The Germanic king originally had three main functions.

1. The king served as judge during the popular assemblies.
2. He served as a priest during the sacrifices (Blóts) at important cult sites, such as the Temple at Uppsala. Refusal to administer the blóts could lead to the king losing his power (see e.g. Haakon the Good and Anund Gårdske).
3. The king served as a warleader during wars.

The office was hereditary, but orginally a Germanic king had to have the consent of the people before he could assume the throne.

All the sons of the king had the right to claim the throne, which often led to co-rulership (Diarchy) where two brothers were elected kings at the same time. This was common among Swedes, Norwegians, Franks and Anglo-Saxons (see e.g. Alfred the Great).

This evolved into the territories being considered the hereditary property of the kings, Patrimonies, a system which fuelled feudal wars, because the kings could claim ownership of lands beyond their de facto rule.

Etymology

The name king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Proto-Germanic *kuningaz (which is almost directly translated in Finnish Kuningas). The original meaning is contested. One theory is that the element *kun relates to the word kindred. A second theory is that it originally meant descendant of a ruler and a third theory is that it is originally meant belonging to the woman, i.e. belonging to the mother goddess and referring to the king's role as a priest.

Other names

In Germanic traditions there are many kennings for king, such as Breaker of Rings which was a kenning used in Beowulf and it referred to a king, as a king was expected to break golden rings and reward his warriors.