Emund the Old or Edmund (Swedish: Emund den gamle, Old Swedish: Æmunðær gamlæ, Æmunðær gammal, Æmunðær slemæ) was King of Sweden from c. 1050 to c. 1060.[1] His short reign was characterised by disputes with the Archbishopric of Bremen over church policies, and a historically debated delimitation of the Swedish-Danish border.
Emund was the son of Olof Skötkonung, the first Christian ruler of Sweden. His mother was a co-wife,[2]Edla, daughter of a Slavic chief from the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. He had two uterine sisters called Astrid and Holmfrid. His half-siblings, born by Olof's legitimate Queen Estrid of the Obotrites, were Anund Jacob and Ingegerd. According to the 13th-century historian Snorri Sturluson, Estrid was ill-tempered and treated her stepchildren poorly. King Olof later sent Emund to be raised with his mother's Slavic family. While staying there he failed to hold on to the Christian religion.[3]
Olof was succeeded by his other son Anund Jacob, who however did not have any known sons of his own. Snorri relates that Emund was ruling in Sigtuna, an important center in the Swedish realm, by 1035.[4] However, other sources show that Anund Jacob was still alive then; the names Anund and Emund might have been mixed up.[5] The German ecclesiastical chronicler Adam of Bremen, in his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church), says that Anund Jacob died in or shortly after 1049 and was succeeded by Emund; there is nothing to suggest that the succession was irregular.[6]
Conflict with Bremen
Our only near-contemporary source for Emund's reign is Adam of Bremen, who paints a very negative picture of the new ruler. This is mainly due to the self-willed attitude of Emund vis-à-vis the Archdiocese of Bremen. Adam relates that Emund was baptised but cared very little for the Christian faith. He also gives Emund the cognomen pessimus (worst), which is later reflected by the short chronicle of the Westrogothic law (c. 1240) which likewise knows the king as Slemme, the bad.[7] The Westrogothic law states that Emund was a disagreeable man when wanting to pursue a goal.[8]
The dispute with Bremen was triggered by Emund's insistence on maintaining a bishop called Osmundus. Originally a protégé of the Norwegian-based missionary Sigfrid, Osmundus had been raised at a school in Bremen but failed to be ordained bishop by the Pope. Eventually he was ordained by the Polish archbishop of Gniezno and proceeded to Sweden where he won the confidence of King Emund. In the mid-1050s the Archbishop of Bremen sent envoys to Sweden, headed by Adalvard the Elder who was intended as the new bishop. The delegation was highly offended when encountering Osmundus who sported the habits of an archbishop and "seduced the still recently converted wild peoples through incorrect education in our faith". On Osmundus' insistence, Emund turned the envoys away from an assembly. However, the Swedish magnate Stenkil, a relation of the king, escorted the delegation on its way back.[9]
Time of calamities
Some time after the schism, King Emund dispatched his son Anund with an army "in order to expand the realm". The Viking expedition crossed the sea and came, according to Adam, to Terra Feminarum, the Land of Women. Adam places this somewhere in Scythia. Modern scholars have assumed that the term alludes to Kvenland which was probably situated to the east of the Gulf of Bothnia in present-day Finland (Kven could have been mixed up with the Nordic word kvinna, woman). "The women", says Adam, "immediately mixed poison in the springwater, and in that way brought death to the king himself and his army." The passage implies that Anund bore the title of king together with his father.[10]
The military disaster was paired with a severe drought and failed harvests. This crop failure can be dated to 1056 from other sources.[11] Allegedly, the calamities caused the Swedes to turn to the Archbishop of Bremen and ask to receive Adalvard back as Bremen-appointed bishop. Adalvard duly arrived to Sweden where he devoted his efforts to the conversion of Värmland towards the border of Norway. Osmundus appears to have submitted to Adalvard in the end, but left Sweden for England some time before 1066.[12] It has been assumed on very loose grounds that he was the same person as Åsmund Kåresson, a prominent carver of runic inscriptions in Uppland.[13] One of the latter's inscriptions includes the passage "Åsmund Kåresson carved runes right. Then sat Emund". There has been much speculation that this refers to Emund sitting on the throne.[14]
