in the battle of Sv lðr (Svold) and thereby restored tra-
ditional Danish overlordship over Norway.
The sources for Sven’s reign are contradictory. While
Thietmar and Adam of Bremen depict him as a cruel and
evil ruler who was punished by the Lord with captivity,
exile, and foreign conquest, and whose position was
very insecure, according to the Encomium Emmae, he
“was practically the most fortunate of all the kings of
his time.” Both views are obviously biased, but Sven’s
career to a large extent bears out the encomiast’s view.
To be able repeatedly to leave Denmark on prolonged
campaigns, he must have enjoyed a secure position at
home, suggested also by the fact that the fortifi cations
built late in his father’s reign were allowed to decay.
He had remarkable political and military success in
Scandinavia as well as in England.
Sven was the fi rst Danish king to strike coins with
his name on them. Only one type is known, imitating
an Anglo-Saxon coin and struck by an English moneyer
who apparently also worked for Óláfr Tryggvason and
for Olav Eriksson. The coins of the three kings are so
different, however, that they are more likely to be inde-
pendent imitations than struck by the same moneyer. At
the same time, imitations of English coins, but without
the Danish king’s name on them, began to be produced
in large numbers in Lund, which developed into a town
early in Sven’s reign.
See also Adam of Bremen; Óláfr Tryggvason
Further Reading
Editions
Campbell, Alistair, ed. and trans. Encomium Emmae Reginae.
Camden Society Third Series, 72. London: Royal Historical
Society, 1949.
Thietmar von Merseburg, Chronik. Ed. Werner Trillmich. Aus-
gewähite Quellen zur deutschen Geschlchte des Mittelalters,
- Berlin: Rütten & Loening, 1957.
Adam Bremensis. Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontifi cum.
In Quellen des 9. und 11. Jahrhunderts zur Geschichte der
hamburgischen Kirche und des Reiches. Ed. Werner Trillmich
and Rudolf Buchner. Ausgewähite Quellen zur deutschen
Geschichte des Mittelalters, 11. Berlin: Rütten & Loening,
Translations
Adam of Bremen. History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-
Bremen. Trans. Francis J. Tschan. Records of Civilization:
Sources and Studies. New York: Columbia University Press,
1959.
Literature
Skovgaard-Petersen, Inge. “Sven Tveskseg i den ældste danske
historiografi. En Saxostudie.” In Middelalderstudier tilegnede
Aksel E. Christensen på tresårsdagen II. september 1966.
Ed. Tage E. Christensen et al. Copenhagen: Munksgaard,
1966, pp. 1–38.
Stenton, F.M. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. Oxford History of
England, 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.
Demidoff, Lene. “The Death of Sven Forkbeard—in Reality
and Later Tradition.” Mediaeval Scandinavia 11 (1978–79),
30–47.
Sobel, Leopold. “Ruler and Society in Early Medieval Western
Pomerania.” Antemurale 25 (1981), 19–142.
Andersson, Theodore M. “The Viking Policy of Ethelred the
Unready.” Scandinavian Studies 59 (1987), 284–95.
Brown, Phyllis R. “The Viking Policy of Ethelred: A Response.”
Scandinavian Studies 59 (1987), 296–8.
Sawyer, Peter. Da Danmark blev Danmark. Gyldendal og
Politikens Danmarkshistorie, 3. Copenhagen: Gyldendal;
Politiken, 1988.
Sawyer, Peter. “Swein Forkbeard and the Historians.” In Church
and Chronicle in the Middle Ages. Ed. Ian Wood and G.A.
Loud. London: Hambledon, 1991, pp. 27–40.
Niels LundSVERRIR SIGURÐARSON (r. 1177–1202)
King of Norway 1177–1202, Sverrir Sigurðarson
was a native of the Faroe Islands, where his paternal
uncle held the bishopric of Kirkebø (Kirkubæur). Here,
Sverrir grew up and received his education. At the age
of twenty-four, he was consecrated a priest, and his
Norwegian mother revealed to him that his true father
was the then long-dead King Sigurðr munnr (“mouth”)
Haraldsson. This revelation caused Sverrir to go to
Norway in 1176, quit the clergy, and fi ght his way to the
throne in fi erce opposition to the powerful Archbishop
Eysteinn, who had supported Magnús Erlingsson and
crowned him king in 1164. Sverrir was proclaimed
king in 1177 in Trondheim, and a few years later he
had succeeded in gaining control of the larger part of
the country. After the battle at Fimreiti in 1184, where
King Magnús fell together with the majority of the
Norwegian aristocracy, Sverrir became the sole ruler of
Norway, although having constantly to fi ght an array of
pretenders to the kingdom.
Our knowledge about Sverrir comes primarily from
his saga, Sverris saga, which presents us with a fascinat-
ing personality, seemingly embodying great contrasts.
He describes himself as being fi erce as the lion and mild
as the lamb, both symbols found on his royal seal. His
biography does indeed exhibit his wit and down-to-earth
philosophy, but also the new Christian ethics of mildness
and forgiveness toward one’s enemies. Sverrir’s complex
background and subtle mind are refl ected in his irony
and humor, displaying great self-confi dence. Sverrir was
a brilliant military leader on sea as well as on land. His
ingenious tactics in warfare were so untraditional that
he has been called a coward despite being victorious;
his guerilla attacks were often of a kind that most Norse
noblemen avoided. Sverrir had a profound knowledge of
the Bible. His national-church policy brought him into
lasting confl ict with the Norwegian bishops; eventually,
the archbishop left the country. Sverrir was excommu-
nicated by him and later by the pope.SVEN HARALDSSON (FORKBEARD)