Swyen Forkbeard

From CANUTE The Great 1912 by Laurence Marcellus Larson

... during a truce, the aged King was wounded by an arrow, shot, according to saga, from the bow of Toki, the foster-father of Sweyn. Faithful henchmen carried the dying King across the sea to Jomburg where he expired on All Saints' Day (November 1), probably in 986, the year of the defeat at Hjö.runga Bay. His remains were carried to Roeskild and interred in the Church of the Holy Trinity.¹

Of Harold's family not much is known. According to Adam of Bremen his queen as named Gunhild, a name that points to Scandinavian ancestry² Saxo speaks of a Queen Gyrith, the sister of Styrbjörn.³ Saxo speaks of a Queen Gyrith, the sister of Styrbjörn.³On a runic monument at Sönder Vissing, not far from the garth at Jelling, we read that

Tova raised this memorial,
    Mistiwi's daughter,
    In memory of her mother,
    Harold the Good
    Gorm's son's wife.⁴

Tova might be a Danish name, but Mistiwi seems clearly Slavic. It may be that Harold was thrice married ; it is also possible that Tova in baptism received the name Gunhild. Gyrith was most likely the wife of his old age. The question is important as it concerns the ancestry of Canute the Great. If Tova was Canute's grandmother (as she probably was) three of his grandparents were of Slavic blood.

    ¹ Adamus, Gesta, ii., c. 26.   Saxo, Gesta, 332.
    ² Gesta, ii., cc. 3, 26.                     ³ Gesta, 325.
    ⁴ Wimmer, De danske Runemindesmærker, I., ii., 78 ff.

 

Of Harold's children four are known to history. His daughter Thyra has already been mentioned as the wife of the ill-fated Styrbjörn. Another daughter, Gunhild, was the wife of an Anglo-Danish chief, the ealdorman Pallig. Two sons are also mentioned, Sweyn and Hakon. Of these Sweyn, as the successor to the kingship, is the more important.

The ascension of Sweyn Forkbeard to the Danish throne marks an era in the history of Denmark. Harold Bluetooth had not been a weak king: he had enlarged his territories ; he had promoted the cause of the Christian faith ; he had striven for order and organised life. But his efforts in this direction had brought him into collision with a set of forces that believed in the old order of things. In Harold's old age the Danish viking spirit had awakened to new life ; soon the dragons were sailing the seas as of old.   (Etc).

CANUTE THE GREAT   995 (circ)-1034 by L.M. Larson
New York and London : Putnam 1912, pp. 14-5.