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Thorgils Sprakalagg and Bjorn Bearson
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taf
Nov 24, 2016, 6:24:11 AM11/24/16
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As I continue reading through some of the early sources for Anglo-Saxon genealogy, I came across an interesting article by Timothy Bolton on the paternal ancestry of Earl Waltheof. (Nottingham Medieval Studies, 51:41-71) In it he summarized a collection of manuscripts that together form part of Douai MS 852, once belonging to Crowland Abbey. Of note for genealogical interest is one in particular, Gesta Antecessorum Comitis Waldevi, while presents a curious pedigree that appears to have been largely derived from a similar account in John of Worcester's work, that tells of a polar bear via a woman of good birth [produced a son] Spratlingus, who had Ulsius, Ulsius having Beorn, [called Boresune, that is son of a] Bear, and Beorn having Siwardus, i.e. Siward, father of Waltheof. The manuscript is damaged, plus this portion is written in a different hand over an erasure so it was not pristine to begin with, but there follows another, Vita et Passio Venerabilis Viri Gualdeui, Comitis Huntendoniae et Norhantoniae, that summarizes the same account and allows the unreadable material to be deduced (in brackets above).
As Bolton points out, this pedigree is found in two other places. It has clear affinity to the pedigree of provided by John of Worcester in reporting the invasion by king Harold's brother, Sweyn Godwinson: Jarl Bjorn, his uncle's son, son of Danish Jarl Ulf, son of Spracling, son of Urse, and he (Beorn) is brother of Danish king Svein [Estrithson]. The similarities of these pedigrees has long been recognized. With the forms Ulsius for Ulfius and Spratlingus for Spraclingus both being clear copying mistakes, the two are effectively identical, with the Gesta simply making Siward the son of Jarl Bjorn, and giving a more elaborate tale about the origin of Spraclingus. Likewise we see something similar in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum: an enormous bear absconds with a Swedish maiden and rather than eating her he ravishes her, and she gives birth to a son named for his father (i.e. Bjorn/Urse), who in turn had Thrugillus, called Sprageleg, to whom Ulf was born. These clearly represent a single genealogical tradition in which the father of Jarl Ulf, commonly called Thorgils Sprakalagg, had ursine heritage.
But it can't be true. The likely marriage date of Jarl Ulf to Estrid Knutsdottor is way too recent for them to be grandparents of Earl Siward. However, Bolton points to a critical inconsistency in the Gesta Antecessorum - it refers to Siward's father as Bearson, even though it was his supposed grandfather Spratlingus or great-grandfather who actually had a white furry father. This could, I suppose, be explained if the family used the bear as a totem, such that each consecutive generation would be son of a 'bear', a possibility Bolton doesn't consider. Instead he turns to another source, which is of late date, perhaps as late s the early 15th century, but that appears to preserve an earlier form of the tradition of Siward's parentage than found in the Gesta Antecessorum. This is the misnamed Chronicle of John of Brompton (he being the later owner of a copy, not its author). It reports what is clearly the same story, except that the genealogy is much shorter - the brute has a son Earl Bern, father of Siward.
Bolton suggests that this represents the earliest form of the legend with regard to Siward's ancestry, and that the second hand of the Gesta Antecessorum has 'corrected' this based on the pedigree of Jarl Bjorn in John of Worcestor, not realizing that they were different men, sharing the same tradition because one was great-uncle of the other. In short, he would suggest that Siward and Ulf were first cousins, (which would of course also make Siward relative of the Godwinsons. He would suggest that rather than the unlikely coincidence of two independent families latching onto the same ancient Norwegian legend that they represent branches of the same family, who when they rose to prominence in the late 10th/early 11th century, would convert their grandfather Bjorn (bear in the Scandinavian languages) into a actual bear.
