Halsten Stenkilsson ( English

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

: ''Alstan'';

Old Icelandic Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

: ''Hallstein''''Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks'', Guðni Jónsson's og Bjarni Vilhjálmsson's edition at «Norrøne Tekster og Kvad».
) was

King of Sweden 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 ...

from c. 1067 to 1070. The son of King

Stenkil Stenkil (Old Norse: ''Steinkell''; died 1066) was a King of Sweden who ruled c. 1060 until 1066. He succeeded Emund the Old and became the first king from the House of Stenkil. He is praised as a devout Christian, but with an accommodating stanc ...

and a Swedish princess, he became king some time after his father's death (1066), and he may have ruled together with his brother

Inge the Elder Inge the Elder ( Swedish: ''Inge Stenkilsson''; Old Norse: ''Ingi Steinkelsson''; died c. 1105–1110) was a king of Sweden. In English literature he has also been called ''Ingold''. While scant sources do not allow a full picture of his term of ...

. The date of his death is not known.

Brief kingship

Little is known of his time as king. In a ''scholia'' in the work of

Adam of Bremen Adam of Bremen (; ; before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. Adam is most famous for his chronicle '' Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum'' ('' ...

, he is reported to have been elected king after the violent death of two pretenders,The article ''Halsten'' in ''Nordisk familjebok'' (1909).
/ref> but took over a highly volatile situation. While he was clearly a Christian like his father and brother, his influence may have been limited, since Adam relates that Christianity was so disturbed that the bishops appointed by the

Archdiocese of Bremen The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen () was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church that after its definitive secularization in 1648 became the hereditary Bremen-Verden, Duchy of ...

did not even dare to travel to Sweden. He was deposed after a short while, in the late 1060s or early 1070s, and replaced by a princeling from Gardariki,

Anund Anund (, meaning ''trail-blazer Anund'' or ''Anund the Land Clearer''), also called ''Brøt-Anundr'' ( Old East Norse) or ''Braut-Önundr'' ( Old West Norse) was a semi-legendary Swedish king of the House of Yngling who reigned in the mid-seve ...

Possible later reign

That he later on ruled together with his brother Inge has some support from a papal letter from 1081, by

Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII (; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. One of the great ...

, which refers to two kings with the initials ''A'' and ''I'', and where they are called kings of

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

(''rege wisigothorum''). However, the king "A" could also be

Håkan the Red Håkan the Red ( Swedish: ''Håkan Röde'') was a King of Sweden, reigning for about half a decade in the second half of the 11th century.''Håkan Röde'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'': There is little information on him, and it is mostly contradic ...

.
Inge
' in ''

Nationalencyklopedin (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia with several hundred thousand articles. It is available both online and via a printed version. History The project was ...

'' His co-rulership with his brother Inge is also mentioned in the '' Hervarar saga''. In the regnal list of the '' Westrogothic law'', he is said to have been courteous and cheerful, and whenever a case was submitted to him, he judged fairly, and this was why Sweden mourned his death. He was the father of the co-rulers

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...

and

Inge the Younger Inge the Younger was King of Sweden in c. 1110–c. 1125 and probably the youngest son of king Halsten.The article ''Inge d.y.'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1992).The article Inge, section 2. I. den yngre' in ''Nordisk familjebok'' (1910). Acco ...

. The '' Hervarar saga'', which is one of the few sources about the kings of this time, has the following to tell:

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halsten Stenkilsson 11th-century Swedish monarchs Kings of the Geats House of Stenkil 1050s births Year of birth uncertain Year of death unknown Sons of kings