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SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

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A Fragment of <strong>Viking</strong> History 69<br />

about whom nothing is said except that he "was king in<br />

Heiomork after his father" .10 A story about his namesake<br />

Gutln21tlr inn gpfuglati has survived. This tells how<br />

his queen, Asa Haraldsdottir, plotted his death, and a<br />

similar story is told of King Gutlr0tlr a Skdni and his<br />

dealings with his queen, Asa, daughter of Ingjaldr<br />

illrdOi. She was the sister of Olafr tretelgja, father of<br />

Halfdan hvitbein, and this, I believe, is where Olafr the<br />

White's patronymic was found, for his name is identical<br />

with that of Olafr tretelgja. In Langfeogatal Ingjaldr is<br />

called grandson of Siguror, son of Ragnar Hairy-Breeks;<br />

but in the Pattr af Ragnars Sonum ll and in Heimskringla<br />

the same is said of Sigurcr Hart, father-in-law of Halfdan<br />

the Black and son of Gutlr0tlr inn gofuglati. I shall make<br />

no attempt to guess whence this information about<br />

Ingjaldr got into Ari's Langfeogatal, but by it Ingjaldr<br />

becomes one of the family of the Doglingar, or descendants<br />

of King Dagr, as a son of Helgi Olafsson hvassi (see Table<br />

3). These three generations are inserted into the<br />

Langfeogatal between Gutlr0tlr and Olafr the White, while<br />

in the Pattr af Upplendinga Konungum only two of them<br />

are used: Ingjaldr and Helgi. The patronymic of<br />

Ingjaldr in Fostbrceara Saga and Laxdcela Saga - viz.<br />

Frotiason - was possibly inspired by the statement in<br />

Pattr af Ragnars Sonum that Sigurrir Hart inherited<br />

Hringariki from his uncle Fr6tli.<br />

But this will be enough of such speculations - in the<br />

spirit of those who long ago compiled genealogies of the<br />

ancient kings out of scanty material! To demonstrate<br />

more clearly how little importance those authors attached<br />

to chronology, I have provided a section of the genealogies<br />

of the Skjoldungar and Ynglingar families.<br />

I have spent a good deal of time discussing these<br />

genealogies, which may seem of little value, because they<br />

focus our attention on the way in which Haraldr Fairhair<br />

10 ibid., 456.<br />

11 ibid., 466.

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