Of course, being descended from a bear is OK for an ancestor in the remote past, but kings really need to descend from other kings in the male line, and then from gods, so at some later point the cursed ursid was reversed back into a man, Bjorn, only not just any Bjorn - Styrbjorn, leader of the Jomsvikings, son of King Olaf of Sweden, and with the Norwegian sagas marrying Styrbjorn to the daughter of Gorm the Old, supplying further validation of the family's right to succeed to the crown.
My question - what is the first source that makes this claim, that Thorgils Sprakalagg was son of Styrbjorn, rather than just Bjorn/Urse/Ursus maritimus? It clearly post-dates John of Worcester and Saxo Grammaticus, but when is the first it appears?
Manuscripts - I have been providing online links to digital images where I can find them, but this is not a good day for that. I am pretty sure the Douai ms is not online. Their web page announces with pride that the process of cataloguing! their material electronically is underway, which puts them about 30 years behind the whole digital learning curve, so we can expect images to go online about 2040. There are two exemplars of the Brompton (sic) Chronicle:
CCCC 96 https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/actions/page_turner.do?ms_no=96 (see f. 90r)
and
BL Cotton MS Tiberius C xiii (not online)
As to Saxo, only fragments survive. There was a complete manuscript found in the early 16th century that was used for a printed edition, but the original seems since to have been lost.
taf
As Bolton points out, this pedigree is found in two other places. It has clear affinity to the pedigree of provided by John of Worcester in reporting the invasion by king Harold's brother, Sweyn Godwinson: Jarl Bjorn, his uncle's son, son of Danish Jarl Ulf, son of Spracling, son of Urse, and he (Beorn) is brother of Danish king Svein [Estrithson]. The similarities of these pedigrees has long been recognized. With the forms Ulsius for Ulfius and Spratlingus for Spraclingus both being clear copying mistakes, the two are effectively identical, with the Gesta simply making Siward the son of Jarl Bjorn, and giving a more elaborate tale about the origin of Spraclingus. Likewise we see something similar in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum: an enormous bear absconds with a Swedish maiden and rather than eating her he ravishes her, and she gives birth to a son named for his father (i.e. Bjorn/Urse), who in turn had Thrugillus, called Sprageleg, to whom Ulf was born. These clearly represent a single genealogical tradition in which the father of Jarl Ulf, commonly called Thorgils Sprakalagg, had ursine heritage.
But it can't be true. The likely marriage date of Jarl Ulf to Estrid Knutsdottor is way too recent for them to be grandparents of Earl Siward. However, Bolton points to a critical inconsistency in the Gesta Antecessorum - it refers to Siward's father as Bearson, even though it was his supposed grandfather Spratlingus or great-grandfather who actually had a white furry father. This could, I suppose, be explained if the family used the bear as a totem, such that each consecutive generation would be son of a 'bear', a possibility Bolton doesn't consider. Instead he turns to another source, which is of late date, perhaps as late s the early 15th century, but that appears to preserve an earlier form of the tradition of Siward's parentage than found in the Gesta Antecessorum. This is the misnamed Chronicle of John of Brompton (he being the later owner of a copy, not its author). It reports what is clearly the same story, except that the genealogy is much shorter - the brute has a son Earl Bern, father of Siward.
Bolton suggests that this represents the earliest form of the legend with regard to Siward's ancestry, and that the second hand of the Gesta Antecessorum has 'corrected' this based on the pedigree of Jarl Bjorn in John of Worcestor, not realizing that they were different men, sharing the same tradition because one was great-uncle of the other. In short, he would suggest that Siward and Ulf were first cousins, (which would of course also make Siward relative of the Godwinsons. He would suggest that rather than the unlikely coincidence of two independent families latching onto the same ancient Norwegian legend that they represent branches of the same family, who when they rose to prominence in the late 10th/early 11th century, would convert their grandfather Bjorn (bear in the Scandinavian languages) into a actual bear.
