1.
Hervor
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Hervor is the name of two female characters in the cycle of the magic sword Tyrfing, presented in Hervarar saga with parts found in the Poetic Edda. The two are thought by some academics to be the character, duplicated. Additionally, Hervor is the name of a valkyrie married by Völund in the Poetic Edda poem Völundarkviða, Hervor was born after her father Angantyrs death to his wife Svafa, who was daughter of a Jarl Bjarmar. Rather than take on sewing or be raised as a bond-maid like other girls, Hervor proved to be as strong as the boys and learned archery, swordsmanship and she dressed like a man, fought, killed and pillaged under her male surname Hjörvard. When she learned of her fathers identity she decided to live as her father and to find Tyrfing, see Hervararkviða One day, she arrived with her fleet to Munarvágr on Samsø, but she was the only one who dared to embark on the haunted island. The remainder of her crew feared the activities around the barrows on the island. As she approached the barrows she saw a fire shining above them and she then talked with a loud voice summoning her father Angantyr to reveal himself. She said that as his daughter she was entitled to her rightful inheritance, then, she also summoned her eleven uncles and she did so with such a loud voice and such harsh words that finally, her fathers voice was heard and he asked not to pursue her quest. She did not give in but continued to ask for her rightful inheritance, finally, the grave opened and in its centre a fire was shining. There she saw her father, and he warned her not to ask for the sword and it would bring death to their whole clan if she used it. Finally the sword was cast out of the grave, and she eagerly gripped it, bid farewell to her dead kinsmen, however, when she arrived at the shore, the ships were gone. Her crew had been scared away by the fires and the thunder from the barrows, eventually, she managed to leave the island and arrived at the court of Gudmund of Glæsisvellir. She still dressed herself as a man and called herself Hervarðr, cunningly, she helped the king to win playing tafl. However, she also slew a courtier who tried to unsheathe Tyrfing after she had left it on a chair, then, she resumed her Viking activities, and travelled far and wide. After a while she grew tired of the adventures and returned to her foster-father Bjartmar, at Bjartmars residence, she betook herself to sewing and embroidering like other girls, and was considered to be a beautiful and good-mannered girl. King Gudmunds son Höfund, then arrived to ask for her hand, the old king Gudmund arranged a grand wedding, and entrusted the kingdom in the hands of the young couple. They lived happily and had two sons who were given the names Angantyr and Heidrek, the sword Tyrfing would continue its ill work, and Heidrek slew his brother Angantyr with the sword. For the continued adventures of Tyrfing, see Heidrek, Heidrek had a daughter who he named Hervor
2.
Goths
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The Goths were an East Germanic people, two of whose branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe. In the Gothic language they were called the Gut-þiuda, most commonly translated as Gothic people, gut-þiudai, or Gutans Inferred from gen. pl. gutani in Pietroassa inscription. In Old Norse they were known as the Gutar or Gotar, in Latin as the Gothi, the exact origin of the ancient Goths is unknown. Evidence of them before they interacted with the Romans is limited, Modern academics have generally abandoned this theory. Today, the Wielbark culture is thought to have developed from earlier cultures in the same area, archaeological finds show close contacts between southern Sweden and the Baltic coastal area on the continent, and further towards the south-east, evidenced by pottery, house types and graves. Rather than a migration, similarities in the material cultures may be products of long-term regular contacts. However, the record could indicate that while his work is thought to be unreliable. Sometime around the 1st century AD, Germanic peoples may have migrated from Scandinavia to Gothiscandza, early archaeological evidence in the traditional Swedish province of Östergötland suggests a general depopulation during this period. However, there is no evidence for a substantial emigration from Scandinavia. Upon their arrival on the Pontic Steppe, the Germanic tribes adopted the ways of the Eurasian nomads, the first Greek references to the Goths call them Scythians, since this area along the Black Sea historically had been occupied by an unrelated people of that name. The earliest known material culture associated with the Goths on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea is the Wielbark culture, centered on the modern region of Pomerania in northern Poland. This culture replaced the local Oxhöft or Oksywie culture in the 1st century, the culture of this area was influenced by southern Scandinavian culture beginning as early as the late Nordic Bronze Age and early Pre-Roman Iron Age. In Eastern Europe they formed part of the Chernyakhov culture and it has been suggested that the Goths maintained contact with southern Sweden during their migration. In the first attested incursion in Thrace, the Goths were mentioned as Boranoi by Zosimus, the first incursion of the Roman Empire that can be attributed to Goths is the sack of Histria in 238. Several such raids followed in subsequent decades, in particular the Battle of Abrittus in 251, led by Cniva, at the time, there were at least two groups of Goths, the Thervingi and the Greuthungs. Goths were subsequently recruited into the Roman Army to fight in the Roman-Persian Wars. The Moesogoths settled in Thrace and Moesia, the first seaborne raids took place in three subsequent years, probably 255-257. An unsuccessful attack on Pityus was followed in the year by another
3.
