SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

The end of the Geats
also not good in battle, for he was defeated by the Danes
and made sport of after he fell; Ai5ils, Egill's son, fled
from Helgi, king of Denmark. In the reign of Eysteinn,
the next in the line, Danish, Norse and 'sea kings' made
many raids on the kingdom of the Svear; Eysteinn's fate
was to be burned alive by such a raider, Solvi, The
reigns of the next two kings were more successful, for
Yngvarr and Qnundr both built up the kingdom, and
made peace with the Danes. Ingjaldr, Qnundr's son,
married a Gautish princess. The relations between the
kingdom of the Svear (eastern Sweden) and the Gautish
kingdom is made clear by implication in this account from
Y nglinga saga in the Monsen-Smith translation:
When [Ingjald] was grown up, Anund wooed for him Gauthild,
the daughter of King Algaut, the son of Gautrek the Generous,
the son of Gaut, from whom Gautland took its name. King
Algaut seemed to think that his daughter would wed well if she
wed the son of King Anund and if he were like his father. The
maid was sent to Sweden (East Sweden) and Ingjald held a
bridal feast with her.
Ingjaldr's most splendid deed was to burn up six kings
in the celebration of his coming to kingship, including
King Algautr of West Gautland; he took their dominions
under his control, and took tribute from them. This
legend perhaps reflects the growing power of the Svear;
but Ingjaldr was fifth in line after Ai5ils, and Ai5ils is the
last of the kings of the Svear who can be paralleled in
Beowulf in the figure of Eadgils. Furthermore, though
kingdoms were subject to him, they were not destroyed.
Among Ingjaldr's other difficulties, Hogni and Hildir
would often ride up into the Swedish kingdom from their
dominions in East Gautland, and slay his men. Thus,
the general drift of the traditions preserved in the
Y nglinga saga will not support an early suppression, much
less a destruction, of the kingdom of the Gautar.
The evidence presented by Curt Weibull on the question