Atli the Slender (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ''Atli hinn Mjovi'') was a ninth-century Norwegian

jarl Jarl was a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia during the Viking Age and Early Middle Ages. The institution evolved over time and varied by region. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", specifically one appointed to rule a territory in a king's stea ...

mentioned in several

sources, including ''

Heimskringla () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland. While authorship of ''Heimskringla'' is nowhere attributed, some scholars assume it is written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (117 ...

'' and ''

Egils saga ''Egill's Saga'' or ''Egil's saga'' ( ; ) is an Icelandic saga (family saga) on the lives of the clan of Egill Skallagrímsson (Anglicised as Egill Skallagrimsson), an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald. The saga spans the years c. 850–1000 ...

''. Atli was the son of Hundolf, a jarl of

Gaular Gaular is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It was located in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative centre was the villa ...

Fjordane Sogn og Fjordane (; literally "Parish and the Fjords") was a county in western Norway, from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud ...

. His sister was Solvor Hundolfsdottir, the wife of King Harald Goldbeard of

Sogn Sogn is a traditional district in Western Norway (''Vestlandet''). It is located in the county of Vestland, surrounding the Sognefjord, the largest/longest fjord in Norway. The district of Sogn consists of the municipalities of Aurland, Balestra ...

. He became friends with King

Halfdan the Black Halfdan the Black (Old Norse: ''Halfdanr Svarti''; ) was a king of Vestfold. He belonged to the House of Yngling and was the father of Harald Fairhair, the first king of a unified Norway. In sagas According to ''Heimskringla'' and ''Fagrskinna ...

Vestfold Vestfold () is a county and a current electoral district in Norway. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it borders Buskerud and Telemark counties. The county administration is located in Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, and the larg ...

and accompanied him on a number of his expeditions. In particular, Atli accompanied Halfdan when, following the death of Halfdan's father in law Harald Goldbeard and Halfdan's son Harald, the Vestfolder king led an expedition to take possession of Sogn as their heir. Halfdan made Atli jarl over all of Sogn. Atli continued to govern Sogn into the reign of Halfdan's son

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair (; – ) 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 Monarchy of Norway, King of Norway. Supposedly, two ...

. He is mentioned in ''

'' in connection with the famous

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

Olvir Hnufa, the eponymous Egill's great-uncle. At a

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

in Gaular, Olvir fell in love with Solveig Atladottir, Atli's daughter. The jarl refused Olvir permission to marry the girl, but he was so smitten that he abandoned his Viking life to be near her. A skald of some talent, he composed a number of love poems for Solveig. For reasons not revealed in the saga, but probably related to his courtship of Solveig, Olvir was attacked and nearly killed in his home by Solveig's brothers shortly after King Harald's conquest of Møre. Atli's sons, Hallstein, Holmstein and Herstein, were famous

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a Viking expansion, large-scale expansion in all direc ...

who sailed with the foster brothers

Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson Hjǫrleifr Hróðmarsson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; Modern Norwegian: ) was an early settler in Iceland. The story of the early settlement of Iceland is told in the compilation known as ''Landnámabók.'' Hjörleifr was the blood brother o ...

and

Ingólfr Arnarson Ingolfr Arnarson, in some sources named Bjǫrnolfsson, ( – ) is commonly recognized as the first permanent Norse settler of Iceland, together with his wife Hallveig Fróðadóttir and foster brother Hjǫrleifr Hróðmarsson. According to t ...

. They fell out, however, over Ingolfur's sister Helga, who married Hjörleifur. In the ensuing blood feud two of Atli's sons were killed and their erstwhile allies fled Norway for

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, becoming the first permanent settlers there.Jones 275. After Harald Fairhair conquered Møre and Fjordane he assigned the governance of the former to

Rognvald Eysteinsson Rognvald Eysteinsson () was the founding Jarl (or Earl) of Møre in Norway, and a close relative and ally of Harald Fairhair, the earliest known King of Norway. In the Norse language he is known as Rǫgnvaldr Eysteinsson (''Mǿrajarl'') and in ...

and the latter to Håkon Grjotgardsson. Hákon and Atli soon came into conflict over Sogn and fought a battle at Fjalir in Stafaness Bay, in which Håkon was killed. Atli was severely wounded in the battle and taken to a nearby island, where he died.''Saga of Harald Fairhair'' § 12 (Hollander 69).

Eyvindr skáldaspillir Eyvindr Finnsson ( 915–990), known by the epithet ''skáldaspillir'' ("Skald-player"), was a 10th-century Norwegian skald. He was the court poet of king Hákon the Good and earl Hákon of Hlaðir. His son Hárekr later became a prominent c ...

wrote a verse about the battle which is preserved in ''Heimskringla'': :''Was Hakon, Hogni's daughter's-tree'' :''fey when to fight he went;'' :''and his life lost in combat'' :''Frey's offspring on Fjalir strand.'' :''Blended was with blood the wave,'' :''as friends fell, faithful to him,'' :''and wound-gore warm of warriors,'' :''in Ygg's

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...

'' :''by Stafaness.''

Notes

{{reflist

References

*Ari the Learned. ''The Book of the Settlement of Iceland'' ''(

Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and ov ...

)''. Ellwood, T., transl. Kendal: T. Wilson, Printer and Publisher, 1898. *Jones, Gwyn. ''A History of the Vikings.'' 2nd ed. Oxford Univ. Press, USA, 2001. *

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

.
Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway
'. Lee Hollander, transl. University of Texas Press, 1992. *Thorsson, Örnólfur, et al. "Egil's Saga." ''The Sagas of the Icelanders.'' trans: Bernard Scudder (Penguin Classics, 2000). Norwegian earls 9th-century Norwegian nobility