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Ynglingaätten är den legendariska kungaätt som sägs ha regerat
Sverige under förhistorisk tid. Enligt den norsk-isländska
historieskrivningen härstammade det norska kungahuset från denna ätt
genom att skåningen Ivar Vidfamne i mitten av 600-talet fördrev dem från
Svitjod till Värmland varifrån de senare gjorde sig till kungar över
norska småriken. Den danske historieskrivaren Saxo Grammaticus skrev
dock att vikingatidens svenska kungar också tillhörde Ynglingaätten
medan Snorre Sturlasson påstod att: "Efter Ingjald illråde förlorade Ynglingaätten
uppsalaväldet om man räknar på fadersidan". Om båda källorna har
rätt ska alltså svenska kungar ha fortsatt att kalla sig för medlemmar
av Ynglingaätten medan det var de norska kungarna som tillhörde den
"riktiga" Ynglingaätten. Moderna historiker är emellertid skeptiska till
de norska kungarnas koppling till Ynglingaätten och pekar på att de
norska ynglingakungarna har namn som börjar med konsonanter medan de
svenska ynglingakungarnas namn börjar med vokaler, vilket talar emot
påståendet att det skulle vara frågan om samma ätt.
Hur som helst kan vi bara
konstatera att vår kunskap om Ynglingaättens historia kommer nästan
uteslutande från norsk-isländska källor. Den viktigaste är
Snorre Storlassons
Ynglingasaga som återfinns i Heimskringla. En kortare version
av historien återfinns i det latinska verket Historia Norwegie som skrevs av
en norsk munk omkring 1170. Källorna skiljer sig åt i flera detaljer,
till exempel är det Egil och inte Ottar som har tillnamnet Vendelkråka i
Historia Norwegie och samma källa hävdar att Olof Trätälja
regerade länge och fredligt samt dog i Svitjod. Enligt Snorre ska han
däremot ha regerat i Värmland (som inte räknades till Svitjod) och blivit
offrad av vidskepliga svear efter en serie dåliga skördar. Att
Snorre skrev sitt verk 60 år senare än Historia Norwegie har
ingen betydelse eftersom båda källorna
berättar om händelser som ägde rum för 500 år sedan och de har
troligen använt sig av samma källor. Vi vet med säkerhet att Snorre har
använt sig av dikten Ynglingatal från omkring 900 eftersom den
är citerad i hans Ynglingasaga. Sannolikt har både Snorre och Historia
Norwegie använt sig av Are Frodes nu förlorade stora
Isländingabok från ca 1120 som innehöll genealogier över de skandinaviska
kungahusen. En kortare variant av Isländingaboken som har
bevarats innehåller en genealogisk lista över Ynglingaätten i vilken det
är Egil som har tillnamnet Vendelkråka. I det fallet kan det därför
tyckas som om Historia Norwegie har rätt. Men vi kan inte
utesluta att det var Are Frode som förväxlade kungarna och att Snorre
Sturlasson kände till den muntliga traditionen om Ynglingaätten och
återgav denna korrekt. För trots allt berättar dikten Ynglingatal
att det var Ottar och inte Egil som dog i Vendel och gravhögen som finns
där bär också Ottars namn. Vem som ligger närmast sanningen
är som synes mycket svårt att bedöma och därför har jag som en jämförelse till
Snorres Ynglingasaga även tagit med Peter Fishers engelska översättning av de
aktuella kapitlen från Historia Norwegie. På så sätt kan läsaren själv ta ställning till denna
problematik.
IX On the lineage of
the kings.
The ancient family of Norwegian kings traced its beginnings from
Sweden, from which Trøndelag, the chief law province of Norway, was also
settled. King Yngve, who according to a great many was the first ruler
of the Swedish realm, became the father of Njord, whose son was Frøy.
For centuries on end all their descendants worshipped these last two as
gods. Frøy engendered Fjolne, who was drowned in a tun of mead. His son,
Sveigde, is supposed to have pursued a dwarf into a stone and never to
have returned, but this is plainly to be taken as a fairy-tale. He sired
Vanlande, who died in his sleep, suffocated by a goblin, one of the
demonic species known in Norwegian as 'mare'. He was the father of
Visbur, whose sons burnt him alive with all his hirdsmen, so that they
might attain their inheritance more swiftly. His son Domalde was hanged
by the Swedes as a sacrificial offering to Ceres to ensure the
fruitfulness of the crops. Domalde begot Domar, who died in Sweden.
Likewise Dyggve, his son, reached the limit of his life in that same
region. His son Dag succeeded to his throne; he was killed by the Danes
in a royal battle at a ford named Skjotansvad, while he was trying to
avenge the violence done to a sparrow. This man engendered Alrek, who
was beaten to death with a bridle by his brother, Eirik. Alrek was
father to Agne, whose wife dispatched him with her own hands by hanging
him on a tree with a golden chain near a place called Agnafit. His son,
Ingjald, was murdered in Sweden by his own brother because he had
brought discredit on the latter's wife, whose name was Bera
(Ursa in Latin). After him his son Jorund
ruled, who ended his days unhappily once he had fought a war against the
Danes, who hanged him at Oddesund, on an arm of the sea in Denmark which
the natives call Limfjorden.
He became the father of Aukun, who, in the feebleness of a protracted
old age, during the nine years before his death is said to have
abandoned the consumption of solid food and only sucked milk from a
horn, like a babe-in-arms. Aukun's son was Egil Vendelkrake, whose own
bondman, Tunne, drove him from his kingdom; and though a mere servant he
joined in eight civil combats with his master and won supremacy in all
of them, but in a ninth he was finally defeated and killed. Shortly
afterwards however the monarch was gored and slaughtered by a ferocious
bull.
The successor to the throne was his son Ottar, who was assassinated
in Vendel, a law province of Denmark, by his namesake, a Danish jarl,
and this man's brother, Fasta. His son Adils gave up the ghost after
falling from his horse before the temple of Diana, while he was
performing the sacrifices made to idols. He became sire to Øystein, whom
the Götar thrust into a house and incinerated alive there with his men.
His son Yngvar, nicknamed the Hoary, was killed by the inhabitants while
campaigning on an island in the Baltic called Ösel. Yngvar bred
Braut-Ånund, whose brother, Sigurd, laid him low in Himinheid, a
place-name which means 'field of heaven'. After him his son Ingjald
ascended the throne. Being abnormally terrified of King Ivar Vidfadme,
at that time an object of dread to many, he shut himself up in a
dining-hall with his whole retinue and burnt all its inmates to death.
His son, Olav, known as Tretelgje, accomplished a long and peaceful
reign, and died in Sweden, replete in years.
X Olav sired Halvdan
Hvitbein, whom the Norwegians in the mountains appointed as their king
as he was returning from Sweden. Here in the county of Toten he gave up
the ghost at an advanced age. While his son, Øystein, nicknamed Fart,
was making a voyage between two islands with several ships sailing close
to each other, he was knocked from the poop by the yardarm of another
vessel, sank below the waves and vanished. Succession to the crown fell
to his son, Halvdan Gold-Lavisher and Food-Niggard, since, whereas he
bestowed gold on his retainers, he weakened them with hunger at the same
time. He became father of Gudrød the Hunter King, who was betrayed by
his own wife, for she bribed one of the squires to pierce the king's
side with a spear. His son, Halvdan the Black acquired the realm after
his parent, once again in the mountain region. While he was pursuing a
journey by night across a frozen lake called Rand, returning from a
feast with a large company of sleighs and horsemen, he unsuspectingly
encountered a fissure where the shepherds used to water their flocks,
and perished there beneath the ice.
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