Family of Harald 'Klak' HALFDANSSON and Not KNOWN

Harald 'Klak' HALFDANSSON (c. 785-c. 852)

Not KNOWN ( - )

Ingeborg HAROLDSDÓTTIR ( - )

Thyra DANEBOD (c. 844-c. 935)

Harald 'Klak' HALFDANSSON

Male

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The identity of Harald's father is uncertain. He had at least three brothers. Anulo (d. 812), Ragnfrid (d. 814) and Hemming Halfdansson (d. 837).[1][2] An 837 entry in the Annales Fuldenses calls Hemming a son of Halfdan.[3] This is the only mention of their father in a primary source. The identification relies on the 'widely made assumption' that the Hemming mentioned in 837 was the same Hemming mentioned in chronicle entries from two decades before. Stewart Baldwin, a modern genealogist, pointed that they could also be two people with the same name, although Baldwin himself favors their identification.[1][2]

The relation of this Halfdan with other Danish rulers is also uncertain. An 812 entry in the Royal Frankish Annals mentions "Anulo nepos Herioldi".[4] The Latin "nepos" can be translated as both "nephew" or "grandson", making Anulo and his siblings nephews or grandsons of a senior Harald. This would make Halfdan a brother or son of this Harald.[1][2] The Frankish Annals vaguely mention this elder Harald as king. Also, a King Sigifrid (Siegfried) is mentioned in 777, granting refuge to the Saxon duke Widukind. In 782, an emissary by the name of Halfdan was sent by Sigifrid to Charlemagne. The last mention of Sigifrid in the Annals is in 798, when Charlemagne sent an envoy to him. In 804, Gudfred is mentioned as King of the Danes, exchanging envoys with Charlemagne. Harald could be related to Sigifrid and Gudfred. His reign occurring between 798 and 804 or placed prior to that of Sigifrid.[5] The time and extent of the rule of these earlier kings are uncertain, but the area they ruled presumably included the region closest to the Frankish realm, i.e. around Hedeby. Although they are historical figures insofar as that they are mentioned in historical sources, the details of their rule mostly belong to the realm of the legendary Danish kings.

The Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten (1978) by Detlev Schwennicke assumes Sigifrid and the senior Harald to be brothers, both kings of Hedeby. The Europäische Stammtafeln further mentions several theories on their family line. The elder Harald is assumed to have succeeded his brother as King of Hedeby in 798. The book places his death in 804, "killed in battle in the Irish Sea". Their children supposedly included not only Halfdan, "third" King of Hedeby (father of Harald Klak and his siblings) but two other sons. The first identified as another Harald ("fourth" King of Hedeby) and the second as Holger.[6]

Further Sigifrid and the senior Harald are given two further siblings in Europäische Stammtafeln. The third brother is identified as Halfdan the Mild, a ruler of the Yngling dynasty depicted in the Heimskringla. Their only sister is identified with Geva, wife of Windukind. The former in way of explanation of why Windukind sought refuge among the Danes.[6] None of the theories regarding Harald's family and lineage in ES are well supported by sources.

According to the Annales Bertiniani, Harald was an uncle of Rorik of Dorestad. The Annales Xantenses mention Rorik being the brother of a "younger Harald". Several modern scholars have seen this as a contradiction and chosen to identify Rorik as an apparent fifth son of Halfdan. However, Simon Coupland in From poachers to gamekeepers: Scandinavian warlords and Carolingian kings and K. Cutler in Danish Exiles in the Carolingian Empire--the Case for Two Haralds have since argued that Rorik and the "younger Harald" were brothers, both nephews of Harald Klak. The theory has gained some acceptance since the 1990s as it would explain why Harald Klak gets a mostly positive assessment in the Frankish chronicles while Rorik's brother is depicted as a raider and enemy of the Franks. This would also mean Rudolf Haraldsson, a nephew of Rorik mentioned in the Annales Xantenses, was a son of the "younger Harald".[1]

Not KNOWN

Female

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Ingeborg HAROLDSDÓTTIR

Female

Sigurður HELGASON (aft800- )

Thyra DANEBOD

Female

Gorm HARDEKNUDSSON (bef900-bef959)

Thyra (or Þyrvé[citation needed]) was the consort of King Gorm the Old of Denmark. She is believed to have led an army against the Germans. Gorm and Thyra were the parents of King Harald Bluetooth.

While Gorm the Old had disparaging nicknames, his wife Thyra was referred to as a woman of great prudence. Saxo wrote that Thyra was mainly responsible for building the Dannevirke on the southern border, but archeology has proven it much older.

Thyra died before Gorm, who raised a memorial stone to Thyra at Jelling, which refers to her as tanmarka but, the 'Pride' or 'Ornament' of Denmark. Gorm and Thyra were buried under one of the two great mounds at Jelling and later moved to the first Christian church there. This was confirmed when a tomb containing their remains was excavated in 1978 under the east end of the present church.

Accounts of Thyra's parentage are late, contradictory and chronologically dubious. Saxo holds she was the daughter of Æthelred, King of England (usually identified with Æthelred of Wessex), while Jómsvíkinga saga and Snorri's Heimskringla say her father was a king or jarl of Jutland or Holstein called Harald Klak.

Saxo claims Thyra was the daughter of English king Æthelred of Wessex who also had a son called Æthelstan. Æthelstan was neglected in his fathers will to the benefit at Harald Bluetooth. The king of Norway found it appalling that such a fool should get such a reward, and hence attacked England, where Æthelstan emediately surrendered. Shortly after both the king of Norway and Æthelstan die and Norway and England goes to the son of the late king of Norway - Håkon.

The accounts of Saxo fit well with the English king Æthelstan the Glorious who reigned from 924 to 939. However, he was not the son of Æthelred af Wessex (865 til 871, but Edward the Older (899 til 924), but he was raised by his fathers sister Æthelfled, who was married with another Æthelred, the earl of Mercia, who as such was the fosterfather of Æthelstan. When Edward died, Æthelstan was recognised as the king of Mercia, after his fathers sister, and later also of Wessex. The king of Norway Harald Haarfagers son Håkon was raised at the court of Æthelstans, as part of a peace agreement, so he fits well into the tails told by Saxo.

Æthelstan and his father Edward were very good at nurturing international and dynamic connections through marriages. One of Æthelstans sisters married Sigtrygg Caech (the king of Dublin and York) in 926, a halfsister, Eadgyth, got married to Otto 1. Emperor, another sister, Edgiva, married Karl, king of France, a third, Eadhild, with Hugo the Great, count of af Paris, a fourth with Boleslaw II of Bohmen and most likely a fifth sister married Egil Skallagrimson. It is hardly unthinkable that Thyra could have been an illicit daughter of Edward the Older, and as such, yet another half sister of Æthelstan. Making a connection to a Danish king would make good sense for the ”father-in-law” of Europe as Edward apparently was, with all the problems the Anglo-Saxons had with the Danish in England.

According to popular tradition, Thyra's daughter was captured by trolls and carried off to a kingdom in the far north beyond Halogaland and Biarmaland.

Tradition also has it that before Thyra consented to marry Gorm, she insisted he build a new house and sleep in it for the first three nights of winter and give her an account of his dreams those nights. The dreams were told at the wedding banquet and as recorded, imitate the dreams Pharaoh had that were interpreted by Joseph in Genesis. Oxen came out of the sea (bountiful harvest) and birds (glory of the king to be born).