Delimitation of the border
Little is known about the relationship between Sweden and its Nordic neighbours in King Emund's time. He may have continued his brother Anund Jacob's support for the Danish king Sweyn Estridsen against Harald Hardrada of Norway.[15] A memorandum about an early delimitation of the Swedish-Danish border has been preserved in a large number of medieval Swedish manuscripts. The text states that "Emund Slemme was the King in Uppsala, and Sweyn Forkbeard in Denmark. They placed boundary-marks between Sweden [Sueriki] and Denmark. Now is enumerated Ragnvalde of Tiundaland, Botvid of Hälsingland, Bote of Fjärdhundraland, Grimalde of Östergötland, Tole and Tote and Tokke of Jutland, Gunkil of Sjaelland, Dan of Scania, Grimulf of Grimeton in Halland. They placed six stones between the two kingdoms. The first stone stands in Snutruase, the second in Danabäck, the third one is Kinna sten, the fourth in Uraksnaes, the fifth Vita sten, the sixth is Brömse sten between Blekinge and Möre."[16] The memorandum is followed by a story about a meeting between the three Nordic kings on Danaholmen where the Danish king held the bridle of the Swedish king's horse, while the Norwegian king held his stirrups, thus seemingly acknowledging the precedence of the Uppsala king.[17]
In older historiography it was usually assumed that the province of Blekinge was transferred from Sweden to Denmark at this occasion.[18] A late 9th-century source alleges that Blekinge belonged to the Swedes at that time, while medieval sources make clear that it belonged to Denmark. Modern scholarship has questioned this, since there is even doubt if Blekinge was considered Danish in the 1060s.[19] Moreover, the veracity of the memorandum has been put into doubt by Peter Sawyer on various grounds. Emund the Old and Sweyn Forkbeard were not contemporaries (though the king at the time was another Sweyn, Sweyn Estridsen [1047-1074]), and some particularities might fit High medieval conditions better. According to Sawyer the memorandum may have been authored by Danish people in the first half of the 13th century, in order to prove the early origins of the Danish claims to Halland and Blekinge.[20] Some other historians have nevertheless defended the genuine character of the text and dated it to c. 1050.[21]
Family and succession
Emund's wife is not explicitly mentioned in the sources. Through a combination of information from the Hervarar saga and Adam of Bremen, it has sometimes been assumed that he was married to Astrid Njalsdotter of Skjalgaätten (d. 1060).[22] Astrid was the daughter of Norwegian nobleman Nial Finnsson (d. 1011), son of Gunhild Halvdansdotter of the Skjalga family in Hålogaland, Norway. Emund sired two known children with his consort: Anund who died before his father, and a daughter, whose name is not known but who was the Queen Consort of King Stenkil of Sweden and the mother of two more Swedish kings, Inge I and Halsten.[23]
The cognomen "Gamle" is known from Adam of Bremen, although he mistakes it as a proper name and mentions in one episode a "King Gamle" when it is in fact Emund. The name means "old" and could signify that he was old when he became king or that he was the older brother to his predecessor Anund Jakob. Emund was the last king of the ancient royal house of the Swedes (sometimes known in modern history writing as the House of Munsö). He is known to have been alive as late as the summer of 1060, and probably died shortly after.[24]Adam of Bremen relates in his work that Emund was succeeded by his "nephew or stepson", in fact probably son-in law, Stenkil. With him began a new dynasty that would last until the 1120s.[25]
The Hervarar saga (13th century) says that Emund was king only a short time:
Eymundr hét annarr sonr Óláfs sænska, er konungdóm tók eptir bróður sinn. Um hans daga heldu Svíar illa kristnina. Eymundr var litla hríð konungr.[26]
Olaf the Swede had another son called Eymund, who came to the throne after his brother. In his day the Swedes neglected the Christian religion, but he was King for only a short time.[27]
^Peter Sawyer (1991), p. 68. Adam says that Skåne in his time was "the furthest part of Denmark" and bordered to the land of the Swedes; Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 208 (Book IV, Chapter 7).
^Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 140-3 (Book III, Chapter 15-16).
^Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, Guðni Jónsson's og Bjarni Vilhjálmsson's edition at «Norrøne Tekster og Kvad».
^The Saga of Hervör and Heithrek, in Stories and Ballads of the Far Past, translated from the Norse (Icelandic and Faroese), by N. Kershaw.Cambridge at the University Press, 1921. December 27, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
Other sources
Sawyer, Peter (1997), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ohlmarks, Åke (1973), Alla Sveriges drottningar. Stockholm: Gebers.
emund, edmund, swedish, emund, gamle, swedish, Æmunðær, gamlæ, Æmunðær, gammal, Æmunðær, slemæ, king, sweden, from, 1050, 1060, short, reign, characterised, disputes, with, archbishopric, bremen, over, church, policies, historically, debated, delimitation, swe. Emund the Old or Edmund Swedish Emund den gamle Old Swedish AEmundaer gamlae AEmundaer gammal AEmundaer slemae was King of Sweden from c 1050 to c 1060 1 His short reign was characterised by disputes with the Archbishopric of Bremen over church policies and a historically debated delimitation of the Swedish Danish border Emund the OldKing of SwedenReignc 1050 c 1060PredecessorAnund JakobSuccessorStenkilDiedc 1060SpouseAstrid Njalsdotter IssueAnund Ingamoder Queen of SwedenHouseHouse of MunsoFatherOlof SkotkonungMotherEdla Contents 1 Way to the throne 2 Conflict with Bremen 3 Time of calamities 4 Delimitation of the border 5 Family and succession 6 References 7 Other sourcesWay to the throne EditEmund was the son of Olof Skotkonung the first Christian ruler of Sweden His mother was a co wife 2 Edla daughter of a Slavic chief from the southern coast of the Baltic Sea He had two uterine sisters called Astrid and Holmfrid His half siblings born by Olof s legitimate Queen Estrid of the Obotrites were Anund Jacob and Ingegerd According to the 13th century historian Snorri Sturluson Estrid was ill tempered and treated her stepchildren poorly King Olof later sent Emund to be raised with his mother s Slavic family While staying there he failed to hold on to the Christian religion 3 Olof was succeeded by his other son Anund Jacob who however did not have any known sons of his own Snorri relates that Emund was ruling in Sigtuna an important center in the Swedish realm by 1035 4 However other sources show that Anund Jacob was still alive then the names Anund and Emund might have been mixed up 5 The German ecclesiastical chronicler Adam of Bremen in his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church says that Anund Jacob died in or shortly after 1049 and was succeeded by Emund there is nothing to suggest that the succession was irregular 6 Conflict with Bremen EditOur only near contemporary source for Emund s reign is Adam of Bremen who paints a very negative picture of the new ruler This is mainly due to the self willed attitude of Emund vis a vis the Archdiocese of Bremen Adam relates that Emund was baptised but cared very little for the Christian faith He also gives Emund the cognomen pessimus worst which is later reflected by the short chronicle of the Westrogothic law c 1240 which likewise knows the king as Slemme the bad 7 The Westrogothic law states that Emund was a disagreeable man when wanting to pursue a goal 8 The dispute with Bremen was triggered by Emund s insistence on maintaining a bishop called Osmundus Originally a protege of the Norwegian based missionary Sigfrid Osmundus had been raised at a school in Bremen but failed to be ordained bishop by the Pope Eventually he was ordained by the Polish archbishop of Gniezno and proceeded to Sweden where he won the confidence of King Emund In the mid 1050s the Archbishop of Bremen sent envoys to Sweden headed by Adalvard the Elder who was intended as the new bishop The delegation was highly offended when encountering Osmundus who sported the habits of an archbishop and seduced the still recently converted wild peoples through incorrect education in our faith On Osmundus insistence Emund turned the envoys away from an assembly However