''Hversu Noregr byggðist'' ( non, How Norway was inhabited) is an account of the origin of various legendary Norwegian lineages, which survives only in the ''
Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey") is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes ...
''. It traces the descendants of the primeval
Fornjót
Fornjót (Old Norse: ''Fornjótr'') is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the father of Hlér ('sea'), Logi ('fire') and Kári ('wind'). It is also the name of a legendary king of " Finnland and Kvenland". The principal study of this figure is ...
, a king of ''"Gotland, Kænland and Finnland"'', down to
Nór
Nór (Old Norse Nórr) is according to the Orkneyinga Saga the eponymous founder of Norway.
Icelandic accounts
Source material
Nór of Norway appear in “Fundinn Nóregr” (‘Norway Founded’), hereafter called F, which begins the '' Orkne ...
, who is here the eponym and first great king of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
, and then gives details of the descendants of Nór (and of his brother Gór) in a following section known as the ''Ættartölur'', 'Genealogies'.
The ''Hversu'' account is closely paralleled by the opening of the ''
Orkneyinga saga'', which gives a slightly different version of the story and provides details on the descendants of Gór only, including information not found in the ''Hversu'' or ''Ættartölur''. This opening portion of Orkneyingers saga is also known as Fundinn Noregr, 'Founding of Norway'.
Much of the material in these two accounts is found nowhere else, especially the tracing of many noble families to the stock of giants rather than to the god
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, ...
which is the tendency elsewhere.
The genealogies also claim that many heroic families famed in Scandinavian tradition but not located in Norway were in fact of Norwegian stock, mostly sprung from Nór's great-grandson
Halfdan the Old
Halfdan the Old (Old Norse: ''Hálfdanr gamli'' and ''Hálfdanr inn gamli'') was an ancient, legendary king from whom descended many of the most notable lineages of legend. A second Halfdan the Old is the purported great-grandfather of Ragnvald Eys ...
. Almost all the lineages sprung from Halfdan are then shown to reconverge in the person of
Harald Fairhair
Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagre Modern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first King of No ...
the first king of all Norway. Where the information here is comparable with accounts in other sources, it is sometimes confirmed and sometimes contradicted, as would be expected. There are also minor discrepancies and contradictions within the ''Ættartölur''. Included also is material on the Danish
Skjöldung
Old English Scylding (plural Scyldingas) and Old Norse Skjǫldung (plural Skjǫldungar), meaning in both languages "children of Scyld/Skjǫldr" are the members of a legendary royal family of Danes, especially kings. The name is explained in ma ...
lineage and the
Yngling
The Ynglings were a dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem '' Ynglingatal''. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings ( Old Norse ''Skilfingar'') in ''Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal' ...
lineage as ancestors of Harald Fairhair, including the purported line of descent from
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
to Harald.
The ''Ættartölur'' end with a genealogy of Harald's royal descendants down to
Olaf IV of Norway
no, Olav Håkonsson
, house = Bjelbo
, father = Haakon VI of Norway
, mother = Margaret I of Denmark
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Akershus Castle, Oslo
, death_date =
, death_place = Falsterbo ...
with the statement the account was written in 1387, a list of the kings of Norway from this Olaf back to Harald Fair-hair, and a mention of the accession of
Margaret
Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian.
Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular through ...
, Olaf's mother, as direct ruler of Norway.
References
Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnuman
Fundinn Noregrfro
heimskringla.no
* ''Hversu Noregr byggdist'' ('How Norway was inhabited'), Appendix A in ''The Orkneyingers Saga'' (''Icelandic Sagas, and other historical documents relating to the settlements and descents of the Northmen on the British Isles'', Volume III): Translator
George W. Dasent (1894). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Reprinted 1964 by Kraus Reprint
Sacred Texts: Appendix A: Fl. Book 1.21,22: 'How Norway was inhabited' (The genealogies of the descendants of Nór and the ''Ættartolur'' are not translated here.)
* "Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum" in the ''Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda'', Old Norse text of ''Hversu Noregr byggdisk'' (including the ''Ættartolur'') and ''Fundinn Noregr'' a
an
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hversu Noregr byggdist
Sources of Norse mythology
Genealogy publications
Flateyjarbók