Peter Nicolai Arbo
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Peter Nicolai Arbo was a Norwegian historical painter, who specialized in painting motifs from Norwegian history and images from Norse mythology. He is most noted for Asgårdsreien, a motif based on the Wild Hunt legend and Valkyrie. Peter Nicolai Arbo grew up at Gulskogen Manor in Gulskogen, a borough in Drammen and he was the son of headmaster Christian Fredrik Arbo and his wife Marie Christiane von Rosen. His brother Carl Oscar Eugen Arbo was a medical doctor. Arbos childhood home, Gulskogen, was built in 1804 as a residence for his older cousin, lumber dealer. Arbo started his art education with a year at the Art School operated by Frederik Ferdinand Helsted in Copenhagen 1851-1852, after this, he studied at the art academy in Düsseldorf. From 1853 to 1855 he studied under of Karl Ferdinand Sohn, professor of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, at Düsseldorf he was for some time a private student of the history painter C. He had contact with Adolph Tidemand and became a friend of Hans Gude both of whom were professors at the art academy in Düsseldorf. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting, in 1861 Arbo returned to Norway and the following year he went on a study trip together with Gude and Frederik Collett. In 1863 he painted the first version of Horse flock on the high mountains, the version from 1889 is at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo and is considered one of the most important of his works. In 1866 he was appointed a Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and he held numerous positions, including as a juror in Stockholm in 1866 and Philadelphia in 1876, and was Commissioner of the Viennese art department exhibition in 1873. He was also a member of the National Gallery Company from 1875, drammens Museum is located in the heart of Drammen, on the southern side of the Drammen River. In earlier years this was an area of elegant country houses on the magnificent landed property known as Marienlyst, exhibits of the museum include items from the historical and cultural background of Norway. Drammen museum consists of five departments including Gulskogen Manor, the childhood home Peder Nicolai Arbo, in the many beautiful rooms of Gulskogen Manor, one will find works by this distinguished history-painter. Paintings by Peter Nicolai Arbo Marit I
4.
