The Yngling race traced its ancestry from the god Frey. Snorre
Sturlasson, in his famous work, "The Sagas of the Kings of Norway,"[A]
mentions a long line of kings who were descended from Fjölne, a son of
Frey, and reigned in Sweden having their residence in Upsala. Yngve was
one of the god's surnames, and Yngling means a descendant of Yngve. One
of the Ynglings, named Aun the Old, sacrificed every ten years one of
his sons to Odin, having been promised that for every son he sacrificed,
ten years should be added to his life. When he had thus slain seven
sons, and was so old that he had to be fed like an infant, his people
grew weary of him and saved the eighth son, whom he was about to
sacrifice. Ingjald Ill-Ruler, when he took the kingdom on the death of
his father Anund, sixth in descent from Aun the Old, made a great
funeral feast, to which he invited all the neighboring kings. When he
rose to drink the Brage goblet,[B] he vowed that he would increase his
kingdom by one half toward all the four corners of the heavens, or die
in the attempt. As a preliminary step he set fire to the hall, burned
his guests, and took possession of their lands. When he died, about the
middle of the seventh century, he was so detested by his people that
they would not accept his son, nor any of his race, as his successor.
The son, whose name was Olaf, therefore gathered about him as many as
would follow him, and emigrated to the great northern forests, where he
felled the trees, gained much arable lands, and thereby acquired the
nickname The Wood-cutter.[C] He and his people became prosperous, and a
great influx of the discontented from the neighboring lands followed. In
fact, so great was the number of immigrants that the country could not
feed them, and they were threatened with famine. This they attributed,
however, to the fact that Olaf was not in the favor of the gods, and
they sacrificed him to Odin.
[Footnote A: "The Heimskringla, or the Sagas of the Kings of Norway," by
the Icelander Snorre Sturlasson, was written in the twelfth century, and
continued by his nephew Sturla Thordsson, is the principal source of the
history of Norway up to the middle of the thirteenth century.]
[Footnote B: The toast to the god Brage.]
[Footnote C: Tretelgja.]
His son, Halfdan Whiteleg,[A] was a great warrior. He conquered
Raumarike in Norway and the great and fertile district called Vestfold,
west of the fjord called Folden (now the Christiania Fjord). Here he
founded a famous temple in Skiringssal, which soon became a flourishing
trading station and a favorite residence of the Norwegian kings. The
third in descent from him was the great viking Godfrey the Hunter, who
waged war against Charlemagne, and Godfrey's son was Halfdan the
Swarthy.
[Footnote A: Hvitbein.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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