Eric Bloodaxe
Eric Haraldsson, nicknamed Bloodaxe and Brother-Slayer, was a Norwegian king. He ruled as King of Norway from 932 to 934, and twice as King of Northumbria: from 947 to 948, and again from 952 to 954.
Epithet
Eric's soubriquet blóðøx, ‘Bloodaxe’ or 'Bloody-axe', is of uncertain origin and context. It is arguable whether its preservation in two lausavísur by Egill Skallagrímsson and a contemporary skald genuinely dates to the 10th century or had been inserted at some stage when Eric was becoming the focus of legend. There is no guarantee that it significantly predates the 12th-century narrative tradition, where it is first attached to him in Ágrip and in Latin translation as sanguinea securis in the Historia Norwegiæ. The sagas usually explain it as referring to Eric's slaying of his half-brothers in a ruthless struggle to monopolise his rule over Norway; Theodoricus gives the similar nickname fratrum interfector. Fagrskinna, on the other hand, ascribes it to Eric's violent reputation as a Viking raider.Family background
Father
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes Eric laconically as ‘Harold’s son’. In the early part of the 12th century, John of Worcester had reason to believe that Eric was of royal Scandinavian stock.This appears to match with independent tradition from Norwegian synoptic histories and Icelandic sagas, which are explicit in identifying Eric of Northumbria as a son of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair. The skaldic poems ascribed to Egill Skallagrímsson may offer further reassurance that the sagas are on the right track, although doubts have been expressed about the date and integrity of the verses in the form in which they have survived. One of Egill's lausavísur speaks of an encounter in England with a man of "Harald's line", while the Arinbjarnarkviða envisages a ruler at York who is a descendant of Halfdán and of the Yngling dynasty. If genuine, the latter identification would form the only direct clue in the contemporary record which might link Eric with the Norwegian dynasty.
Another Harald known from this period is Aralt mac Sitric, king of Limerick, the probable father of Maccus and Gofraid. This may be relevant, since both these brothers and a certain Eric have been described as rulers of 'the Isles' . In a letter addressed to Pope Boniface VIII, King Edward I remembered a certain Eric as having been a king of Scotland subject to the English king.
In the 19th century, a case had also been made for Harald Bluetooth King of Denmark as being Eric's true father. J.M. Lappenberg and Charles Plummer, for instance, identified Eric with Harald's son Hiring. The only authority for this son's existence is Adam of Bremen, who in his Gesta claims to cite the otherwise unknown Gesta Anglorum for a remarkable anecdote about Hiring's foreign adventures: "Harald sent his son Hiring to England with an army. When the latter had subjugated the island, he was in the end betrayed and killed by the Northumbrians." Even if Eric's rise and fall had been the inspiration for the story, the names are not identical and Harald Bluetooth's floruit does not sit well with Eric's.
A brother?
In the account cited in the Latin text of the North Sagas entitled, Morte Rex Eilricus which had been copied long ago from the annals of the lost York Chronicles, the author provides the details of the events leading to Eric Bloodaxe's death "fraudulently, treacherously betrayed by Earl Osulfus" "... was killed by Earl Maccus ... at the Battle of Steinmor ... and there fell Eirikr, with his sons and brothers and all his army ... and his brother Reginaldus ... His son was also known as: Henricus or Haericus and brother as Ragnald or Reginaldus ... together with his son Henricus" whom the commentator Michael Wood in 1981 documentary TV series "In Search of the Dark Ages" identifies as 'Harékr' "and brother Ragnald". Historians have been struck by the correspondence with these names in Fagrskinna, which says two of the kings who died with Eric in his final battle against Osulf were called Harékr and Ragnvald, although they are not identified as relatives there they certainly are identified as his son and his brother in the North Sagas.Mother and half-brothers (sagas)
Further details on his family background are provided solely by the Icelandic and Norwegian sources of the 12th and 13th centuries, which are of limited and uncertain historical value and should therefore be treated with due circumspection. Harald 'Fairhair' is usually portrayed as a polygamous and virile king, the number of his sons varying between 16 and 20. While Eric's mother remains anonymous in the synoptic histories and most of the Icelandic sagas, the Heimskringla claims that she was Ragnhildr, daughter of Eric, king of Jutland. The possibility that Harald had married a Danish princess may find some support in a skaldic stanza which is usually assigned to Þorbjörn Hornklofi's Hrafnsmál, a eulogy on Harald's deeds in the form of a conversation between a raven and valkyrie. It tells that Harald "chose the lady from Denmark / broke with his Rogaland loves / and his lemans of Horthaland, / the maidens of Hálogaland / and of Hathaland eke." In the Flateyjarbók, it is preceded by another stanza which refers to the "handmaidens of Ragnhildr" as witnesses of the event. However, it is uncertain whether her name was already in the original composition, as another manuscript reading has the metrically regular ambáttir Danskar. The account of Heimskringla, which claims that Harald had enjoyed the company of eleven consorts before Ragnhildr, and that of Egils saga are at variance with the suggestion elsewhere that Eric was one of the oldest, if not the eldest son of Harald. Whatever one makes of the discrepancy, the sagas – including Heimskringla – are unanimous in making Haakon Eric's younger half-brother and successor.Early career (sagas)