Of course, being descended from a bear is OK for an ancestor in the remote past, but kings really need to descend from other kings in the male line, and then from gods, so at some later point the cursed ursid was reversed back into a man, Bjorn, only not just any Bjorn - Styrbjorn, leader of the Jomsvikings, son of King Olaf of Sweden, and with the Norwegian sagas marrying Styrbjorn to the daughter of Gorm the Old, supplying further validation of the family's right to succeed to the crown.
My question - what is the first source that makes this claim, that Thorgils Sprakalagg was son of Styrbjorn, rather than just Bjorn/Urse/Ursus maritimus? It clearly post-dates John of Worcester and Saxo Grammaticus, but when is the first it appears?
Manuscripts - I have been providing online links to digital images where I can find them, but this is not a good day for that. I am pretty sure the Douai ms is not online. Their web page announces with pride that the process of cataloguing! their material electronically is underway, which puts them about 30 years behind the whole digital learning curve, so we can expect images to go online about 2040. There are two exemplars of the Brompton (sic) Chronicle:
CCCC 96 https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/actions/page_turner.do?ms_no=96 (see f. 90r)
and
BL Cotton MS Tiberius C xiii (not online)
As to Saxo, only fragments survive. There was a complete manuscript found in the early 16th century that was used for a printed edition, but the original seems since to have been lost.
taf
taf
Nov 24, 2016, 7:03:01 AM11/24/16
to
On Thursday, November 24, 2016 at 3:24:11 AM UTC-8, taf wrote:
> Manuscripts - I have been providing online links to digital images where I
> can find them,
I left one out - John of Worcester
> Manuscripts - I have been providing online links to digital images where I
> can find them,
CCCC 92 https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/actions/page_turner.do?ms_no=92 f. 145r
taf
taf
Nov 25, 2016, 11:09:44 PM11/25/16
to
On Thursday, November 24, 2016 at 4:03:01 AM UTC-8, taf wrote:
> I left one out - John of Worcester
>
> CCCC 92 https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/actions/page_turner.do?ms_no=92 f. 145r
>
Let me add a general comment. Currently, the Parker library manuscripts (CCCC) have been scanned at three levels. The first is little better than a thumbnail, and is used for a flip-book display to help you find the right page, then there is a low-res scan, and a high-res scan. You can access the low-res scans by using the flip-book display to go to the appropriate page, then clicking on the page in question (I usually right-click and open in a new tab/window, because if you just click to open, when you go back it resets to the beginning of the book). The high-res scans as well as searching and other full functionality are only available to those with access via an institutional subscription. In many cases the low-res are fine, but, for example, when looking at the entries in ASC A where many of the early genealogies have been described as having been "imperfectly removed" by erasure, the low-res is insufficient to see what is going on, while for other manuscripts written in a smaller hand the low-res really isn't quite good enough to be confident of a letter-perfect read.
> I left one out - John of Worcester
>
> CCCC 92 https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/actions/page_turner.do?ms_no=92 f. 145r
>
The good news: the web hosts of this collection have announced that as of 2018 when their current contract with the subscription-manager expires and they launch an upgraded system, Parker 2.0, it "will no longer require an institutional site license for comprehensive access".
https://library.stanford.edu/news/2015/07/parker-library-web-celebrates-10th-anniversary-new-service
taf
Stewart Baldwin
Nov 26, 2016, 7:34:40 PM11/26/16
to
On 11/24/2016 5:24 AM, taf wrote:
...
J. P. F. Konigsfeldt, Genealogisk-Historiske Tabeller over de Nordiske
Rigers Kongeslaegter (Copenhagen, 1856), p. 8, note 52, states: "Suhm
III. S. 502; hans Fader Thorgils Sprakaleg ell. d. Hurtige (Knytl.-Saga
Cap. 5, Olaf d. Hell. S. Cap. 130) var efter Langebeks (S. R. D. III. p.
281 sq.) og Suhms (D. H. III. S. 166) Formodning, som i den nyeste Tid
er tiltraadt af Munch (I. ii. S. 101), en Son af Styrbjorn og Harald
Blaatands Datter Thyre." [I have omitted a few diacriticals here, which
Rootsweb often seems to mess up.]
