Guðröðr of Scania
Open-knowledge reference entry
Guðröðr was a legendary Scanian king (perhaps 7th century) who, according to the Ynglinga saga, was the brother of Halfdan the Valiant, Ivar Vidfamne's father. He is only known from late Icelandic sources dating from the 13th century.
The fratricide of Guðröðr
Denmark was, according to the late sagas, divided for a period between two branches of the Scylding dynasty, with one lineage residing in Zealand and the other in Scania (Skåne). While nothing in particular is told about the reign of Guðröðr, his brother Halfdan supposedly married an Anglian lady called Moald and obtained the lordship over Northumbria. The Ynglinga saga tells that Guðröðr married Åsa, the daughter of the Swedish king Ingjald Ill-ruler. She backtalked Halfdan so that Guðröðr killed him, and having done so, she arranged the death of Guðröðr himself. Then she fled back to her father in Sweden.
Guðröðr was succeeded by his nephew Ivar Vidfamne who avenged his father and uncle, and conquered Sweden. "He also took possession of all the realm of the Danes and a large part of Saxland and all of Austrríki and a fifth part of England. From his line are descended the kings of the Danes and the Swedes who have held supreme power there".
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This entry incorporates text from “Guðröðr of Scania” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.