Fyrisvellir, Fyris Wolds, or Fyrisvallarna, was the marshy

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

(''vellir'') south of

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 ...

where travellers had to leave the ships on the river

Fyris Fyrisån (, "the Fyris river") is a river in the Swedish province of Uppland, which passes through the city of Uppsala and ends in Lake Mälaren. The "Sala" river in Uppland was changed in the 17th century in memory of the Fyrisvellir battle, ...

(Fyrisån) and walk to 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 ...

and the

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

of the Swedish king.

Etymology

The name is related to, or derived from,

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 ...

''Fyrva'' which meant "to ebb" and it referred to the partially inundated soggy plains that today are dry farmland and the modern town of

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 ...

. In medieval times, a royal estate called ''Førisæng'', "Fyris meadow", was located near this field. The small lakes ''Övre Föret'', "the Upper Fyri", and ''Nedre Föret'', "the Lower Fyri", are remains of this marsh and retain a modern form of ''Fyri'' (the -''t'' suffix is the definite article, which lake names always take in Swedish). The field went alongside what was renamed the ''Fyris river'' (Fyrisån) in the 17th century to make the connection between the river and the

Saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

s more obvious. Thunberg, Carl L. (2012). ''Slaget på Fyrisvallarna i ny tolkning''. Göteborgs universitet. CLTS. pp. 73-80. .

Mythology

Scandinavian mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

, the battle between

Haki Haki, Hake (Old Norse: ), Haco or Aki, the brother of Hagbard, was a famous Scandinavian sea-king, in Norse mythology. He is mentioned in the 12th century ''Gesta Danorum'' and '' Chronicon Lethrense'', and in 13th-century sources including ''Y ...

and

Hugleik According to the ''Ynglinga saga'', Hugleik or Ochilaik was a Swedish king of the House of Yngling. He was the son of Alf and Bera. Some commentators have identified Hugleik with the Geatish king Hygelac. However, although both kings were kille ...

took place on these wolds, as well as that between Haki and

Jorund Jorund or Jörundr (5th century) was a Swedish king of the House of Yngling. He was the son of Yngvi, and he had reclaimed the throne of Sweden for his dynasty from Haki (the brother of Hagbard, the hero of the legend of Hagbard and Signy. Snorr ...

. It was also the location of the

Battle of the Fýrisvellir A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

between

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 ...

and his nephew

Styrbjörn the Strong Styrbjörn the Strong ( ; died ) according to late Norse sagas was a son of the Swedish king Olof Björnsson, and a nephew of Olof's co-ruler and successor Eric the Victorious, who defeated and killed Styrbjörn at the Battle of Fyrisvellir. As ...

, in the 980s. According to a story about Hrólf Kraki found in many texts, Hrólf spread gold on this plain as he and his men were fleeing the Swedish king

Adils Eadgils, ''Adils'', ''Aðils'', ''Adillus'', ''Aðísl at Uppsölum'', ''Athisl'', ''Athislus'' or ''Adhel'' was a semi-legendary king of Sweden, who is estimated to have lived during the 6th century. ''Beowulf'' and Old Norse sources present h ...

. The king's men then dismounted to collect the gold. In

Skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

ic poetry, gold was often referred to with the

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (a ...

''the seed of the Fyris Wolds''.

References

External links

Carl L. Thunberg (2012): ''Slaget på Fyrisvallarna i ny tolkning (The Battle of Fýrisvellir in a New Interpretation)''
Uppland Places in Norse mythology Plains of Sweden {{norse-myth-stub