Eowils and Halfdan (Healfdan) were kings in Danish (

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

) ruled

Northumbria Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...

in the early tenth century. Following the death of

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...

in 899 the throne was disputed between his son

Edward the Elder Edward the Elder (870s?17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousi ...

and Æthelwold, a son of Alfred's elder brother. Æthelwold was unable to get significant support in Wessex and fled to Northumbria, where he was accepted as king, but he was killed by Edward's men at the Battle of the Holme in 902. In the following years there seems to have been no clear leadership in Northumbria as no kings are named on coins of the period. In 909 King Edward sent an army to ravage Northumbria, and the following year the Northumbrians retaliated by sending an army to raid across

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

and

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

. On the way back the army was intercepted near

Tettenhall Tettenhall is a historic village within the City of Wolverhampton, in the county of the West Midlands, England. Tettenhall became part of Wolverhampton district in 1966, along with Bilston, Wednesfield and parts of Willenhall, Coseley and ...

by an army of Wessex and Mercia and suffered a heavy defeat. The ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

'' names two kings among the Danish dead called Eowils and Halfdan. In Æthelweard's ''Chronicon'', a Latin translation of the ''

'', a third king,

Ingwær Ingwær (also referred to as Ingvar, Ivar or Ivarr; ) was a Norsemen, Norse King of Northumbria. According to Æthelweard (historian), Æthelweard's ''Chronicon'' he was a co-king of Northumbria along with his brothers Eowils and Halfdan, though t ...

, is also named as killed at Tettenhall.Downham, p. 87 The defeat put an end to the threat from the Northumbrian Vikings for a generation.

References

External links

Anglo-Saxon Monarchs - Edward the Elder
* and 10th-century English monarchs Monarchs of Jorvik Monarchs killed in action Vikings killed in battle Anglo-Saxon warriors 910 deaths Year of birth unknown 10th-century Vikings {{England-hist-stub