2. Genealogy
  3. Halfdan, III, son of Gudreyd

Halfdan, III, son of Gudreyd

Claim Value Date Age Reliability
ID I11204      
User ID Reference CC785E7A3F73476CAF46F619EBC67CC577F3      
User ID Reference LDMK-V6M      
Gender Male Gender    
Name Halfdan III, son of Gudreyd    
  • Reigned as King from 840-860 when he drowned with many followers when his carriage plunged through the ice on Lake Randsfjord. --- Halfdan was ruler of southeastern Norway, and was called "The Black." He m. (1) Thora, dau. of Harald "Goldbeard", ruler of Sogn. [Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). The Golden Bough. 1922. XL. The Nature of Osiris 1. Osiris a Corn-god Further, we read of a Norwegian king, Halfdan the Black, whose body was cut up and buried in different parts of his kingdom for the sake of ensuring the fruitfulness of the earth. He is said to have been drowned at the age of forty through the breaking of the ice in spring. What followed his death is thus related by the old Norse historian Snorri Sturluson: “He had been the most prosperous (literally, blessed with abundance) of all kings. So greatly did men value him that when the news came that he was dead and his body removed to Hringariki and intended for burial there, the chief men from Raumariki and Westfold and Heithmörk came and all requested that they might take his body with them and bury it in their various provinces; they thought that it would bring abundance to those who obtained it. Eventually it was settled that the body was distributed in four places. The head was laid in a barrow at Steinn in Hringariki, and each party took away their own share and buried it. All these barrows are called Halfdan’s barrows.” It should be remembered that this Halfdan belonged to the family of the Ynglings, who traced their descent from Frey, the great Scandinavian god of fertility.] King of Vestfold and Agde and Sogn in Norway
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