Domalde, ''Dómaldi'' or ''Dómaldr'' (

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 ...

possibly "Power to Judge"McKinnell (2005:70).) was a legendary Swedish king of the House of Ynglings, cursed by his stepmother, according to

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 ...

, with ''ósgæssa'', "ill-luck". He was the son of Visbur.

Attestations

The luck of the king is the luck of the land, and Domalde's rule was marked by bad crops and starvation. The first autumn, the Swedes sacrificed oxen at the

temple at Uppsala A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, but the next harvest was not better. The second autumn, they sacrificed men, but the following crops were even worse. The third year many Swedes arrived at

Gamla Uppsala Gamla Uppsala (, ''Old Uppsala'') is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 17,973 inhabitants in 2016. As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political c ...

at the Thing of all Swedes and the chiefs decided they had to sacrifice the king. They sprinkled the statues of the gods with his blood (see Blót) and the good harvests returned. He was succeeded by his son Domar whose reign was prosperous.

wrote of Domalde in his ''

Ynglinga saga ''Ynglinga saga'' ( ) is a Kings' sagas, Kings' saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelanders, Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his ''Heimskringla''. It was first translated into Engl ...

'' (1225):
Snorri included a piece from '' Ynglingatal'' (9th century) in his account in the '' Heimskringla'': :Translation: ‘It happened earlier that the sword-bearers ARRIORSreddened the ground with he blood oftheir leader. And the army of the land bore bloody weapons away from the lifeless Dómaldi when the race of the

Swedes Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...

, eager for good harvests, had to sacrifice the enemy of the Jótar Dómaldi’ The '' Historia Norwegiæ'' presents a Latin summary of ''Ynglingatal'', older than Snorri's quotation: The even earlier source '' Íslendingabók'' cites the line of descent in ''Ynglingatal'' and also gives Dómaldr as the successor of Visburr and the predecessor of Dómarr: ''vii Visburr. viii Dómaldr. ix Dómarr''.Guðni Jónsson's edition of Íslendingabók
/ref>

Notes

References

*McKinnell, John (2005). ''Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend''. DS Brewer.

Sources

*'' Ynglingatal'' *''

'' (part of the '' Heimskringla'') *'' Historia Norwegiae'' {{Norse mythology Semi-legendary kings of Sweden Human sacrifice in folklore and mythology