Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern
The Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern was a 6th-century battle recorded in the
The epic Beowulf
Beowulf is an epic poem that refers to the conflict, but not to a battle on
Norse sagas
There are a few references in Norse sources that give an account of the battle on the ice of Lake Vänern. Some of the sagas differ from one another in detail. The equivalent of Onela, Áli hinn upplenzki, has been placed in the Norwegian Uplands, rather than Swedish Uppland.
In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, in the Skáldskaparmál, the battle is mentioned in two verses. In the first account, Snorri cites a fragmentary poem called Kálfsvísa:
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In the second account, Snorri relates: "They decided to fight on the ice of the water which is called
In the Ynglinga saga, Snorri relates that King Adils (Eadgils) fought hard battles with the Norwegian king who was called Áli hin upplenzki. They fought on the ice of Lake Vänern, where Áli fell and Adils won. Snorri relates that much is told about this event in the saga of the Sköldungs, and that Adils took Hrafn (Raven), Áli's horse.
The Skjöldunga saga is lost but at the end of the 16th century, Arngrímur Jónsson saved a piece of information from this saga in Latin. He wrote: "There was animosity between king Adils of Sweden and the Norwegian king Áli of Uppland. They decided to fight on the ice of Lake Vänern. Adils won and took his helmet, chainmail and horse."
Adils would become a famous king of whom much is told in the legends of
Archaeology
The accounts of the Battle on the Ice contain accurate information about this time and the Swedish
In the Battle on the Ice, the combatants are described as fighting on horseback, although the later Norsemen and Anglo-Saxons who told of this battle in their legends would fight on foot. Likewise, Onela's helmet is called the battle-boar although the boar-crested helmets were long out of use by the time records of the event were written down. Many instances of boar-crested helmets have been found in extant examples, notably in the burial mounds of Vendel, Valsgärde and Uppsala.
Notes
- ^ Alf Henrikson, Svensk historia
- ^ Skálskaparmál at Norrøne Tekster og Kvad, Norway.
- ^ Translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur at Cybersamurai Archived 2007-05-07 at the Wayback Machine.