According to Heimskringla and Egils saga, Eric spent much of his childhood in fosterage with the hersir Thórir son of Hróald. Of his adolescent years, a remarkable picture is painted in Heimskringla, which recounts that Eric, aged twelve and seemingly possessed of prodigious valour and strength, embarked on a career of international piracy: four years were spent harrying the Baltic coasts and those of Denmark, Frisia and Germany ; another four years those of Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France; and lastly, Lappland and Bjarmaland. Describing the last trip, Egils saga notes that Eric sailed up the Dvina River into the Russian hinterland of Permia, where he sacked the small trading port of Permina.Marriage
The Life of St Cathróe of Metz, written c. 1000 at the latest and therefore of near contemporary value, has information about Eric and his wife. It relates that "after keeping him for some time", the King of the Cumbrians conducted Cathróe to Loidam Civitatem, the boundary between the Normanni and the Cumbri :And there he was received by a certain nobleman, Gunderic, by whom he was led to king Erichius in the town of York, because this king had as wife a relative of the godly Cathróe
Given what is known of Cathróe's own background, this probably means that she was of British or Scottish descent. This contradicts to some extent later saga tradition. According to the early 13th century Egils saga, Eric's consort at York was Gunnhild, the famous "mother of kings". This account was constructed by the author of Egils saga using an earlier poem called Arinbjarnarkviða "Lay of Arinbjörn", and this poem does not mention Gunnhild by name, implying therefore that the name was introduced by the author of Egils saga.
Saga tradition is, however, unanimous that Eric did cohabit with a woman named Gunnhild. Her name occurs in a handful of Egill's lausavísur. The earliest saga, Historia Norwegiæ, describes her as the daughter of Gorm inn Gamli, king of Denmark. Most subsequent accounts name her father Ozur, nicknamed either Toti "teat" or lafskegg "dangling beard", a man who hailed from the northern province of Hålogaland. Icelandic hostility towards Gunnhild has been cited as a possible source for her dissociation from the Danish royal house.
There is no consensus on how to solve this problem. An early suggestion is that the name for the king in York in the Life of Cathróe has been erroneously supplanted for Eric's predecessor Amlaíb Cuarán, whose wife Dúnflaith was an Irishwoman. In 2004, Clare Downham suggested that Erichius, Eric of Northumbria, is not the same as Eric Bloodaxe. And there remains the possibility that he was not strictly monogamous, and the existence of two wives need not be mutually exclusive.
King of Norway (sagas)
The dominant theme of the sagas about Harald's numerous sons is the struggle for the Norwegian throne, in particular the way it manifests itself in the careers of Haakon and his foil Eric. According to Heimskringla, Harald had appointed his sons as client kings over the various districts of the kingdom, and intended Eric, his favourite son, to inherit the throne after his death. At strife with his half-brothers, Eric brutally killed Ragnvald, ruler of Hadeland on his father's orders, and Bjørn Farmann, ruler of Vestfold. Some texts maintain that towards the end of his life, Harald allowed Eric to reign together with him . When Harald died, Eric succeeded to the realm, slaughtered the combined forces of his half-brothers Olaf and Sigrød, and gained full control of Norway. At the time, however, Eric's younger and most famous half-brother Haakon, often nicknamed Aðalsteinsfóstri, had been staying at the West-Saxon court, having been sent there to be reared as fosterson to King Æthelstan. Eric's rule was reputedly harsh and despotic and so he fell rapidly out of favour with the Norwegian nobility. At this propitious time, Haakon returned to Norway, found a nobility eager to accept him as king instead and ousted Eric, who fled to Britain. Heimskringla specifies that Haakon owed his success in large part to Sigurd, earl of Lade.Determining the date and length of Eric's reign is a challenging and perhaps impossible task based on the confused chronology of our late sources. It is also unfortunate that no contemporary or even near contemporary record survives for Eric's short-lived rule in Norway, if it is historical at all.