Eric Haraldsson ( , ; c.930−954), nicknamed Bloodaxe ( , ) and Brother-Slayer (), was a Norwegian king. He ruled as King of Norway from 932 to 934, and twice as King of Northumbria: from 947 to 948, and again from 952 to 954.
Sources Historians have reconstructed a narrative of Eric's life and career from the scant available historical data. There is a distinction between contemporary or near contemporary sources for Eric's period as ruler of Northumbria and the entirely saga-based sources that detail the life of Eric of Norway, a chieftain who ruled the Norwegian Westland in the 930s.Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 187 Norse sources have identified the two as the same since the late 12th century, and while the subject is controversial, most historians have identified the two figures as the same since W. G. Collingwood's article in 1901.W. G. Collingwood, "King Eirík", pp. 313–27; Downham, Viking Kings, p. 116, n 48, for details of previous debate; Downham, "Erik Bloodaxe – Axed?", p. 73; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 187 This identification was rejected early in the 21st century by the historian Clare Downham, who has argued that later Norse writers synthesized the two Erics, possibly using English sources.Downham, "Erik Bloodaxed – Axed?", pp. 51—77; Downham, Viking Kings, pp This argument, though respected by other historians in the area, has not produced consensus.Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 187—8
Contemporary or near-contemporary sources include different recensions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Eric's coinage, the Life of St Cathróe, and possibly skaldic poetry.In two or three centuries of oral transmission, such poems and individual verses could have been adapted and rearranged to suit other needs. Roberta Frank's verdict is that "[h]istory may help us to understand Norse court poetry, but skaldic verse can tell us little about history that we did not already know." "Skaldic Poetry." In Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, ed. Carol J. Clover and John Lindow. Ithaca and London, 1985. pp. 157–96: 174. Such sources reproduce only a hazy image of Eric's activities in Anglo-Saxon England.
Strikingly, Eric's historical obscurity stands in sharp contrast to the wealth of legendary depictions in the kings' sagas, in which he takes part in the sagas of his father Harald Fairhair and his younger half-brother Haakon the Good. These include the late 12th-century Norwegian synoptics – Historia Norwegiæ (perhaps c. 1170), Theodoricus monachus' Historia de antiquitate regum Norwagiensium (c. 1180), and Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum (c. 1190) – and the later Icelandic kings' sagas Orkneyinga saga (c. 1200), Fagrskinna (c. 1225), the Heimskringla ascribed to Snorri Sturluson (c. 1230), Egils saga (1220–1240), and Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta (c. 1300). Exactly in what sense the Eric of the sagas may have been based on the historical Eric of Northumbria, and conversely, to what extent later evidence might be called upon to shed light on the historical figure, are matters which have inspired a variety of approaches and suggestions among generations of historians. Current opinion veers towards a more critical attitude towards the use of sagas as historical sources for the period before the 11th century, but conclusive answers cannot be offered.For a discussion of sagas as historical sources, see Cormack, "Fact and Fiction in the Icelandic Sagas," History Compass 4 (2006).
Epithet Eric's soubriquet blóðøx, ‘Bloodaxe’ or 'Bloody-axe', is of uncertain origin and context. It is arguable whether its preservation in two lausavísur by Egill Skallagrímsson and a contemporary skald genuinely dates to the 10th century or had been inserted at some stage when Eric was becoming the focus of legend.Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur, stanza 25: "I [Egill] dabbled my blade / In Bloodaxe’s boy [Blóðøxar ... blóði, lit. 'Bloodaxe's blood'], / In one galley Gunnhild’s son", tr. H. Pálsson and P. Edwards, Egils saga ch. 56, pp. 147–8; Eyvindr Finnsson skáldaspillir, Lausavísur, stanza 1 (written in dróttkvætt): "Valkyrie's-game, avengers – / awaits not sitting still now – / wish to awake 'gainst you, / warring for death of Blood-Axe [Blóðøxar]", tr. Lee M. Hollander, Heimskringla ch. 28, p. 118. There is no guarantee that it significantly predates the 12th-century narrative tradition, where it is first attached to him in Ágrip and in Latin translation as sanguinea securis in the Historia Norwegiæ.Agrip ch. 2, 5; Historia Norwegiæ; Nóregs konungatal, stanza 10, ed. Kari Ellen Gade. The sagas usually explain it as referring to Eric's slaying of his half-brothers in a ruthless struggle to monopolise his rule over Norway; Theodoricus gives the similar nickname fratrum interfector (killer of brothers or brother-bane).Cf: blekkir brœðra 'brother-killer' in Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur, stanza 22 (Egils saga ch. 57). Fagrskinna, on the other hand, ascribes it to Eric's violent reputation as a Viking raider.Fagrskinna ch. 8.
