Ingibiorg Finnsdottir
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Ingibiorg Finnsdottir (Standard Old Norse: Ingibjörg Finnsdóttir) was a daughter of Earl Finn Arnesson and Bergljot Halvdansdottir, a niece of Kings of Norway Olaf Haraldsson (Saint Olaf) and Harald Sigurdsson (Harald Hardraade).[1] The dates of Ingibiorg's life are not certainly known.
She married Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney. The Orkneyinga Saga claims that Kalf Arnesson, Ingibiorg's uncle, was exiled in Orkney after her marriage to Thorfinn. This was during the reign of Magnus the Good, son of Saint Olaf, who ruled from 1035 to 1047, and probably before the death of Harthacanute in 1042.[2] Thorfinn and Ingibiorg had two known sons, Paul and Erlend, who fought in Harald Sigurdsson's ill-fated invasion of the Kingdom of England in 1066.[3]
Ingibiorg remarried after Thorfinn's death, the date of which is again not known.[4] Her second husband was Máel Coluim mac Donnchada (Malcolm III), the King of Scots. Whatever the exact date of the marriage, Máel Coluim and Ingibiorg had at least one son, and probably two. The Orkneyinga Saga tells us that Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim (Duncan II) was their son,[5] and it is presumed that the "Domnall son of Máel Coluim, King of Scotland" whose death in 1085 is reported by the Annals of Ulster was their son.[6]
Ingibiorg's is presumed to have died in around 1069 as Máel Coluim married Margaret, sister of Edgar Ætheling, in about 1070.[7] It may be, however, that she died before Máel Coluim became king, as an Ingeborg comitissa appears in the Liber Vitae Ecclesiae Dunelmensis, a list of those monks and notables from whom prayers were said at Durham, alongside persons known to have died around 1058.[8] If Ingibiorg was never Queen, it would go some way to explaining the apparent ignorance of her existence displayed by Scots chroniclers.[9]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Saga of Harald Sigurdsson, c. 45; Orkneyinga Saga, c. 34, says that Ingibiorg was a cousin of Thora, Harald's wife and mother of King Olaf Kyrre.
- ^ Kalf's exile is in the Saga of Magnus the Good, c. 14, Harthacanute's death, c. 17; Orkneyinga Saga, c. 25, offers no information which could be used to date the marriage.
- ^ Orkneyinga Saga, c. 34; Saga of Harald Sigurdsson, c. 83.
- ^ Orkneyinga Saga, c. 32, says that he "died towards the end of the reign of Harald Sigurdsson". Harald reigned for twenty years. See also Duncan, p. 42, who suggests Thorfinn died in the early 1050s.
- ^ Orkneyinga Saga, c. 34.
- ^ Annals of Ulster, 1085.2; Oram, David I, pp. 22–23; Duncan, p. 55.
- ^ Thus Oram, pp. 23–23.
- ^ Duncan, pp. 42–43. Note that "c. 1085" on the first line of p. 43 is evidently an error for "c. 1058".
- ^ A death in 1058 would also sit with Orderic Vitalis's belief that Máel Coluim was betrothed to Margaret in 1059; Duncan, p. 43.
[edit] 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
- Duncan, A.A.M., The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2002. ISBN 0-7486-1626-8
- Oram, Richard, David I: The King Who Made Scotland. Tempus, Stroud, 2004. ISBN 0-7524-2825-X
- Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, tr. Lee M. Hollander. Reprinted University of Texas Press, Austin, 1992. ISBN 0-292-73061-6
