Romerike is a traditional district located north-east of

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, in what is today south-eastern

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It consists of the

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

municipalities Lillestrøm,

Lørenskog is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. A suburb of Oslo, it is part of the Oslo urban area and the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipa ...

Nittedal Nittedal is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and city in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of ...

Rælingen Rælingen is a village and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village ...

and

Aurskog-Høland Aurskog-Høland is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bjørkelangen. The municipality of Rømskog, in Østfold county was m ...

in the southern end ( Nedre Romerike), and

Ullensaker Ullensaker is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Jessheim. I ...

, Gjerdrum, Nannestad, Nes,

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the munic ...

and Hurdal in the northern end ( Øvre Romerike).

Etymology

The

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 ...

form of the name was ', but the name must be much older (see below). The first element is the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

of ' m ("person from Romerike"); the final element is ' n ("

realm A realm is a community or territory over which a sovereign rules. The term is commonly used to describe a monarchical or dynastic state. A realm may also be a subdivision within an empire, if it has its own monarch, e.g. the German Empire. Etymo ...

"; cf. Ringerike, Rånrike). In the '' Hversu Noregr byggdist'' and in '' Thorsteins saga Víkingssonar'', the name is attributed to the mythical king Raum the Old (''Raumr inn gamli''). According to the latter saga, the members of the family were big and ugly, and because of this big and ugly people were called "great Raumar". The linguistic similarity to Romerriket is entirely coincidental.

History

The name Romerike may be derived ultimately from ''Raum elfr'', which was an old name for the

Glomma The Glomma or Glåma is Norway's longest and most voluminous river. With a total length of , it has a drainage basin that covers 13% of Norway's surface area, all in the southern part of the country. Geography At its fullest length, the river r ...

river. Before the

unification of Norway The Unification of Norway ( Norwegian Bokmål: ''Rikssamlingen'') is the process by which Norway merged from several petty kingdoms into a single kingdom, predecessor to the modern Kingdom of Norway. History King Harald Fairhair is the mo ...

by King

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair (; – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first Monarchy of Norway, King of Norway. Supposedly, two ...

, Romerike was a petty kingdom. It had its age of greatness between the 5th and 7th centuries. The 6th century Goth scholar

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

wrote in his ''

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

'' about a tribe located in Scandza which he named the ''Raumarici'' and which seems to be the same name as ''Raumariki'', the old name for Romerike. In ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

'' and ''

Widsith "Widsith" (, "far-traveller", lit. "wide-journey"), also known as "The Traveller's Song", is an Old English poem of 143 lines. It survives only in the '' Exeter Book'' (''pages 84v–87r''), a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the la ...

'', the tribe is mentioned as the warlike ''Heaðo-Reamas'' (i.e. ''battling Reamas'', for the correspondence between ''Reamas'' and ''Raumar'' compare '' Geatas'' and ''Gautar'').

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 th ...

relates in his ''

Heimskringla () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland. While authorship of ''Heimskringla'' is nowhere attributed, some scholars assume it is written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (117 ...

'' that it was ruled by the semi-legendary Swedish kings, Sigurd Hring and

Ragnar Lodbrok Ragnar Lodbrok (Old Norse: ''Ragnarr loðbrók'', ), according to legends, was a Viking hero and a Legendary Kings of Sweden, Swedish and Legendary kings of Denmark, Danish king.Halfdan the Black, the father of King

, subdued the area by defeating and killing the previous ruler, Sigtryg, in battle. He then defeated Sigtryg's brother and successor Eystein in a series of battles. After the death of Halfdan the Black, Romerike submitted to the Swedish king Erik Eymundsson. However, it was forcibly conquered by

who spent a summer there, to ensure that Romerike was integrated into his newly-created kingdom of

. The centre of the kingdom and the earliest settlements were at Sand, between

Jessheim Jessheim is a town in the Ullensaker municipality in Akershus of Norway. History The railway station with the Jessheim station was built in 1854 as part of the Hovedbanen line from Oslo to Eidsvoll. The railroad had at the initial construction o ...

and Garder, where the soil was easiest to cultivate and the surrounding forests were rich in game animals.

Kings of Raumariki

* Raum the Old * Eystein Halfdansson *

Halfdan the Mild Halfdan (, , Medieval : "half Dane") was a late 5th and early 6th century legendary Danish king of the Scylding (Skjöldung) lineage, the son of king named Fróði in many accounts, noted mainly as the father to the two kings who succeeded hi ...

* Sigtryg Eysteinsson * Eystein Eysteinsson, brother of Sigtryg * Halfdan the Black * Erik Eymundsson

Raknehaugen

Rakni's Mound (''Raknehaugen'') has been estimated to date to around 550 AD (possibly 552 AD). It is located in the very heart of Romerike. Raknehaugen is a burial mound (''gravhaug'') from the

word ''haugr'' meaning barrow or mound. It is assumed that it is named after a king with the name ''Rakni''. At 77 metres in diameter and more than 15 metres high, Raknehaugen at

is the largest barrow in Northern Europe.

References

{{reflist

Other sources

*De Geer, Ebba Hult ''Raknehaugen'' (A.W. Bråggers. 1938) *Grieg, Sigurd ''Raknehaugen'' (Viking 5 – Norsk Arkeologisk Selskap, Oslo. 1941) *Skre, Dagfinn ''Raknehaugen - en empirisk loftsrydning'' (Viking 60 – Norsk Arkeologisk Selskap, Oslo. 1997)

External links

RaknehaugenRomerikes Blad
(local newspaper)

Districts of Akershus Petty kingdoms of Norway