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'Eysteinn' (d. ca 600) was the son of Eadgils and Yrsa of Saxony. He was the father of Ingvar.
Snorri Sturluson relates that Eysteinn ruled Sweden at the time when Hrólf Kraki died in Lejre. It was a troubled time when many seakings ravaged the Swedish shores. One of those kings was named Sölve and he was from Jutland (but according to ''Historia Norwegiae'' he was Geatish, see below). At this time Sölve was pillaging in the Baltic Sea and so he arrived in Lofond (probably the island of Lovön or the Lagunda Hundred), where Eysteinn was at a feast. It was night-time and Sölve and his men surrounded the house and set it on fire burning everyone inside to death. Then Sölve arrived at Sigtuna (Old Sigtuna) and ordered the Swedes to accept him as king. The Swedes refused and gathered an army that fought against Sölve and his men, but they lost after eleven days. The Swedes had to accept him as king for a while until they rebelled and killed him.
Snorri then quotes a stanza from Þjóðólfr of Hvinir's ''Ynglingatal'':

:Veit ek Eysteins :enda fólginn :lokins lífs :á Lofundi; :ok sikling:með Svíum kváðu :Jótska menn :inni brenna. :Ok bitsótt :í brandnói :hlíðar þangs :á hilmi rann,:þá er timbrfastr :toptar nökkvi, :flotna fullr:um fylki brann.[1]

:For a long time none could tell:How Eystein died -- but now I know:That at Lofond the hero fell;:The branch of Odin was laid low,:Was burnt by Solve's Jutland men.:The raging tree-devourer fire:Rushed on the monarch in its ire;:First fell the castle timbers, then:The roof-beams -- Eystein's funeral pyre.[2]

The ''Historia Norwegiæ'' presents a Latin summary of ''Ynglingatal'', older than Snorri's quotation (continuing after Eadgils, called ''Adils or Athisl''):

Hic [Adils vel Athisl] genuit Eustein, quem Gautones in domo quadam obtrusum cum suis vivum incenderunt. Hujus filius Ynguar [...][1].

He [Adils] became sire to Øystein, whom the Götar thrust into a house and incinerated alive there with his men. His son Yngvar, [...][2]

''Thorsteins saga Víkingssonar'' makes Eysteinn the father of Anund and grand-father of Ingjald and consequently skips Ingvar's generation. It adds a second son to Eysteinn named Olaf, who was the king of Fjordane in Norway.

Contents

Notes

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Notes

1. Storm, Gustav (editor) (1880). ''Monumenta historica Norwegiæ: Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen'', Monumenta Historica Norwegiae (Kristiania: Brøgger), p. 101.
2. Ekrem, Inger (editor), Lars Boje Mortensen (editor) and Peter Fisher (translator) (2003). ''Historia Norwegie''. Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 8772898135, p. 79.

Primary sources

★ Ynglingatal

★ Ynglinga saga (part of the Heimskringla)

★ Historia Norwegiae

★ Thorsteins saga Víkingssonar

Secondary sources

Nerman, B. ''Det svenska rikets uppkomst''. Stockholm, 1925.