Víkar
legendary Norwegian king
Víkar (Old Norse nominative case form Víkarr; Latin Wicarus) was a legendary Norwegian petty king mentioned in multiple legendary sagas. Gautreks saga refers to him as Víkar Haraldsson, king of Agder, while Halfs saga refers to him as Víkar Alreksson, king of Hordaland. In the Gesta Danorum, he is referred to as Wicarus, king of Norway.
In Gautreks saga and the Gesta Danorum, Víkar and Starkad Stóvirksson were brought up together in the court of Víkar's father, Harald Agder-king. One night, Víkar was kidnapped by Herþjóf, king of Hordaland, who also murdered Harald. Víkar took his revenge against Herþjóf some years later, becoming king of Agder, Hordaland, and Hardanger in the process. Gautreks saga goes on to detail how Víkar came to rule the Uplands and Telemark with Starkad fighting for his army. Eventually, Víkar's ships were becalmed while sailing between Agder and Hordaland. In both accounts, Víkar was then murdered by Starkad. Gautreks saga says that Odin revealed himself to Starkad, demanding Víkar's death, while the Gesta Danorum says that Starkad stabbed Víkar in what was intended to be a mock execution without a direct appearance by Odin.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Víkar” is legendary Norwegian king. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Víkar, legendary and Norwegian, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4570448. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Víkar” 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.