Augvald

If considered historical, reconstructed estimates based on saga information would have Augvald living some time in the 7th century AD.

He subsequently moved his kingdom's seat to the north-east of Karmøy, the largest of those islands and adjacent to the strategically important Karmsund strait, to a site later given the name Avaldsnes, after the king.

Augvald was killed during a battle with his rival Ferking (in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason called Varinn), the native king of western Karmøy, with whom his story is interlinked.

[2] Scholars have been very sceptical about the reliability of the legendary sagas, which were dismissed as being of little value even in the early 20th century, before the establishment of general source criticism.

[3] Augvald's name (originally Ǫgvaldr), later attested in the genitive in af Awaldzstadom (‘Awald’s settlements’, dative plural) in Aslak Bolt's cadastre (Norwegian "Aslak Bolts Jordebok") (A.B 52), later abbreviated to Ofstad (as recorded in Professor Ole Ryghs publicly commissioned study of old personalnames, titled "Gamle Personnavne i Norske stedsnavne"), has been interpreted in several different ways, although usually taken to mean a combination of the words "awe" and "violence" (Old Norse agi + valdr) or "awe" + "wield", meaning something like "respect-wielder" or "fear-wielder" or "he who is held in awe," derived from the West-Nordic agi meaning 'fear'.

[2] Modern estimates have been made based on two of his reported descendants, Geirmund and Håvard Heljarskinn, who are said to have settled Iceland as "old men" when Harald Fairhair consolidated his power in Norway.

As a member of the West-Nordic royal families, Augvald traced his ancestry back to the ancient giant Fornjót (likely another name for Ymir).

Per Hernæs has on the other hand identified Jøsursheid as an old name for the moorland within Jøsenfjorden in Hjelmeland, although he questions whether conditions in the area could have allowed for the rise of a great chieftain such as Augvald.

After a series of successful naval battles, he went on to conquer the land of the Holmrygr ("island-Rugi") people, based on the islands off the western coast of Rogaland.

He banished the former chieftains from the newly conquered land, and set up his new base at the most favourable location on Karmøy, the largest island in Rogaland.

[1] Based on archaeological findings, it is believed that the ambitions of the increasingly powerful Norwegian chieftains of the time were influenced by the Merovingian Franks, and especially Dagobert and his empire.

What started as a friendly visit turned sour, and Augvald returned home with his men, leaving his daughters held captive at Ferkingstad.

[2] The following tables show the most common rendering of the family tree attributed to Augvald in the various sagas, including his ancestors and descendants.