Ynglingatal
Ynglingatal or Ynglinga tal is a Skaldic poem cited by Snorri Sturluson in the Ynglinga saga, the first saga of Snorri's Heimskringla. Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, who was a poet for Harald Fairhair, is traditionally credited with its authorship. Snorri quotes frequently from this poem and cites it as one of the sources of the saga. The composition of the poem is dated to the 9th century.
The poem lists the partly mythical and partly historical ancient Swedish kings; twenty-seven of whom are mentioned in the poem, along with details about their deaths and burial places. The title Ynglingatal alludes to Yngling, who had the name Yngve-Frey—another name for Frey, the god who was worshipped in Sweden. Yngling allegedly descended from Frey's son Fjölnir. Snorri portrayed Harald Fairhair as a descendant of the Ynglings. The poem was written on behalf of Ragnvald Heidumhære, a cousin of King Harald Fairhair, and its last stanza is about Ragnvald.
Verse forms and text history
Ynglingatal is composed in kviðuháttr ; this genealogical verse form is also used in Son loss in Egils saga. In this form of verse, the lines alternate between three and four syllables—the first line has three syllables, the next has four, the next three, and so on. For example:Ynglingatal has also makes extensive use of acquaintance, such as rewriting and metaphors that give life to the poem, which otherwise contains much litany.
The Icelandic philologist Finnur Jónsson believed the eight-line stanza defines Ynglingatal's structure, while Walter Akerlund believed the four-line helming—the half-stanza as in the example above—defines the poem's structure. Akerlund has also said the bard Thjodolf learned the verse-form kviðuháttr by studying the Rök runestone in present-day Sweden, which dates from around the year 800.
The Ynglings in other sources
Ynglingatal is preserved in its entirety in Snorri's Ynglinga saga, which Snorri wrote based on the poem. In the saga, Snorri expanded his text by quoting from the poem in addition to his own text. A stanza from Ynglingatal is also quoted in Þáttr Ólafs Geirstaða Alfs. Stories that build on the poem are found in the Norwegian history, Historia Norvegiæ, which was written in Latin in the late 1100s, and in the short saga Af Upplendinga konungum. Ynglingtal is also indirectly preserved as a list of names in Íslendingabók from the early 1100s. A few of the characters in Ynglingatal are also mentioned in the Old English poem Beowulf.About the author
According to Snorri, Ynglingatal was composed by the scald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, who was from Kvinesdal in what is now Vest-Agder, Norway. In the preamble to the Heimskringla, Snorri writes that Thjodolf, in addition to composing the poem Ynglingatal, was poet at Harald Fairhair's hird.Thjodolf also appears in the Saga of Harald Fairhair, in the mythical story of Harald and the Sami girl Snæfrithr Svásadottir, who cursed Harald to marry her. According to the saga, Harald and Snøfrid had four sons but Harald sent them away when he woke up from the curse. Thjodolf raised one of these sons, Gudrod Ljome. When Thjodolf learned Harald had disowned his sons, he sided with the boys and said to Harald, "They probably would have liked better ancestry, if you had given them that". The saga contains no information about Thjodolf being Harald's scald; that is only mentioned in Snorri's preamble. In the saga he is only referred to as a friend of Harald and as the son whom Godred fostered. Snorri also quotes several other poems of Thjodolf in Harald Fairhair's saga.
The historian Claus Krag proposes that the connection between Harald Fairhair and Thjodolf was constructed by Snorri, probably because Thjodolf would have been an important person in the development of scaldic art, while according to tradition, Harald was Norway's first national king. To create a connection between them would thus enhance both their reputations. According to Finnur Jonsson, Thjodolf was Harald's scald without dwelling much on the subject. Finnur said Thjodolf was not a hird scald, but a scald who mostly stayed home on the farm, where in another saga we meet Thjodolf's grandson. Snorri mentions a man named Torgrim from Kvine, "son" to Thjodolf in the Olav Tryggvasson saga. Beyond this there are no more references to Thjodolf in the sagas in Heimskringla. Snorri wrote the preamble and the saga in the 1220s, over 300 years after Thjodolf should have lived, so any information about him is uncertain.
