Karl Hundason

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Karl Hundason, also Karl Hundisson, is a personage in the

king of Scots. The question of his identity and historicity has been debated by historians of Scotland and the Northern Isles
for more than a century. However a literal translation suggests that the name may simply be an insult.

Saga

The Orkneyinga Saga says that a dispute between Thorfinn Sigurdsson and Karl Hundason began when Karl Hundason became "King of Scots" and claimed

Thorkel the Fosterer. Finally, a great battle at Tarbat Ness on the south side of the Dornoch Firth ended with Karl defeated and fugitive or dead. Thorfinn, the saga says, then marched south through Scotland as far as Fife, burning and plundering as he passed. A later note in the saga claims that Thorfinn won nine Scottish earldoms.[1]

Whoever Karl son of Hundi may have been, it is thought that the saga is reporting a local conflict, perhaps with a Scots ruler of Moray or Ross:

[T]he whole narrative is consistent with the idea that the struggle of Thorfinn and Karl is a continuation of that which had been waged since the ninth century by the Orkney earls, notably Sigurd Rognvald's son, Ljot, and Sigurd the Stout, against the princes or mormaers of Moray, Sutherland, Ross, and Argyll, and that, in fine, Malcolm and Karl were mormaers of one of these four provinces.[2][3][4][5]

Interpretations

The identity of Karl Hundason, unknown to Scots and Irish sources, has long been a matter of dispute.

Njál's saga.[9]

However, the existence of Karl Hundason rests solely on the Orkneyinga saga, and more particularly on those elements of Arnórr jarlaskáld's Þórfinnsdrápa which are preserved in the saga. A degree of scepticism has been expressed by many writers from Robertson onwards, some going to so far as to suggest that the whole episode is poetic invention.

Olaf Trygvasson and died there.[11] Woolf proposes that Karl Hundason, rather that being some hitherto unknown Scots king, was the son of Thorfinn's brother Hlodver Hundi.[12] However, Thomson had already discussed this possibility in 2001, and urged caution as both Orkenyinga saga and St Olaf's saga suggest he only lived "a short while" and was unlikely to have had a son himself.[13]

Muir (2005) points out that a literal translation of "Karl Hundisson" is "peasant son-of-a-dog", an insult that may have been obvious to Norse-speakers hearing the saga and that "we can assume this wasn't his real name".[14] The implication is that there is no purpose in seeking phonetic parallels with known Scots personages. Thomson points out that both "Karl" and Hundi" are names used in other contexts without disparaging intentions[13] although the combination is otherwise unknown.

Notes

  1. ^ Orkneyinga Saga, cc. 20 & 32.
  2. ^ Taylor, p. 338; Crawford, pp. 71–74.
  3. Macbeth took place between 943 and 945. He was the only 'Ljot' that was an Earl of Orkney
    and there is no other individual with this name in the index of either Thomson (2001) or Crawford (1987).
  4. ^ "Upper Bowertower, Stone Lud". Canmore. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  5. ^ Muir (2005) p. 21
  6. ^ Skene, The Highlanders of Scotland, Volume 1, Chapter 5.
  7. ^ Robertson, Scotland under her early kings, Volume II, pp. 477–479.
  8. ^ Thus, for example, the Dictionary of National Biography; Williams, Smyth & Kirby, Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain, pp. 106–107.
  9. ^ Crawford, p. 72.
  10. ^ Anderson, ESSH, p. 576, note 7, refers to the account as "a fabulous story" and concludes that "[n]o solution to the riddle seems to be justified". See also Robertson, Scotland under her early kings, Volume II, pp. 478–479, where most of the account is rejected.
  11. ^ Orkneyinga Saga, c. 12.
  12. ^ Woolf, pp. 309–310.
  13. ^ a b Thomson, pp. 75-77
  14. ^ Muir (2005) p. 47

References

  • Anon., Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney, tr. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards. Penguin, London, 1978.
    ISBN 0-14-044383-5
  • Crawford, Barbara, Scandinavian Scotland. Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1987. 0-7185-1282-0
  • Muir, Tom (2005) Orkney in the Sagas. Kirkwall. The Orcadian.
    ISBN 0-9548862-2-4
  • Taylor, A.B., "Karl Hundason: King of Scots" in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, LXXI (1937), pp. 334–340.
  • ISBN 978-0-7486-1234-5
  • ISBN 1-84183-022-4
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karl_Hundason&oldid=1161058331"