Erik Björnsson was supposedly one of the sons of Björn "Ironside" Ragnarsson and a

legendary king of Sweden The legendary kings of Sweden (, ) according to legends were rulers of Sweden and the Swedes who preceded Eric the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung, the earliest reliably attested List of Swedish monarchs, Swedish kings. The stories of some of the ...

of 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 ...

, who would have lived in the late 9th century. One of the few surviving Scandinavian sources that deal with Swedish kings from this time is '' Hervarar saga''. The saga is from the 12th or 13th century and is thus not considered a reliable historical source for the 9th century. It says:

Rurik Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangians, Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people, Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod in the year 862. The ''Primary Chronicle' ...

and Erik were the same person. According to Olov von Dalin 1747 that referenced older Swedish sources Rurik was a son of

Björn Ironside Björn Ironside ( Swedish: ''Björn Järnsida''; Old Norse: ''Bjǫrn Járnsíða'') according to Norse legends, was a Norse Viking chief and Swedish king. According to the 12th- and 13th-century Scandinavian histories, he was the son of notor ...

. Due to the fire 1697 in Tre Kronor a lot older Swedish sources got lost. He would be the same person as Erik Björnsson. According to him

Rorik of Dorestad Rorik (, ; ; – ) was a Danish Viking, who ruled over parts of Friesland between 841 and 873, conquering Dorestad and Utrecht in 850. Rorik swore allegiance to Louis the German in 873. He was born in Denmark around 800. He died at some point ...

was also the same person as Eric. The man that ruled Holmgård was

Hvitserk Hvitserk (''Hvítserkr'', "White-Shirt") was one of the sons of the legendary 9th-century Viking Ragnar Lodbrok and his wife Aslaug. Sources Hvitserk is attested to by the Tale of Ragnar's Sons (''Ragnarssona þáttr''). He is not mentioned in ...

. After Hvitserk was killed Holmgård had spiralled into anarchy so they invited Eric Björnsson as the new ruler. The Swedish

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 (, ) in ''Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal'' were composed sometime ...

dynasty had a long presence in Kievan Rus which had already started with the empire of

Ivar Vidfamne Ivar Vidfamne (or ''Ívarr inn víðfaðmi''; English exonym ''Ivar Widefathom''; Danish ''Ivar Vidfadme'' – in Norwegian and Danish the form ''Ivar Vidfavne'' is sometimes used as an alternative form) was a semi-legendary king of Denmark, wh ...

. Which had earned the Swedes a reputation for keeping order. So Godoslav a Slavic chieftain invited Eric. https://sv.wikisource.org/wiki/Svea_Rikes_historia/F%C3%B6rsta_delen/Kapitel_18 According to ''Hervarar saga'', his sons were

Björn at Haugi Björn at Haugi ("Björn at the Barrow" from the Old Norse word ''haugr'' meaning mound), Björn på Håga, Björn II or Bern was, according to '' Hervarar saga'', a Swedish king and the son of Erik Björnsson, and Björn ruled together in diarc ...

and

Anund Uppsale Anund Uppsale or Anoundus, 'Anund of Uppsala', (Old Norse: ''Önundr Uppsali''), a son of Erik Björnsson of the House of Munsö, ruled Sweden together with his brother Björn at Haugi, according to ''Hervarar saga''. He is called ''Uppsale'' beca ...

Notes and references

See also