Family background
Father The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS E) describes Eric laconically as ‘Harold’s son’ (Haroldes sunu).Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS E) 952; Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum V.22: 'Hyrc filium Haraldi'. Other Haralds known from this period include Aralt mac Sitric (d. 940, Chronicon Scotorum AD 940), the father of Maccus and Gofraid (Arailt), and Harold Bluetooth. In the early part of the 12th century, John of Worcester had reason to believe that Eric (Yrcus) was of royal Scandinavian stock (Danica stirpe progenitum, a phrase used earlier for the Hiberno-Norse ruler of Northumbria, Sihtric Cáech).John of Worcester, Chronicle, ed. Thorpe vol. 1, pp. 30 (Sihtric), 135 (Eric).
This appears to match with independent tradition from Norwegian synoptic histories and Icelandic sagas, which are explicit in identifying Eric of Northumbria as a son of the Norwegian king Harald (I) Fairhair.Sverrir Jakobsson has recently argued that the evidence on Harald Fairhair is circumspect, and he should more properly be treated as a mythological rather than a historical figure, cf. „„Erindringen om en mægtig Personlighed": Den norsk-islandske historiske tradisjon om Harald Hårfagre i et kildekritisk perspektiv", Historisk tidsskrift, 81 (2002), 213–30. The skaldic poems ascribed to Egill Skallagrímsson may offer further reassurance that the sagas are on the right track, although doubts have been expressed about the date and integrity of the verses in the form in which they have survived. One of Egill's lausavísur speaks of an encounter in England with a man of "Harald's line" (Haralds áttar), while the Arinbjarnarkviða envisages a ruler at York (Jórvik) who is a descendant of Halfdán (Halfdanar) and of the Yngling dynasty (ynglings burar).Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur, stanza 26; Arinbjarnarkviða, stanzas 3, 4 and 12. If genuine, the latter identification would form the only direct clue in the contemporary record which might link Eric with the Norwegian dynasty.
Another Harald known from this period is Aralt mac Sitric (d. 940), king of Limerick,Chronicon Scotorum AD 940; Annals of the Four Masters AD 938. the probable father of Maccus and Gofraid. This may be relevant, since both these brothers and a certain Eric have been described as rulers of 'the Isles' (Hebrides) (see below). In a letter addressed to Pope Boniface VIII, King Edward I (r. 1272–1307) remembered a certain Eric (Yricius) as having been a king of Scotland subject to the English king.quodam Yricio rege super ipsos Scotos statuto "a certain Eric installed as king over the Scots". Downham, Viking kings. p. 116 and 116 n. 49.
In the 19th century, a case had also been made for Harald Bluetooth King of Denmark (d. 985) as being Eric's true father. J.M. Lappenberg and Charles Plummer, for instance, identified Eric with Harald's son Hiring.J.M. Lappenberg (tr. B. Thorpe), A History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. 1845. 152. Cf: J.H. Todd, The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill. London, 1867. 266–7. The only authority for this son's existence is Adam of Bremen, who in his Gesta (c. 1070) claims to cite the otherwise unknown Gesta Anglorum for a remarkable anecdote about Hiring's foreign adventures: "Harald sent his son Hiring to England with an army. When the latter had subjugated the island, he was in the end betrayed and killed by the Northumbrians."Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum II xxv (§ 22), tr. Francis J. Tschan, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. New York, 1959. pp 70–1. Even if Eric's rise and fall had been the inspiration for the story, the names are not identical and Harald Bluetooth's floruit does not sit well with Eric's.
A brother? In the account cited in the Latin text of the North Sagas entitled, Morte Rex Eilricus (The death of King Eirikr) which had been copied long ago from the annals of the lost York Chronicles, the author provides the details of the events leading to Eric (Eirikr or Eirik) Bloodaxe's death "fraudulently, treacherously betrayed by Earl Osulfus" (Osulf, Earl of Bamburg) "... was killed by Earl Maccus ... at the Battle of Steinmor ... and there fell Eirikr, with his sons and brothers and all his army ... and his brother Reginaldus [Latin for Ragnald or Ragnvald] ... His son was also known as: Henricus or Haericus [Latin form] and brother as Ragnald or Reginaldus [Latin form] ... together with his son Henricus" whom the commentator Michael Wood in 1981 documentary TV series "In Search of the Dark Ages" (in the episode "In Search of Eric Bloodaxe") identifies as 'Harékr' (from the Latin Haeric or Henricus or Haericus) "and brother Ragnald" (from the Latin Reginaldus).In Search of the Dark Ages (BBC Television documentary presented by Michael Wood): episode In Search of Erik Bloodaxe (released on 26 March 1981), in which he reads off the Latin transcription of the actual text of the Sagas. Historians have been struck by the correspondence with these names in Fagrskinna, which says two of the kings who died with Eric in his final battle against Osulf (Olaf) were called Harékr and Ragnvald, although they are not identified as relatives thereCampbell, "Two Notes". p. 97. they certainly are identified as his son (cum filio – meaning: 'with his son') and his brother ( – meaning: 'and [his] brother') in the North Sagas.
Mother and half-brothers (sagas)