Freygeirr
Encyclopedia
Freygeirr was a Viking chieftain who probably led a leidang
Leidang
The institution known as leiðangr , leidang , leding, , ledung , expeditio or sometimes lething , was a public levy of free farmers typical for medieval Scandinavians. It was a form of conscription to organise coastal fleets for seasonal excursions and in defence of the realm...

 expedition. He is considered to have been active in the 1050s on the Baltic coast, and he has been identified on six runestones, Gs 13, DR 216, U 518, U 611, U 698 and U 1158
Uppland Runic Inscription 1158
Uppland Runic Inscription 1158 or U 1158 is the Rundata catalog listing for a Viking Age memorial runestone that is located at Stora Salfors, which is one kilometer east of Fjärdhundra, Uppsala County, Sweden, and is in the historic province of Uppland...

.

On the runestone Gs 13, Freygeirr is reported to be the leader of an expedition to Tavastia
Tavastia (historical province)
Tavastia, Tavastland or Häme, Russian Emi or Yemi, is a historical province in the south of Finland. It borders Finland Proper, Satakunta, Ostrobothnia, Savonia and Uusimaa.- Administration :...

:
Gs 13: Brúsi had this stone erected in memory of Egill, his brother. And he died in Tafeistaland, when Brúsi brought (= led?) the land's levy(?) (= army) in memory of, his brother. He travelled with Freygeirr. May God and God's mother help his soul. Sveinn and Ásmundr, they marked.

In Denmark, there is a runestone in memory of a warrior who fell in Sweden while he was in the retinue of a man who was either named Friggir or Freygeirr:
DR 216: Ástráðr and Hildungr/Hildvígr/Hildulfr raised this stone in memory of Fraði/Freði, their kinsman. And he was then the terror(?) of men. And he died in Sweden and was thereafter the first(?) in(?) Friggir's(?) retinue(?) and then: all vikings.


U 698 and U 611 are raised in memory of two men who died in the retinue of a warchief whose name has been reconstructed by runologists as Freygeirr:
U 698: [...] had the stone raised in memory of Ásgeirr, his son. He fell in Lífland, abroad in Freygeirr's(?) retinue.
U 611: Bjôrn and Steinfríðr had the stone raised in memory of Gísli. He fell abroad in Freygeirr's(?) retinue.


There is also a runestone reporting where Freygeirr died, runestone U 518:
U 518: Þorgerðr and Sveinn, they had this stone raised in memory of Ormgeirr and Ormulfr and Freygeirr. He met his end in the sound of Chenotet (Selaön), and the others abroad in Greece. May God help their spirits and souls. ("Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire.)


The Rundata project places Freygeir's death near the island of Selaön
Selaön
Selaön is the largest island in Mälaren, Sweden, and covers 91 km². It is located at Stallarholmen, east of Strängnäs, and it has about 3,000 permanent residents. It is connected by a bridge to the mainland. It is the largest island in any lake in Sweden....

 in lake Mälaren
Mälaren
Lake Mälaren is the third-largest lake in Sweden, after Lakes Vänern and Vättern. Its area is 1,140 km² and its greatest depth is 64 m. Mälaren spans 120 kilometers from east to west...

. According to another theory the runes isilu represent *isi[s]la and they are to be transcribed as *ī ey-sȳsla, i.e. "in Ösel" (Saaremaa
Saaremaa
Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring 2,673 km². The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago...

).

Another runestone mentioning a Freygeirr was raised by his sons:
U 1158: Guðsteinn(?) and Eistr and ... and Áki had the stone raised in memory of Freygeirr, their father. Lífsteinn cut these runes.


Omeljan Pritsak
Omeljan Pritsak
Omeljan Pritsak was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.-Career:Pritsak began his academic career at the University of Lvov in interwar Poland where he...

 remarks that Freygeir's son was named Eistr ("Estonian") and he connects the name to Freygeir's activities on the other side of the Baltic Sea. He further suggests that Freygeir's death took place during a joint Swedish-Kievan Rus' expedition against the Estonians of Saaremaa
Saaremaa
Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring 2,673 km². The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago...

.

Sources

  • Jansson, Sven B. (1980). Runstenar. STF, Stockholm. ISBN 91-7156-015-7
  • Pritsak, Omeljan. (1981). The Origin of Rus. Cambridge, Mass.: Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. ISBN 0-674-64465-4
  • Rundata
    Rundata
    The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future research...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK