Palnatoke or Palnatoki, sometimes written Palna-Toki or Palna Toki (
Old Norse: or ), was a legendary
Danish hero and chieftain of the island of
Fyn. According to the ''
Jómsvíkinga saga'', Palnatoki founded the brotherhood of
Jomsvikings and established its laws.
According to the Jómsvíkinga saga, he was the son of Palner Tokesen and his wife Ingeborg who was the daughter of the
Geatish earl
Ottar Jarl. Palnatoke raised king
Harald Bluetooth's son
Sweyn Forkbeard
Sweyn Forkbeard ( non, Sveinn Haraldsson tjúguskegg ; da, Svend Tveskæg; 17 April 963 – 3 February 1014) was King of Denmark from 986 to 1014, also at times King of the English and King of Norway. He was the father of King Harald II of D ...
and was a staunch supporter of the old
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
faith. Harald Bluetooth had allowed Christian missionaries from the
Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen
This list records the bishops of the Roman Catholic diocese of Bremen (german: link=no, Bistum Bremen), supposedly a suffragan of the Archbishopric of Cologne, then of the bishops of Bremen, who were in personal union archbishops of Hamburg (sim ...
missionary in Denmark and the king himself was baptized once between 960 and 965. Palnatoke convinced Sweyn to wage war on his father. In the mid-980s, Sweyn revolted against his father and seized the throne. Harald was driven into exile and died shortly afterwards. According to some accounts, Palnatoki himself slew Harald. In addition to religious motives, he may have been taking revenge for the death of his grandfather, Jarl Ottar, who was killed when Harald invaded
Götaland.
Saxo Grammaticus relates how Palnatoke (Toko) was forced by King Harald to use a single arrow to shoot an apple from his own son's head as the boy ran downhill. The legendary motif of
the great archer forced to shoot an apple from his son's head appears among other Germanic nations, as the story of
Egil in the ''
Þiðrekssaga'', William of Cloudesley in an
English ballad, Hemming Wolf in