The Haddingjar ( Old Norse: ) refers on the one hand to Germanic heroic legends about two brothers by this name, and on the other hand to possibly related legends based on the Hasdingi, the royal dynasty of the Vandals. The accounts vary greatly.

Origins

It has been suggested that they were originally two Proto-Germanic legendary heroes by the name *''Hazdingōz'', meaning the "longhairs", and that they were identical to the '' Alci'' mentioned by Tacitus. According to Tacitus, the Alci were worshiped as gods by priests in female clothing: : ..''and the Nahanarvali. Among these last is shown a grove of immemorial sanctity. A priest in female attire has the charge of it. But the deities are described in Roman language as Castor and Pollux. Such, indeed, are the attributes of the divinity, the name being Alcis. They have no images, or, indeed, any vestige of foreign superstition, but it is as brothers and as youths that the deities are worshipped''. ''Germania'' at Wikisource Cassius Dio mentioned c. 170 the '' Astingoi'' as a noble clan among the Vandals, and the '' Asdingi'' reappear, in the 6th century in Jordanes' work as the royal dynasty of the Vandals. The root appears in

Old Icelandic Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

as ''haddr'' meaning "woman's hair", and the motivation for the name ''Haddingjar''/''Astingoi''/''Asdingi'' was probably that men from Germanic royal dynasties sported long hair as a mark of dignity (cf. the "longhaired Merovingians").

In legend and mythology

#In the '' Hervarar saga'', '' Gesta Danorum'', '' Orvar-Odd's saga'' and '' Lay of Hyndla'', there are two Haddingjar among the twelve sons of the

berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...

Arngrim. #Oddly, in ''Orvar-Odd's saga'', after his friend Orvar-Odd had killed these two Haddingjar, Hjalmar mentions in his death song two Haddingjar among his friends back in Sigtuna. #In '' Hversu Noregr byggðist'', there is a Hadding Raumsson who was the king of Haddingdalen in Norway. He is succeeded by a son and a grandson by the same name. After his great-grandson Högni, there is a succession of three more generations named Hadding, making six Haddingjar in the same line. #The prose section following '' Helgakviða Hundingsbana II'', there is a Helgi Haddingjaskati (Helgi the prince of the Haddingjar, i.e. the Hasdingi of the Vandals) referring to a now lost poem named '' Káruljóð'', which was named after Helgi's beloved, the Valkyrie Kára. This poem survives in an altered form as '' Hrómundar saga Gripssonar'', where Helgi fights in the service of two Swedish kings by the name ''Haldingr''. #In the oldest one of the

Gudrun Gudrun ( ; non, Guðrún) or Kriemhild ( ; gmh, Kriemhilt) is the wife of Sigurd/Siegfried and a major figure in Germanic heroic legend and literature. She is believed to have her origins in Ildico, last wife of Attila the Hun, and two que ...

lays, the '' Guðrúnarkviða II'',

says that the potion of oblivion that her mother had given her contained several runes, and among them the "unshorn corn ear of Haddingland", possibly a magic Vandal rune. #In '' Kálfsvísa'', in

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...

's '' Skáldskaparmál'', it is said that the king of the Haddingjar (the Vandals) rode a horse named Skævað. #In '' Gesta Danorum'' there is a Haddingus about whom Saxo Grammaticus has many things to tell. He is possibly a memory of the Hasdingi, the royal clan of the Vandals. #The original name of the Norwegian valley Hallingdal was ''Haddingjadalr''. Local legends state that Hadding was a king of this valley, and that it was named after him. After him, his sons, the two Haddings, fought over control of the valley. One of them was killed, and was buried in a mound in Gol, still known for sightings of huldufolk.

Notes

Sources

* Ohlmarks, Åke. (1982). ''Fornnordiskt lexikon''. Tiden.
The article ''Hadding'' in ''Nordisk familjebok'' (1909)
{{Norse mythology Legendary Norsemen Vandals Germanic warriors Germanic heroic legends