the Swedish magnate Stenkil a relation of the king escorted the delegation on its way back 9 Time of calamities EditSome time after the schism King Emund dispatched his son Anund with an army in order to expand the realm The Viking expedition crossed the sea and came according to Adam to Terra Feminarum the Land of Women Adam places this somewhere in Scythia Modern scholars have assumed that the term alludes to Kvenland which was probably situated to the east of the Gulf of Bothnia in present day Finland Kven could have been mixed up with the Nordic word kvinna woman The women says Adam immediately mixed poison in the springwater and in that way brought death to the king himself and his army The passage implies that Anund bore the title of king together with his father 10 The military disaster was paired with a severe drought and failed harvests This crop failure can be dated to 1056 from other sources 11 Allegedly the calamities caused the Swedes to turn to the Archbishop of Bremen and ask to receive Adalvard back as Bremen appointed bishop Adalvard duly arrived to Sweden where he devoted his efforts to the conversion of Varmland towards the border of Norway Osmundus appears to have submitted to Adalvard in the end but left Sweden for England some time before 1066 12 It has been assumed on very loose grounds that he was the same person as Asmund Karesson a prominent carver of runic inscriptions in Uppland 13 One of the latter s inscriptions includes the passage Asmund Karesson carved runes right Then sat Emund There has been much speculation that this refers to Emund sitting on the throne 14 Delimitation of the border EditLittle is known about the relationship between Sweden and its Nordic neighbours in King Emund s time He may have continued his brother Anund Jacob s support for the Danish king Sweyn Estridsen against Harald Hardrada of Norway 15 A memorandum about an early delimitation of the Swedish Danish border has been preserved in a large number of medieval Swedish manuscripts The text states that Emund Slemme was the King in Uppsala and Sweyn Forkbeard in Denmark They placed boundary marks between Sweden Sueriki and Denmark Now is enumerated Ragnvalde of Tiundaland Botvid of Halsingland Bote of Fjardhundraland Grimalde of Ostergotland Tole and Tote and Tokke of Jutland Gunkil of Sjaelland Dan of Scania Grimulf of Grimeton in Halland They placed six stones between the two kingdoms The first stone stands in Snutruase the second in Danaback the third one is Kinna sten the fourth in Uraksnaes the fifth Vita sten the sixth is Bromse sten between Blekinge and More 16 The memorandum is followed by a story about a meeting between the three Nordic kings on Danaholmen where the Danish king held the bridle of the Swedish king s horse while the Norwegian king held his stirrups thus seemingly acknowledging the precedence of the Uppsala king 17 In older historiography it was usually assumed that the province of Blekinge was transferred from Sweden to Denmark at this occasion 18 A late 9th century source alleges that Blekinge belonged to the Swedes at that time while medieval sources make clear that it belonged to Denmark Modern scholarship has questioned this since there is even doubt if Blekinge was considered Danish in the 1060s 19 Moreover the veracity of the memorandum has been put into doubt by Peter Sawyer on various grounds Emund the Old and Sweyn Forkbeard were not contemporaries though the king at the time was another Sweyn Sweyn Estridsen 1047 1074 and some particularities might fit High medieval conditions better According to Sawyer the memorandum may have been authored by Danish people in the first half of the 13th century in order to prove the early origins of the Danish claims to Halland and Blekinge 20 Some other historians have nevertheless defended the genuine character of the text and dated it to c 1050 21 Family and succession EditEmund s wife is not explicitly mentioned in the sources Through a combination of information from the Hervarar saga and Adam of Bremen it has sometimes been assumed that he was married to Astrid Njalsdotter of