Geats
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The Geats, and sometimes Goths) were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting what is now Götaland in southern Sweden. The name of the Geats also lives on in the Swedish provinces of Västergötland and Östergötland, the Western and Eastern lands of the Geats, the earliest known surviving mention of the Geats appears in Ptolemy, who refers to them as Goutai. In the 6th century, Jordanes writes of the Gautigoths and Ostrogoths, the Norse Sagas knows them as Gautar, Beowulf and Widsith as Gēatas. The etymology of the name Geat is similar, although not identical, to that of Goths, the names are derived from different ablaut grades of the Proto-Germanic word *geutaną, meaning to pour. They are generally accepted to have originated as heiti for men, a more specific theory about the word Gautigoths is that it means the Goths who live near the river Gaut, todays Göta älv. It might also have been a conflation of the word Gauti with a gloss of Goths, in the 17th century the name Göta älv, River of the Geats, replaced the earlier names Götälven and Gautelfr. These sources concern a raid into Frisia, ca 516, which is described in Beowulf. Some decades after the events related in this epic, Jordanes described the Geats as a nation which was bold, before the consolidation of Sweden, the Geats were politically independent of the Swedes or Svear, whose old name was Sweonas in Old English. When written sources emerge, the Geatish lands are described as part of the still very shaky Swedish kingdom, the actual story in Beowulf, however, is that the Geatish king helps a Swede to gain the throne. What historians today think is that this realm could just as well be the force behind the creation of the kingdom of Sweden. The historians make a distinction between history and the emergence of a common Swedish ethnicity. The Hervarar saga is believed to contain such traditions handed down from the 4th century, according to Curt Weibull, the Geats would have been finally integrated in the Swedish kingdom c. 1000, but according to others, it most likely took place before the 9th century, the fact that some sources are silent about the Geats indicates that any independent Geatish kingdom no longer existed in the 9th century. However, the oldest medieval Swedish sources present the Swedish kingdom as having remaining legal differences between Swedes and Geats for example in weights and measurements in miles, marks etc. They also tell us there were kings, ruling by the title of Rex Gothorum as late as in the 12th century. In the Heimskringla, Snorri Sturluson writes about battles between Norwegians and Geats. The Geats were traditionally divided into petty kingdoms, or districts. The largest one of districts was Västergötland, and it was in Västergötland that the Thing of all Geats was held every year
5.
Angantyr
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Angantyr is also the Swedish name of Ongentheow. Angantyr was the name of three characters from the same line in Norse mythology, and who appear in Hervarar saga, Gesta Danorum. The last generation named Angantyr also appears to be mentioned as Incgentheow in Widsith, line 115, together with his father Heiðrekr, half-brother Hlöð and Hlöðs mother Sifka. Angantyrs father Arngrim had given him the magic sword Tyrfing, which cut through anything as if through cloth, and he was the tallest of the twelve sons of the berserker Arngrim, and he and his eleven brothers spread fear and destruction through the North. One Yule, they were home on Bolmsö when the next eldest son Hjörvard, swore that he would win Ingeborg, the daughter of Yngve. The twelve brothers departed for Uppsala and Hjorvard proposed to Ingeborg, however then Hjalmar, one of the Swedish kings champions, stepped forth and claimed he deserved the princess rather than a berserker. The Swedish king, who feared opposing twelve uncontrollable and infamous berserkers in his hall, naturally, she chose Hjalmar, and Hjorvard was besides himself with rage. He challenged Hjalmar to a duel on Samsø and declared that Hjalmar would lose his honour if he did not turn up, when the twelve brothers arrived on Samsø, they started to go berserk. They bit their shields, screamed loud and coarsely and let loose on Hjalmar and Orvar-Odds crewmen. Hjalmar and Orvar-Odd arrived to the scene to find their crew slain and Orvar-Odd, with only his club, after the melee, he found Angantyr dead and Hjalmar mortally wounded by the cursed sword, Tyrfing. Orvar-Odd buried the brothers in barrows on Samsø together with the cursed sword. However Angantyrs daughter Hervor would later return and claim Tyrfing as her own and this event is known as the waking of Angantyr, as recorded in the poem The Waking of Angantyr. Angantyrs daughter Hervor married Höfund of Glæsisvellir and they had the sons Heidrek, Angantyr would be the next of Tyrfings victims. Angantyrs brother Heidrek had made himself impossible at home and was banished by his father, Angantyr wanted to follow his brother for a while on the road to say farewell, but then he asked to see the sword Tyrfing which Heidrek had got from their mother Hervor. Heidrek kindly showed his brother the weapon, but since Tyrfing could not be unsheathed without slaying a man, Heidrek would have the daughter Hervor and the sons Angantyr and Hlöd. When Heidrek, the king of the Goths died, Angantyr inherited and refused to give Hlöd equal share, Hlöd attacked with the Hunnish army and in an epic battle, Hlöd was slain. Angantyr would be one of the ancestors of the Swedish kings of the House of Munsö, the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus on Angantyr Tunstalls translation of the battle, from Orvar-Odds saga