I don't know Danish, but from the words I can make out, it looks like
the above references to Langebek, Suhm, and Munch are the obvious places
to look for the origin of this claim. Clearly, Konigsfeldt is badly out
of date, but it is often a good pointer to earlier sources for the
Scandinavian dynasties.
Stewart Baldwin
...
> My question - what is the first source that makes this claim, thatThorgils
> Sprakalagg was son of Styrbjorn, rather than just Bjorn/Urse/Ursus maritimus?
> It clearly post-dates John of Worcester and Saxo Grammaticus, but when is the
> first it appears?
...
> Sprakalagg was son of Styrbjorn, rather than just Bjorn/Urse/Ursus maritimus?
> It clearly post-dates John of Worcester and Saxo Grammaticus, but when is the
> first it appears?
J. P. F. Konigsfeldt, Genealogisk-Historiske Tabeller over de Nordiske
Rigers Kongeslaegter (Copenhagen, 1856), p. 8, note 52, states: "Suhm
III. S. 502; hans Fader Thorgils Sprakaleg ell. d. Hurtige (Knytl.-Saga
Cap. 5, Olaf d. Hell. S. Cap. 130) var efter Langebeks (S. R. D. III. p.
281 sq.) og Suhms (D. H. III. S. 166) Formodning, som i den nyeste Tid
er tiltraadt af Munch (I. ii. S. 101), en Son af Styrbjorn og Harald
Blaatands Datter Thyre." [I have omitted a few diacriticals here, which
Rootsweb often seems to mess up.]
I don't know Danish, but from the words I can make out, it looks like
the above references to Langebek, Suhm, and Munch are the obvious places
to look for the origin of this claim. Clearly, Konigsfeldt is badly out
of date, but it is often a good pointer to earlier sources for the
Scandinavian dynasties.
Stewart Baldwin
taf
Nov 26, 2016, 8:38:43 PM11/26/16
to
On Saturday, November 26, 2016 at 4:34:40 PM UTC-8, Stewart Baldwin wrote:
> J. P. F. Konigsfeldt, Genealogisk-Historiske Tabeller over de Nordiske
> Rigers Kongeslaegter (Copenhagen, 1856), p. 8, note 52, states: "Suhm
> III. S. 502; hans Fader Thorgils Sprakaleg ell. d. Hurtige (Knytl.-Saga
> Cap. 5, Olaf d. Hell. S. Cap. 130) var efter Langebeks (S. R. D. III. p.
> 281 sq.) og Suhms (D. H. III. S. 166) Formodning, som i den nyeste Tid
> er tiltraadt af Munch (I. ii. S. 101), en Son af Styrbjorn og Harald
> Blaatands Datter Thyre." [I have omitted a few diacriticals here, which
> Rootsweb often seems to mess up.]
>
> I don't know Danish, but from the words I can make out, it looks like
> the above references to Langebek, Suhm, and Munch are the obvious places
> to look for the origin of this claim.
Thanks. Still working in the first two, but Munch basically says that the family had to be important for Ulf to have been given Cnut's sister as wife, that the bear-tales seem to disguise in legend the story of Thyra's marriage to Styrbjorn, that Langebek had already become convinced that the 'Wild Bjorn', Thorgils' father, was Styrbjorn, and that Ulf's brother Eglaf, and perhaps Ulf himself, led the Jomsvikings. I will for the time being set aside my own impression of these arguments and just say that there appears to be no actual document supplying this identification, unless this it is covered by Langebek.
> J. P. F. Konigsfeldt, Genealogisk-Historiske Tabeller over de Nordiske
> Rigers Kongeslaegter (Copenhagen, 1856), p. 8, note 52, states: "Suhm
> III. S. 502; hans Fader Thorgils Sprakaleg ell. d. Hurtige (Knytl.-Saga
> Cap. 5, Olaf d. Hell. S. Cap. 130) var efter Langebeks (S. R. D. III. p.
