Halsten of Sweden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Halsten Stenkilsson (Old Icelandic: Hallstein^[1]) was king of Sweden after his father Stenkil's death (1066), and he ruled together with his brother Inge the Elder^[2][3][4]. The date of his death is not known^[3].

Little is known of his time as king^[3]. In a scholia in the work of Adam of Bremen, he is reported to have been elected king after the death of two pretenders^[3], but deposed after a short while^[3][4]. The information that he ruled together with his brother Inge comes from a papal letter from 1081, by Pope Gregory VII, where Halsten and his brother are named with the initials A and I, and where they are called kings of Västergötland^[3] (rege wisigothorum^[5]). His co-rulership with his brother Inge is also mentioned in the Hervarar saga^[2]. In the regnal list of the Westrogothic law, he is said to have been courteous and cheerful, and whenever a case was submitted to him, he judged fairly^[3][4], and this was why Sweden mourned his death^[3]. He was the father of the co-rulers Philip and Inge the Younger^[2][3][4].

The Hervarar saga, which is one of the few sources about the kings of this time, has the following to tell:

Hallsteinn hét sonr Steinkels konungs, bróðir Inga konungs, er konungr var með Inga konungi, bróður sínum. Synir Hallsteins váru þeir Philippus ok Ingi, er konungdóm tóku í Svíþjóð eptir Inga konung gamla.[1]

King Steinkel had, besides Ingi, another son Hallstein who reigned along with his brother. Hallstein's sons were Philip and Ingi, and they succeeded to the Kingdom of Sweden after King Ingi the elder.[2]

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b} Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, Guðni Jónsson's og Bjarni Vilhjálmsson's edition at «Norrøne Tekster og Kvad».
2. ^ ^{a b c d} The Saga of Hervör and Heithrek, in Stories and Ballads of the Far Past, translated from the Norse (Icelandic and Faroese), by N. Kershaw.Cambridge at the University Press, 1921.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} The article Halsten in Nordisk familjebok (1909).
4. ^ ^{a b c d} The article Halsten in Nationalencyklopedin.
5. ^ Kaliff, A. (2001) Gothic Connections, Contacts between eastern Scandinavia and the southern Baltic coast 1000BC-500AD. Occasional Papers in Archaeology 26. Uppsala. p. 16.

Preceded by Erik Stenkilsson

King of Sweden with Inge the Elder

Succeeded by Anund Gårdske