A brief history of the Danish royal titles

2007

'Denmark proper' to refer to Denmark without including Norway), or the term 'Oldenburg state' when discussing the entire conglomerate state. For place names, I have generally employed common English-language equivalents where they exist-e.g. Copenhagen instead of København-with the single exception of Helsingør, which for various reasons I prefer to the English 'Elsinore'. The same holds true for titles of Danish and Norwegian political offices, except for rigshofmester, simply because it does not translate well into English. See the Glossary for brief explications of such terms. For the spellings of personal names, I have relied on the standard versions employed in Povl Engelstoft and Svend Dahl (eds.), Dansk biografisk leksikon, 23 vols. (Copenhagen: Gad, 1933-44). Since Denmark did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1700, I have kept all dates in the Old Style, in accordance with the Julian calendar. The basic monetary unit used in this text is the Danish rigsdaler, closely equivalent both to the Swedish riksdaler and the German Reichsthaler; four Danish rigsdaler were the rough equivalent of one English pound. Scandinavian orthography can cause some problems for those not familiar with the language, especially since Nordic characters have changed over time. 'Å' is a modern convention for 'aa' (pronounced much like a long 'o' in English); 'ø' is close to the German 'ö'; and the 'ae' ligature is very similar to the German 'ä'. In Icelandic names and terms, I have retained both the 'eth', or soft 'd' ('ð'), and the 'thorn' ('þ', instead of the transliteration 'th'). I would like to express my gratitude to the many individuals who have made this work possible, through gifts of time, advice, and encouragement. My friends in Denmark have been the most important source of counsel for me over the twenty years in which I have pursued the study of Danish history. I cannot possibly name all of them here, but I should extend special thanks to:

1998

[Norr, S., 1998. To Rede and to Rown. Expressions of Early Scandinavian Kingship in Written Sources. Occasional Papers in Archaeology 17. Uppsala, 253 pp., 4 plates. Monograph, ISSN 1100-6358, ISBN 91-506-1277-8.] The subject of this thesis is early Scandinavian kingship, and the analysis is based on a number of written sources and runic inscriptions. A study of early Germanic kingship focuses primarily on the development of Gothic kingship from the fourth to the sixth century. The royal attributes expressed in kennings and heiti in Ynglingatal are analysed, showing that the poem presents the development of kingship as a process in four stages. The dating of this work and its style of composition is also discussed. A study of the chapters in Ynglinga saga which deal with King Ingiald illráði examines the role of counsel, the political structure of the Svear and high kingship as a structural problem. Vita Anskarii is analysed with particular emphasis on the interaction between kings, noblemen and the ‘people’ in political decision-making. Finally, the associations between kings and runes are discussed, and the inscription of the Sparlösa stone is reinterpreted as a monument over a royal succession.

Lithuanian historical studies, 1997

“Like ʾIlu Are You Wise”: Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures in Honor of Dennis G. Pardee, Forthcoming

2020

This book discusses the 3rd–11th century developments that led to the formation of the three Scandinavian kingdoms in the Viking Age. Wide-ranging studies of communication routes, regional identities, judicial territories, and royal sites and graves trace a complex trajectory of rulership in these pagan Germanic societies. In the final section, new light is shed on the pinnacle and demise of the Norwegian kingdom in the 13th–14th centuries

Scripta Islandica Islandska Sallskapets Arsbok, 2014

Jómsborg, the great stronghold and residence of that famous warrior band the Jómsvíkings, is closely related in the Old Norse tradition to numerous Scan dinavian rulers and is also associated with several Danish kings (Morawiec 2009). The various literary accounts analysed below indicate that members of the Jelling dynasty influenced the historiography of the place and its heroes. The colourful and inarguably dramatic narrative of the legend is inter twined with the history of the town. Jómsborg was the Scandinavian name for Wolin (Wollin), the early Slavic urban complex located on the Odra (Oder) estuary. Its development was based, among other things, on direct economic, cultural, and political connections with the North (Stanisławski & Filipowiak 2013). Moreover, the location of the urban complex and its character meant that its history was to some extent a history of the Danish kings as well. The aim of this paper is to consider the extent to which the legend of Jóms borg and the Jómsvíkings could have been influenced by the memory of more distant and recent political affairs in the region, marked by constant SlavicScandinavian encounters. In other words, this study suggests that there is a need to look for potential historical events and circum stances that encouraged saga authors to associate a story of a famous warrior band with Slavic territories and Jelling kings in a very specific manner. Medieval Scandinavian tradition points first of all to King Haraldr Gorms son as the individual responsible for founding Jómsborg and estab lishing a viking hirð there. The stronghold was located in Wendland, the land of Slavs, which had just been conquered by Haraldr. Consequently, the Jómsvíkings were, in theory, dependent on royal authority. Such a view is taken by Sven Aggesen in his Gesta Regum Danorum.

The year 1161 marked the beginning of the reign of King Magnus V Erlingsson (r.1161-1184). A few years later he became the first crowned and anointed king of Norway. This did not only signal something new in regards to the ideology of power, a step towards the rex iustus ideal, but it also marked a break with older custom of succession. Behind the boy king stood two powerful men, who each represented powerful elements in the Norwegian society; the first was the young king"s father Erling "Wry-necked", the foremost leader of the Norwegian aristocracy, and the other was Archbishop Øystein Erlendsson of Nidaros (r.1161Nidaros (r. -1188, who represented the Church. The difficult task faced by this triumvirate was to defend the new dynasty from both internal and external enemies. During the 1160s this also involved a major conflict with the Danish King Valdemar the Great (r.1157Great (r. -1182. The aim of this paper is twofold: First to study the Danish-Norwegian conflict and the mechanisms involved and secondly how crusading ideology played an important role in both the creation and the protection of the new dynasty.

Onoma, 2020

In Denmark the old Nordic names used since the Viking Age are estimated to represent only 5-10% of the names by the end of the Middle Ages (i.e. 1536 in Denmark). The oldest Danish census with the total population's names from 1787 along with the so-called Jessen Reports from the 1740s, which contain reports of uncommon personal names around the country, provide insight into the diversity and continuity of Nordic names that still existed, but were hidden under a thick layer of extremely frequent Christian names. This is the period before the so-called Nordic Name Renaissance, that with the national romanticism in the 1800s, resumed many Nordic names-often in a(n) (adapted) Norse form-e.g., Gunhild, Gyda, and Helge vs. Danish Gundel, Gye, and Helle. In this study, name examples are examined in the two 1700s sources to illuminate the geographical distribution and the linguistic as well