Ongendus
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Ongendus (Angantyr in Danish) was a king of the Danes, reigning c. 710.
About 710, Saint Willibrord visited the Danes whilst Ongendus was ruling and returned with 30 boys to instruct in the missionary work. No further details are given about Ongendus, other than the fact that he was "more savage than any beast and harder than stone", the ideal of man in the Viking Age. Against Willibrord's account, however, one should also consider the fact, that he was apparently well received, could travel in peace through Ongendus' realm and was allowed to return with his potential disciples, so the savagry of Ongendus may well be overstated. It may just have been the obligatory classification of any heathen ruler.
He may have founded Ribe,[1] and reinforced Danevirke in 737.[2]
[edit] Further reading
- Alcuin's Life of St. Willibrord, translated in C. H. Talbot, "The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany" (London and New York, 1954), especially pp. 9-10.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Myhre, Bjørn (2003), “The Iron Age”, The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, pp. p. 87., ISBN 0521472997
- ^ Skovgaard-Petersen, Inge (2003), “The making of the Danish kingdom”, The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, pp. p. 172., ISBN 0521472997
