Skagul Toste
Encyclopedia
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
, he was the father of Sigrid the Haughty
Sigrid the Haughty
Sigrid the Haughty, also known as Sigríð Storråda, is a queen appearing in Norse sagas as wife, first of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, then Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. While given the Nordic ancestry in sagas, she has been hypothesized to be identical to historically attested Polish or Pomeranian...
. For some time he gave refuge to Harald Grenske
Harald Grenske
Harald Grenske was the petty king in Vestfold in Norway.Harald Grenske was the son of Gudrød Bjørnsson. Gudrød was a grandson of Harald Fairhair and the king of Vestfold. Harald's cognomen Grenske is due to his being raised in the district of Grenland, Norway. When Harald was only 11 years old,...
, who later came back to woo Sigrid, only to be killed by her for his persistence. Toste is mentioned in several sagas, such as Heimskringla
Heimskringla
Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
, and is said to have been the first to demand danegeld
Danegeld
The Danegeld was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources; the term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century...
, in 970. Toste's great-grandson Stenkil became the King of Sweden in 1060.
His name skoglar, skauglar or skagul is due to his experience in battle (skagul is one of the many names for battle in Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
).
At Vallentuna
Vallentuna
Vallentuna is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Vallentuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 26,500 inhabitants in 2005. It stretches over two municipalities in Stockholm County, in the Roslagen region. Vallentuna is also a suburb of Stockholm...
, near Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, the runestone of Orkesta
Orkesta
Orkesta is a parish with 1103 inhabitants , located in Vallentuna Municipality, Stockholm County in Sweden. It is located at 59°36'0.00"N latitude, 18° 7'0.00"E longitude. Its altitude is at 21.95 meters ....
(U 344) says:
in ulfr hafir onklati * Þru kialtakat Þit uas fursta Þis tursti * Þa ---Þurktil * Þa kalt knutr
Translation:
"But Ulf has taken three danegeld
Danegeld
The Danegeld was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources; the term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century...
s in England. The first one was with Toste, the second one with Thorkel
Thorkel
Thorkel or Thorkell is an Old Norse masculine personal name. Among the more famous holders of the name are:*Thorkel of Namdalen, ninth-century jarl and father of Ketil Trout.*Thorkel Sursson, tenth-century Icelander and character in the Gísla saga....
and the third one with Canute the Great
Canute the Great
Cnut the Great , also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F...
".
Children according to the sagas
- Ulf TostessonUlf TostessonUlf Tostesson was a jarl and the son of the legendary Viking Skogul Toste. He was the brother of Sigrid the Haughty, and his son, Ragnvald Ulfsson, a jarl, was the father of Stenkil, who was elected king when the old House of Munsö died out....
, a jarl. - Sigrid the HaughtySigrid the HaughtySigrid the Haughty, also known as Sigríð Storråda, is a queen appearing in Norse sagas as wife, first of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, then Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. While given the Nordic ancestry in sagas, she has been hypothesized to be identical to historically attested Polish or Pomeranian...
, queenMonarchA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
of SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
Source
- Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 241-5, 243A-20