friend". Early Rus' In Early Rus', a druzhina helped the prince administer his principality and constituted the area's military force. The first members of a druzhina were the Varangians, whose princes established control there in the 9th century. Soon, members of the local Slavic aristocracy and adventurers of a variety of other nationalities became druzhinniki. The druzhina's organization varied with time and survived in one form or another until the 16th century. The druzhina was composed of two groups: the senior members, later known as boyars, and the junior members, later known as boyar scions. The boyars were the prince's closest a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thingmen
The Thingmen was a unit in the service of the Kings of England during the period 1013–1051, financed by direct taxation which had its origins in the tribute known as Danegeld. It consisted mostly of men of Scandinavian descent and it had an initial strength of 3,000 housecarls and a fleet of 40 ships, which was subsequently reduced. Its last remnant was disbanded by Edward the Confessor in 1051. In the 11th century, three courts outside Scandinavia were particularly prominent in recruiting Scandinavian troops:Pritsak 1981:386 Novgorod-Kiev (Kievan Rus') c. 980–1060, Constantinople (the Varangian Guard) 988–1204, and England 1018–1051. Scandinavia was however also a recruiting area for attacks against England and this is why a defence needed to be organized by the Danish king Cnut the Great.Pritsak 1981:410Pritsak 1981:411 The Thingmen attracted Swedish mercenaries, and probably some Norwegian as well. History Formation and structure In 1012 King Æthelred the Unready o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also refer more narrowly to the Scandinavian Peninsula (which excludes Denmark but includes part of Finland), or more broadly to include all of Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. The geography of the region is varied, from the Norwegian fjords in the west and Scandinavian mountains covering parts of Norway and Sweden, to the low and flat areas of Denmark in the south, as well as archipelagos and lakes in the east. Most of the population in the region live in the more temperate southern regions, with the northern parts having long, cold, winters. The region became notable during the Viking Age, when Scandinavian peoples participated in large scale raiding, conquest, colonization and trading mostly throughou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swedish Language
Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countries overall. Swedish, like the other Nordic languages, is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Written Norwegian and Danish are usually more easily understood by Swedish speakers than the spoken languages, due to the differences in tone, accent, and intonation. Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sagas Of Icelanders
The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early eleventh centuries, during the so-called Saga Age. They were written in Old Icelandic, a western dialect of Old Norse. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature. They are focused on history, especially genealogical and family history. They reflect the struggle and conflict that arose within the societies of the early generations of Icelandic settlers. The Icelandic sagas are valuable and unique historical sources about medieval Scandinavian societies and kingdoms, in particular in regards to pre-Christian religion and culture. Eventually many of these Icelandic sagas were recorded, mostly in the 13th and 14th centuries. The 'authors', or rather recorders of these sagas are largely unknown. One saga, ''Egil's Saga'', is beli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Óláfs Saga Helga
''Óláfs saga helga'' or the ''Saga of St. Olaf'', written in several versions, is one of kings' sagas (''konunga sǫgur'') on the subject of King Olaf Haraldsson the Saint. List of saga versions *''Oldest Saga of St. Olaf'', ca. 1190, mostly lost. *''Legendary Saga of St. Olaf'', ca. 1210. *''Óláfs saga helga'' by Styrmir Kárason, ca. 1220, mostly lost. *''Separate Saga of St. Olaf'', by Snorri Sturluson, ca. 1225. *''Óláfs saga helga'' in ''Heimskringla'', by Snorri Sturluson, ca. 1230. *''Óláfs saga helga'' in ''Flateyjarbók'', an expanded version of the ''Separate Saga of St. Olaf''. Overview The saga draws from skaldic poetry and Latin hagiography, with embellishments from popular oral legends. The earliest version, the so-called ''Oldest Saga of St. Olaf'' probably written in Iceland, has not survived except in a few fragments. The next version, commonly known as the ''Legendary Saga of St. Olaf'' (also designated ''Helgisagan um Ólaf digra Haraldsson'' "Holy s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heimskringla
''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts (''kringla heimsins'', "the circle of the world"). ''Heimskringla'' is a collection of sagas about Swedish and Norwegian kings, beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177. The exact sources of the Snorri's work are disputed, but they include earlier kings' sagas, such as Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna and the 12th-century Norwegian synoptic histories and oral traditions, notably many skaldic poems. He explicitly names the now lost work '' Hryggjarstykki'' as his source for the events of the mid-12th century. Althou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fagrskinna
''Fagrskinna'' ( ; is, Fagurskinna ; trans. "Fair Leather" from the type of parchment) is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It is an intermediate source for the ''Heimskringla'' of Snorri Sturluson, containing histories of Norwegian kings from the 9th to 12th centuries, as well as skaldic verse. Description ''Fagrskinna'' is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It takes its name from one of the manuscripts in which it was preserved, ''Fagrskinna'' meaning 'Fair Leather', i.e., 'Fair Parchment'. ''Fagrskinna'' proper was destroyed by fire, but copies of it and another vellum have been preserved. An immediate source for the ''Heimskringla'' of Snorri Sturluson, ''Fagrskinna'' is a central text in the genre of kings' sagas. It contains a vernacular history of Norway from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, from the career of Halfdan the Black to the Battle of Re in 1177, and includes extensive citation of skaldic verses, some of them preserved nowhere else. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kings' Sagas
Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were composed during the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries, primarily in Iceland, but with some written in Norway. Kings' sagas frequently contain episodic stories known in scholarship as '' þættir'', such as the '' Íslendingaþættir'' (about Icelanders), '' Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa'', '' Hróa þáttr heimska'', and '' Eymundar þáttr hrings'' (about people from elsewhere). List of Kings' sagas Including works in Latin, and in approximate order of composition (though many dates could be off by decades) *A Latin work by Sæmundr fróði, c. 1120, lost. *The older version of ''Íslendingabók'' by Ari fróði, c. 1125, lost. *''Hryggjarstykki'' by Eiríkr Oddsson, c. 1150, lost. *''Historia Norvegiæ'', c. 1170. *''Historia de Ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