> 281 sq.) og Suhms (D. H. III. S. 166) Formodning, som i den nyeste Tid
> er tiltraadt af Munch (I. ii. S. 101), en Son af Styrbjorn og Harald
> Blaatands Datter Thyre." [I have omitted a few diacriticals here, which
> Rootsweb often seems to mess up.]
>
> I don't know Danish, but from the words I can make out, it looks like
> the above references to Langebek, Suhm, and Munch are the obvious places
> to look for the origin of this claim.
https://books.google.com/books?id=meFAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA101
I have seen it claimed that this was an invention to flatter Sweyn and his descendants, but it looks to me like it is much too recent to satisfy that need and instead represents the 'names-the-same' mentality of early antiquarians.
Are you sure the Langebek reference is to 281? Munch gives 287.
taf
taf
Nov 26, 2016, 8:42:47 PM11/26/16
to
On Saturday, November 26, 2016 at 5:38:43 PM UTC-8, taf wrote:
> Are you sure the Langebek reference is to 281? Munch gives 287.
Never mind. On 281 he first proposes it when talking about Ulf, then on 287 he revisits it when talking about Siward.
> Are you sure the Langebek reference is to 281? Munch gives 287.
taf
taf
Nov 26, 2016, 9:22:13 PM11/26/16
to
On Saturday, November 26, 2016 at 4:34:40 PM UTC-8, Stewart Baldwin wrote:
> var efter Langebeks (S. R. D. III. p. 281 sq.)
It tells you something when Langebeks begins his discussion with:
"Ænigma hoc."
A quick scan tells me that his argument can basically be simplified to the following:
Styrbjorn can be translated as 'ferocious bear' which sounds like the wild bear of Saxo.
He goes on to describe Styrbjorn's career, and tries to put him into a chronological framework using dates of dubious authenticity, but it is basically just the superficial similarity between a metaphorical brute and an actual one. It looks like this hypothesis dates no earlier than 1774.
https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA281
taf
taf
Nov 27, 2016, 11:33:46 AM11/27/16
to
Stewart Baldwin
Nov 28, 2016, 9:16:29 PM11/28/16
to
On 11/24/2016 5:24 AM, taf wrote:
> My question - what is the first source that makes this claim, that Thorgils Sprakalagg
> was son of Styrbjorn, rather than just Bjorn/Urse/Ursus maritimus?
This brings to mind a different but related question. In what source
> was son of Styrbjorn, rather than just Bjorn/Urse/Ursus maritimus?
(or sources) do Styrbjorn and his father Olaf (alleged brother of Erik
"the Victorious") first appear? They appear in Heimskringla, but I did
not find them in a quick scan of some of the other early sources easily
available to me (Historia Norwegiae, Theodoricus Monachus, Agrip,
Morkinskinna). I am inclined to regard this Olaf as mythical. Is there
any good reason to regard Styrbjorn as historical?
Stewart Baldwin
taf
Nov 28, 2016, 10:25:41 PM11/28/16
to
On Monday, November 28, 2016 at 6:16:29 PM UTC-8, Stewart Baldwin wrote:
> Is there any good reason to regard Styrbjorn as historical?
There is what purports to be a contemporary two-stanza poem written by Þórvaldr Hjaltason, a skald serving Erik the Victorious who was supposedly at the battle of Fyrisvellir (the battle that by tradition was fought between Erik and Styrbjörn). It does not name Styrbjörn, instead referring to the enemies as 'Hundmargs', the meaning of which is disputed.
> Is there any good reason to regard Styrbjorn as historical?
As I understand it, the remaining instances are sagas and tales that date to the 14th century, and as is always the case with such sources, there is debate as to the degree to which they represent preserved older tradition, vs more recent creation.
I have long thought that the whole 'nephew' thing was just a device to add a political aspect to what was otherwise just a viking raid by brigands.
taf
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