Skjalgaatten d 1060 22 Astrid was the daughter of Norwegian nobleman Nial Finnsson d 1011 son of Gunhild Halvdansdotter of the Skjalga family in Halogaland Norway Emund sired two known children with his consort Anund who died before his father and a daughter whose name is not known but who was the Queen Consort of King Stenkil of Sweden and the mother of two more Swedish kings Inge I and Halsten 23 The cognomen Gamle is known from Adam of Bremen although he mistakes it as a proper name and mentions in one episode a King Gamle when it is in fact Emund The name means old and could signify that he was old when he became king or that he was the older brother to his predecessor Anund Jakob Emund was the last king of the ancient royal house of the Swedes sometimes known in modern history writing as the House of Munso He is known to have been alive as late as the summer of 1060 and probably died shortly after 24 Adam of Bremen relates in his work that Emund was succeeded by his nephew or stepson in fact probably son in law Stenkil With him began a new dynasty that would last until the 1120s 25 The Hervarar saga 13th century says that Emund was king only a short time Eymundr het annarr sonr olafs saenska er konungdom tok eptir brodur sinn Um hans daga heldu Sviar illa kristnina Eymundr var litla hrid konungr 26 Olaf the Swede had another son called Eymund who came to the throne after his brother In his day the Swedes neglected the Christian religion but he was King for only a short time 27 References Edit Odelberg Maj 1995 Emund gamle Vikingatidens ABC Swedish Museum of National Antiquities ISBN 91 7192 984 3 archived from the original on 2007 09 30 Adam av Bremen 1984 Historien om Hamburgstiftet och dess biskopar Stockholm Proprius p 103 Book II Chapter 59 Snorre Sturluson 1992 Nordiska kungasagor Olav den heliges saga Stockholm Fabel p 107 8 Olav the Saint s Saga Chapter 88 Snorre Sturluson 1993 Nordiska kungasagor Magnus den gode till Magnus Erlingsson Stockholm Fabel p 19 Magnus the Good s Saga Chapter 1 Oscar Montelius 1919 Sveriges historia till vara dagar Forsta delen Stockholm P A Norstedt amp Soners Forlag p 293 4 Adam av Bremen 1984 p 138 Book III Chapter 15 Peter Sawyer 1991 Nar Sverige blev Sverige Alingsas Viktoria Bokforlag p 34 Yngre Vastgotalagen Adam av Bremen 1984 p 139 40 Book III Chapter 15 Adam av Bremen 1984 p 140 Book III Chapter 15 p 248 Book IV Scholion 123 P A Munch 1855 Det norske Folks historie Anden Deel Christiania Tonsbergs p 192 Adam av Bremen 1984 p 143 Book III Chapter 16 p 201 Book IV Paragraph F Peter Sawyer 1991 p 34 Sture Bolin Emund gamle Svenskt biografiskt lexikon Oscar Montelius 1919 p 294 5 Erik Gunnes 1976 Norges historie Bind 2 Oslo Cappelen p 283 Peter Sawyer 1991 p 72 P A Munch 1855 p 173 Sture Bolin Emund Gamle Svenskt biografiskt lexikon Peter Sawyer 1991 p 68 Adam says that Skane in his time was the furthest part of Denmark and bordered to the land of the Swedes Adam av Bremen 1984 p 208 Book IV Chapter 7 Peter Sawyer 1991 p 70 Lars Gahrn 1988 Sveariket i kallor och historieskrivning PhD thesis Goteborgs universitet Hans Gillingstam 1981 Utomnordiskt och nordiskt i de aldsta svenska dynastiska forbindelserna Personhistorisk tidskrift 77 1 p 18 1 Stenkil Kung i Sverige Nordisk familjebok Adam av Bremen 1984 p 275 Adam av Bremen 1984 p 140 3 Book III Chapter 15 16 Hervarar saga ok Heidreks Gudni Jonsson s og Bjarni Vilhjalmsson s edition at Norrone Tekster og Kvad The Saga of Hervor and Heithrek in Stories and Ballads of the Far Past translated from the Norse Icelandic and Faroese by N Kershaw Cambridge at the University Press 1921 Archived December 27 2006 at the Wayback MachineOther sources EditSawyer Peter 1997 The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings Oxford Oxford University Press Ohlmarks Ake 1973 Alla Sveriges drottningar Stockholm Gebers Emund the OldHouse of MunsoBorn 995 Died 1060Regnal titlesPreceded byAnund Jacob King of Sweden1050 1060 Succeeded byStenkil Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Emund the Old amp oldid 1083028239, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
