The Myrgings were a clan and people of

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

origin who, together with their king

Eadgils Eadgils, ''Adils'', ''Aðils'', ''Adillus'', ''Aðísl at Uppsölum'', ''Athisl'', ''Athislus'' or ''Adhel'' was a semi-legendary king of Sweden, who is estimated to have lived during the 6th century. ''Beowulf'' and Old Norse sources present ...

, are only mentioned in the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

poem ''

Widsith "Widsith" (, "far-traveller", lit. "wide-journey"), also known as "The Traveller's Song", is an Old English poem of 143 lines. It survives only in the '' Exeter Book'' (''pages 84v–87r''), a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the la ...

''. They are mentioned as the people of the

scop A ( or ) was a poet as represented in Old English poetry. The scop is the Old English counterpart of the Old Norse ', with the important difference that "skald" was applied to historical persons, and scop is used, for the most part, to designat ...

Widsith. They appear to have been the neighbours of the

Angles Angles most commonly refers to: *Angles (tribe), a Germanic-speaking people that took their name from the Angeln cultural region in Germany *Angle, a geometric figure formed by two rays meeting at a common point Angles may also refer to: Places ...

and

Offa of Angel Offa (nickname for Wulf) is a semi-legendary king of the Angles in the genealogy of the kings of Mercia presented in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. He is the son of Wermund and the father of Angeltheow. His name is also mentioned in the O ...

, who was involved in a war against them. Perhaps they were a dynasty or clan competing for power with Offa over the rule of the Angles, though Offa slew two Myrging princes, probably the sons of Eadgils (not to be confused with the Swedish king

); this Eadgils was later killed by

Ket and Wig Ket and Wig appear in the ''Gesta Danorum'' as the sons of Frowin, the governor of Schleswig. Wig also appears in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as the son of Freawine (Frowin) and father of Gewis, eponymous ancestor of the kingdom of Wessex and ...

, the sons of

Freawine Freawine, ''Frowin'' or ''Frowinus'' figures as a governor of Schleswig in ''Gesta Danorum'' and in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as an ancestor of the kings of Wessex, but the latter source only tells that he was the son of Friðgar and the fathe ...

, a governor of

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

who challenged Eadgils to combat while he was pillaging in the Angle lands. Freawine was killed in combat and the Myrgings may then have overrun Schleswig, as they are said to have settled or had holdings at Schleswig, though they were eventually defeated by Offa, who extended the boundary with them to Fifeldor. Although the Myrgings only appear in the

poem

and not in any other source, there is enough evidence to say that the Myrgings vanished leaving no other trace: if a rival clan, they were assimilated into the surrounding Angles; and if non-Angles conquered by Offa, who was said to have won a great Kingdom, very likely that of the conquered Myrgings, they seem to have been assimilated under his son Angeltheow, who abolished the title of King of the Myrgings. The Myrgings lived south of

Angeln Angeln (; ) is a peninsula on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of Jutland, in the Bay of Kiel. It forms part of Southern Schleswig, the northernmost region of Germany. The peninsula is bounded on the north by the Flensburg Firth, which separates it ...

near the

Eider (river) The Eider ( ; ; Latin: ''Egdor'' or ''Eidora'') is the longest river in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The river starts near Bordesholm and reaches the southwestern outskirts of Kiel on the shores of the Baltic Sea, but flows to the wes ...

and according to some sources near

which was the center of the Angles. They were descended from

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

who probably had settled in that area a few centuries earlier and probably merged with another tribe to form the Myrgings.

Kemp Malone Kemp Malone (March 14, 1889 – October 13, 1971) was an American medievalist, etymology, etymologist, philologist, and specialist in Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer. He was a lecturer and then professor of English literature at Johns Hopkins Universit ...

, an American etymologist writing in 1944, suggested that the word "Myrging" means "Mire Dweller" or "Mire-District Dweller"; he also suggested that the name points to a miry or marshy habitat for the tribe and that the With-Myrgings were a sub-tribe of Myrgings who expanded across the Eider into Schleswig. Malone claimed that the With-Myrgings lived in the valley of the Vidå river and that they were the ones at war with

. He also said that the With-Myrgings joined the Angles on their migration to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

.Malone, Kemp. "The With-Myrgings of Widsith." The Modern Language Review, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan., 1944), pp. 55-56.

Kings of the Myrgings

lists two kings of the Myrgings. So the following list of the kings is what has been listed in

, with hypothetical dates, and including that on Eadgils' death the Myrgings were conquered by

, who installed himself as their king. When he died in 456, his son Angeltheow abolished the kingdom and unified the Myrgings under one ruler. After this the Myrgings disappeared.

References

{{Reflist

Kemp Malone Myrgings. English heroic legends Germanic families Saxons