List of legendary kings of Sweden
For example, Hygelac (500 A.D.) is believed to have historical basis due to his name being attested in Frankish, English, Danish and Icelandic sources.
Contemporary primary sources from 9th–11th century Germany, such as the accounts of Adam of Bremen and Rimbert, contradict the line of Munsö kings purported to have existed by the sagas.
[8] Historical evidence of early geopolitics in Scandinavia suggests that larger political structures, kingdoms such as medieval Sweden, Norway and Denmark, did not form until the late Viking Age.
[6] According to the Ynglinga saga, the Yngling dynasty's rule in Sweden was succeeded by Ivar Vidfamne, previously a petty king in Scania, who founded a new royal line.
As with the Yngling kings, precise dates are not presented in the sagas for Ivar Vidfamne or his descendants, but his reign is estimated to have taken place in the 7th century.
As Ivar is described as building a vast empire, including parts of Britain and northern Germany, it is unlikely that contemporary and later writers in Europe would not have written of him, had he existed.
It is possible that the saga preserves a grain of the truth, perhaps being an embellishment of vague memories of an ancient warrior king, but most of what is said of Ivar Vidfamne has to be considered legendary and fictional.
[19] The Munsö dynasty of kings is the earliest royal lineage that is mentioned not only in Icelandic sagas, but also in medieval Swedish sources.
In Icelandic sources, such as the 12th/13th-century Langfeðgatal, Olof Skötkonung is regarded as a late ruler of a significantly older dynasty, stretching back to legendary Viking hero Ragnar Lodbrok.
In addition to the short genealogical account of Langfeðgatal, Ragnar Lodbrok's royal dynasty is also presented in a more narrative form in the aforementioned Hervarar saga, also written in the 12th or 13th century.
[20] In some respects, the royal sequence is more correct in the Langfeðgatal; Swedish medieval sources tend to omit the kings Anund Jacob and Emund the Old, who can be verified through foreign documents and through the coins they minted, and where the Swedish sources present kings as successive, some (such as Inge the Elder) are known to have co-ruled with others, which is accurately presented in the Icelandic versions.
In the writings of his companion Rimbert, the Vita Ansgari, several Swedish kings (who all precede Eric the Victorious) and who they met or heard of at Birka, an important Viking Age trading center, are mentioned.
As the successors of King Stenkil (r. c. 1060–1066), the Icelandic sources give Håkan the Red, followed by a co-regency of Inge the Elder, Halsten and Blot-Sweyn.
As the direct predecessors of Eric the Victorious, Icelandic sources give Björn Eriksson, preceded by Erik Anundsson.
