Freygeirr (

Old East Norse Old East Norse was a dialect of Old Norse which evolved into the languages of Old Danish and Old Swedish from the 9th century to the 12th century. Between 800 and 1100, East Norse is in Sweden called '' Runic Swedish'' and in Denmark ''Runic ...

: ''FrøygæiRR'',

Modern Swedish Modern Swedish () is the linguistic term used for the Swedish language from the Bible translation of 1526 to the development of a common national language around 1880. The period can further be divided into ''Early Modern Swedish'' (1526–1750 ...

: ''Fröger'') was a

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� ...

chieftain who probably led a

leidang The institution known as ''leiðangr'' (Old Norse), ''leidang'' ( Norwegian), ''leding'' ( Danish), ''ledung'' ( Swedish), ''expeditio'' (Latin) or sometimes lething (English), was a form of conscription ( mass levy) to organize coastal fleets for ...

expedition.Jansson 1980:24 He is considered to have been active in the 1050s on the

Baltic coast The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

,Pritsak 1981:357

and And or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar and computing * Conjunction, connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a Boolean oper ...

he has been identified on six runestones,

Gs 13 Gästrikland Runic Inscription 13 or Gs 13 is a runestone carved on red sandstone located in a church in Gävle, Gästrikland. It was carved in the 11th century by the runemaster Åsmund Kåresson. The place name ''Tafeistaland'' (modern Swedish ...

, DR 216, U 518, U 611, U 698 and U 1158.Pritsak 1981:397ff One of the three brothers who is mentioned on the Stenkvista runestone (Sö 111), which is adorned with a heathen symbol (Mjölnir), is also called Freygeirr. On the runestone Gs 13, Freygeirr is reported to be the leader of an expedition to Tavastia: :Gs 13: Brúsi had this stone erected in memory of Egill, his brother. And he died in Tafeistaland, when Brúsi brought (= led?) the land's levy(?) (= army) in memory of, his brother. He travelled with Freygeirr. May God and God's mother help his soul. Sveinn and Ásmundr, they marked. In Denmark, there is a runestone in memory of a warrior who fell in Sweden while he was in the retinue of a man who was either named Friggir or Freygeirr:Pritsak 1981:399 :DR 216: Ástráðr and Hildungr/Hildvígr/Hildulfr raised this stone in memory of Fraði/Freði, their kinsman. And he was then the terror(?) of men. And he died in Sweden and was thereafter the first(?) in(?) Friggir's(?) retinue(?) and then: all vikings. U 698 and U 611 are raised in memory of two men who died in the retinue of a warchief whose name has been reconstructed by runologists as Freygeirr: :U 698: ..had the stone raised in memory of Ásgeirr, his son. He fell in Lífland, abroad in Freygeirr's(?) retinue.

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...

:U 611: Bjôrn and Steinfríðr had the stone raised in memory of Gísli. He fell abroad in Freygeirr's(?) retinue. There is also a runestone reporting where Freygeirr died, runestone U 518: :U 518: Þorgerðr and Sveinn, they had this stone raised in memory of Ormgeirr and Ormulfr and Freygeirr. He met his end in the sound of Sila (Selaön), and the others abroad in Greece. May God help their spirits and souls. ("Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire.) The Rundata project places Freygeir's death near the island of

Selaön Selaön is the largest island in Mälaren, Sweden, and covers 94.72 km². It is located at Stallarholmen, east of Strängnäs, and it has about 1,800 permanent residents. It is connected by a bridge to the mainland. It is the largest island i ...

in 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 ...

. According to another theory the runes isilu represent *isi a and they are to be transcribed as *''ī ey-sȳsla'', i.e. "in Ösel" (

Saaremaa Saaremaa (; ) is the largest and most populous island in Estonia. Measuring , its population is 31,435 (as of January 2020). The main island of the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hi ...

).Pritsak 1981:363 Another runestone mentioning a Freygeirr was raised by his sons: :U 1158: Guðsteinn(?) and Eistr and ... and Áki had the stone raised in memory of Freygeirr, their father. Lífsteinn cut these runes.

Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak (; 7 April 1919 – 29 May 2006) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of History of Ukraine, Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director (1973–1989) of the Harvard Ukrainian Rese ...

remarks that Freygeir's son was named ''Eistr'' ("Estonian") and he connects the name to Freygeir's activities on the other side of the Baltic Sea.Pritsak 1981:400 He further suggests that Freygeir's death took place during a joint Swedish-Kievan Rus' expedition against the Estonians of

.Pritsak 1981:400-403

Notes

Sources

*Jansson, Sven B. (1980). ''Runstenar''. STF, Stockholm. *Pritsak, Omeljan. (1981). ''The Origin of Rus. Cambridge, Mass.: Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. {{ISBN, 0-674-64465-4 *

Viking warriors 11th-century Vikings