from gods into historic kings, the first who ruled Svithiod (Sweden). Among learned men in Snorre’s day there was a craze for tracing the pedigree of all nations of any renown back to some of the heroes of ancient Troy. Snorre serves us a saga of Odin’s migration from Troy which, besides being confuse, would appear only ridiculous, if it had not wielded about as highly disastrous an influence upon correct conceptions of Swedish history as the work by Jordanes. This migration saga is found in a still more elaborate form in an introduction to Snorre’s Edda, and is responsible for the erroneous opinion held by earlier Swedish historians, that the Swedes had migrated from Asia under the leadership of a chief who called himself Odin, and that the Swedes and the Gauts were, if not of different origin, at least of a habitation of differing age in their present locations. Based upon the information found in Ynglinga Saga we will give a review of the history of the early kings of Sweden, although the first dozen, and more, of these kings are of a doubtful “historic” character. At the dawn of history, Sweden was, like most other countries of Northern Europe, divided into petty communities, each ruled by a king. These communities seem to have been nearly identical with the “lands” or later provinces into which Sweden is yet divided, although the administrative divisions are different. In spite of the fact that it is about 1,200 years since these communities were united into one single realm, the inhabitants preserve to this day their respective peculiarities of customs and language. The most important among the chieftains of Sweden was, since time immemorial, the king of Upsala, who conducted the sacrifices and temple service at Upsala, the oldest and most celebrated place of heathen worship in the Scandinavian North. Originally, he had under his rule only one-third of the present province of Upland, the chief settlement of the Sviar, or Swedes in a limited sense. The Upsala kings belonged to the ancient royal race of Skilfings (or “Ynglings,” according to Snorre), who traced their origin from the gods. The founder of the dynasty as accepted by Thiodulf and others was _Yngve_, who is said to have built the great temple at Upsala, moving thither the capital from the older Sigtuna and contributing to the temple all his lands and riches. Yngve’s son was _Fiolner_. King Fiolner was drowned by accident in a huge vessel full of mead, during a visit paid to King Frode in Denmark.