Geatish_king Geatish_king

Geatish king - Definition and Overview

Geatish kings existed since the provinces of Götaland/Gautland/Geatland are considered to have been more or less independent with their own petty kings. This is a list of the kings who appear in the sources, which does not claim to be comprehensive. It also follows the generally accepted identification between the names Götar (modern Swedish), Gautar (Old Norse) and Geatas (Old English), which is based both on tradition, literary sources and on etymology. However, unlike some translations[1] (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Volsunga/chapter3.html) it does not identify this tribe with the Goths, since the Goths were far away from Scandinavia, when these kings are said to have lived. Moreover, the land of the Goths is not called Gautland, in these sources, but Reidgotaland.

Contents

Kings from legend

Some names appear in Norse mythology and in Germanic legend and in at least one case, they were probably historical (Hygelac). Their order of succession is uncertain (if they ever lived).

Siklings

Swertings

Ylfings (Wulfings)

"Historical" kings

When the sources become more reliable, Götaland is well integrated into the Swedish kingdom and from Stenkil and onwards most of the medieval Swedish kings did actually belong to Geatish clans (House of Stenkil, Houses of Sverker and Erik and the house of Folkung). During the civil wars, however, certain kings appeared as the kings of Geatish provinces, failing to hold the Swedish core provinces in Svealand.


Norse mythology
The Nine Worlds of Norse Mythology
People, places and things: Deities | Giants | Dwarves | Valkyries
Orthography | Numbers | Runes | Kenning
Elder Edda | Younger Edda | Skald | Sagas | Later influence
Copyright 2009 WordIQ.com - Privacy Policy  :: Terms of Use  :: Contact Us  :: About Us
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the this Wikipedia article.