Eric (

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 ...

: ''Eiríkr'', Swedish: ''Erik'') was a

Swedish monarch The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the #IOG, Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. by law a constitutional monarchy, constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parl ...

or local ruler who ruled at

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

, an important early Swedish political center, around or before the year 800. His existence is attested by the Sparlösa Runestone, erected around the year 800, which mentions a "Eyvísl, Eiríkr's son" and that "the father sat in Uppsala" (i. e. Eyvísl's father, Eiríkr, was king in Uppsala). As Eric and other "proto-historic" Swedish kings (preceding

Eric the Victorious Eric the Victorious (Old Norse: ''Eiríkr inn sigrsæli'', Modern Swedish: ''Erik Segersäll''; c. 945 – c. 995) was a Swedish monarch as of around 970. Although there were earlier Swedish kings, he is the first Swedish king in a consecutive re ...

970) are poorly attested and were likely only local rulers (the power of the Uppsala kings probably only extended to the immediate regions around Lake

Mälaren Mälaren ( , , or ), historically referred to as Lake Malar in English, is the third-largest freshwater lake in Sweden (after Vänern and Vättern). Its area is and its greatest depth is 64 m (210 ft). Mälaren spans from east to west. The l ...

), they are generally not counted as "Kings of Sweden" in modern scholarship. They are generally assumed to have been of the same dynasty as Eric the Victorious, the

House of Munsö The House of Munsö (), also called the House of Björn Ironside (Swedish: ), the House of Uppsala (Swedish: ) or simply the Old dynasty (Swedish: ), is the earliest reliably attested royal dynasty of Sweden, ruling during the Viking Age. None of ...

. Attempts at consolidating those Swedish rulers attested by more contemporary sources with the elaborate lines of legendary kings presented in 12th and 13th century

Icelandic sagas The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early elev ...

have been made, but the sources do not agree with each other and any attempt at identifying Eric with a king from the sagas has to be seen as unverifiable and unreliable. Another theory is that this Eric is the same king as the King

Eric The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, Eirik, or Eiríkur is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-N ...

mentioned in the ''

Vita Ansgarii The ''Vita Ansgarii'', also known as the ''Vita Anskarii'', is the hagiography of saint Ansgar, written by Rimbert, his successor as archbishop in the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. The ''Vita'' is an important source not only in detailing Ansgar ...

''.Sture Bolin 1953
/ref>

References

Cited web sources

* * * House of Munsö 9th-century Swedish people 9th-century monarchs in Europe {{Sweden-hist-stub

See also

References

Cited web sources