Author myth and royal ideology
According to the Ynglinga saga, Fjolne, the first king described in Ynglingatal, was the son of the god Frey and a giantess named Gerd. The actual poem mentions nothing about this, but since it only survives in citation it may have been mentioned in a lost verse. Frey, the great fertility god in the Nordic countries, entered into a sacred wedding with Gerd, which is retold in the poem Skírnismál. The mythological purpose of the holy wedding is to bear a child who is the child of both the parents but is neither god or giant but something completely different that will be the first of a "new" species; a new royal family. With effort and tensions from this, the king, who has high status, is valued above all other people. The author of the myth gives the king a special destiny as the main symbol within the ruling ideology in the Norse-thought universe.Both major ruling families in Norway, the Ynglings and Earls of Lade, legitimized their statuses by using a wedding myth. Just as Yngling had their legitimacy reinterpreted in Ynglingatal, the Ladejarlsætt got its equivalent in the poem Háleygjatal, which was written by the Norwegian poet Eyvindr skáldaspillir at the end of the 900s. In Háleygjatal it is Odin and the giantess Skade were of mythological origin, and their son Sæming is the ancestor of Hákon jarl. Both poems were thus used as genealogies and served as mythological propaganda, poetry, and grounds for alliances.
According to religious historian Gro Steinsland, the myth also has an erotic element and is thus a fertility myth that tells of the relationship between the ruler and his "territory"; the scalds describe the land as a sexual, longing giantess who rested in the earl's arms. The prince guarantees growth and prosperity in their territory. There may have been a special connection between the king and the fertility goddess in times of crisis he was sacrificed to her. This is seen in Ynglingatal where Swedes sacrificed King Domalde after a prolonged famine. This is illustrated in Carl Larsson's controversial monumental picture Midvinterblot, but there are no other sources supporting the sacrificing of a king.
Content
Ynglingatal consists of 27 stanzas and a litany of different kings and how they died. It starts with Fjölnir, who according to the Ynglinga saga was the son of Frey. This relationship is not mentioned in the actual poem. Fjolne drowned in a mead tub. The poem continues with his son Sveigðir, who followed a dwarf into a rock and never came out again. Then comes Sveigde's son Vanlande, who was strangled by a mare. Vanlande's son Visbur was burned alive and his son Domalde was sacrificed by the Swedish chiefs to get a good year's harvest. Domalde had his son Domar, who died of illness in Uppsala. Domar's son Dyggve also died of illness, and his son Dag the Wise was killed by a slave with a pitchfork when he was out to avenge the death of a sparrow. Dag's son Agne was hung by his wife Skjålv, and Agne's sons Alaric and Eric killed each other with a bridle when they were out riding. Their sons Yngve and Alf killed each other after being incited by Alf's wife Bera.File:Ynglingesaga 27 Gerhard Munthe.jpg|thumb|upright|Gudrod's death. Vignette by Gerhard Munthe
The poem continues with varying degrees of mythical ways to die. Eventually the Yngling kings walked through the woods from the Svea kingdom to Norway. Here there is a clear break in the series and it is possible Thjodolf is linked here to the Norwegian seed in the Swedish genealogies to provide the Norwegian kings with a divine origin and thus greater legitimacy. The first breeding of the kings of Norway was supposed to have been Halfdan Hvitbeinn, who died in his bed at Toten. According to the poem, his son Eystein was killed on a ship; he was beaten by the boat's vessel and fell into the sea. Eystein's son Halfdan died in his bed in Borre, where he was buried. Halfdan's son Gudrød was killed by the servant of his wife Åsa. The poem ends with Halfdan's son Olaf Geirstad-Alf and grandson Ragnvald Heidumhære. Tjodolv dedicated Ynglingatal to Ragnvald. The last stanza reads:
According to Snorri's Ynglinga Saga, Harald Fairhair's father Halfdan the Black was the half-brother of Olav Geirstadalv and Harald, and was thus Ragnvald's cousin, but neither Harald nor his father Halfdan are mentioned in the poem, so this is probably an attempt by Snorri and other writers to make Harald look more royal. It may have been the Icelandic poet Ari Þorgilsson who constructed the genealogy of the Ynglings and connected Harald Fairhair's seed to Ynglingatal. Snorri later developed this to the Ynglinga Saga.