What is Agnafit?

Information about Agnafit

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Agne being hanged by his wife Skjalf at Agnafit
Agnafit or Agnefit was the name of a location where Lake Mälaren met the Baltic Sea. In the 14th century, an addition to the Historia Norwegiae described Agnafit as being where Stockholm had been founded. Some say that it was a fishing village located on the island Stadsholmen, before Stockholm was founded in 1252.

It is moreover mentioned by Snorri Sturluson in the Heimskringla (Ynglinga saga) as the location where the Swedish king Agne was hanged by his captive bride Skjalf in his golden torc. She had been captured by Agne in Finland, and after Agne's execution she escaped with her thralls. Later in the Heimskringla (the Saga of Olaf Haraldsson), Snorri writes that king Olaf Haraldsson was captured by the Swedes in Mälaren and had to dig a channel at Agnafit to escape into the Baltic Sea.

Snorri attributes the name to king Agne and fit ("wet meadow"), but toponymists have suggested that Agne- can be derived from the practice of baiting fishing tools at the location.

The location is also mentioned in Ásmundar saga kappabana and in Orvar-Odd's saga. In the latter saga, it is mentioned in the Swedish hero Hjalmar's deathsong. He sang that he would never more see his beloved princess whom he bid farewell at Agnafit:
Leiddi mik en hvíta
hilmis dóttir
á Agnafit
útanverga ;
[???ega: Hvarfk frá hvítri]
hlags beggunni
á Agnafit
útanvergri ;]
saga mun sannask,
er saggi mér,
at aptr koma
eigi myndak.[1]
She led me out,
the lord's daughter,
to Agnafit
on the ocean side;
[... :... :... :...]
all too true
what she told me then,
that never after
would I be back.(Tunstall's translation)
When Orvar-Odd returned to Uppsala, the princess committed suicide and was buried with Hjalmar in the same barrow.

Sources

Location Sweden
Coordinates Coordinates:

Basin countries Sweden


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Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt.
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14th century was that century which lasted from 1301 to 1400.

Events

  • The transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age
  • Beginning of the Ottoman Empire, early expansion into the Balkans

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Historia Norwegiæ is a short history of the Norwegian past written by a monk around the second half of the 12th century. The only extant manuscript, in the private possession of the Earl of Dalhousie and kept at Brechin Castle, Scotland, is fragmentary; what we have of the
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Stadsholmen is the historical name of an island in the centre of Stockholm, Sweden. Together with the small islands Riddarholmen and Helgeandsholmen it forms the Old town of Stockholm.
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City of Stockholm
Stockholms stad

Coat of arms
Location of Stockholm in northern Europe
Coordinates:
Country Sweden
Municipality
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1252 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1252
MCCLII
Ab urbe condita 2005
Armenian calendar 701
ԹՎ ՉԱ
Bah' calendar -592 – -591
Buddhist calendar 1796
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Snorri Sturluson[1] (1178 – September 23, 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing.
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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 (1179 – 1242) ca. 1230.
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The Ynglinga saga was originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson about 1225. He based it on an earlier Ynglingatal which is attributed to the Norwegian 9th century skald Sjógólfr of Hvinir, and which also appears in Historia Norwegiae.
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Agne, Agni, Hogne or Agni Skjálfarbondi was a mythological king of Sweden, of the House of Yngling. Snorri Sturluson relates that he was the son of Dag the Wise, and he was mighty and famous. He was also skilled in many ways.
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For the physical quantity, see torque.
A torc, also spelled torq or torque is a rigid circular neck ring or necklace that is open-ended at the front.
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A thrall (Sræll; Sír, f.) was a slave in Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age. Slavery was one of the primary sources of income for the Vikings. Thralls were first described by the Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote in AD 98 that the Swedes (Suiones) had no
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Olaf II Haraldsson (995 – July 29 1030), king from 1015–1028, (known during his lifetime as the Stout or Thick (Olav Digre) and after his canonization as Saint Olaf), was born in the year in which Olaf Tryggvason came to Norway.
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Olaf II Haraldsson (995 – July 29 1030), king from 1015–1028, (known during his lifetime as the Stout or Thick (Olav Digre) and after his canonization as Saint Olaf), was born in the year in which Olaf Tryggvason came to Norway.
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Toponymy refers to the scientific study of place-names (toponyms), their origins, meanings, use and typology. The first part of the word is derived from the Greek topos (τόπος), place; followed by ōnoma
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Ásmundar saga kappabana is the saga of Asmund the Champion-Killer, a legendary saga from Iceland. It is essentially an adaptation of the German Hildebrandslied, but it has assimilated matter from the Tyrfing Cycle.
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Orvar-Odd (i.e. arrow-odd) was a legendary hero of whom an anonymous Icelander wrote in the latter part of the 13th century. The saga of Orvar-Odd became very popular and it contained old legends and songs.
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Hjalmar and Ingeborg was a legendary Swedish couple. The male protagonist Hjalmar and his duel for Ingeborg figures in the Hervarar saga and in Orvar-Odd's saga, as well as in Gesta Danorum, Lay of Hyndla and a number of Faroese ballads.
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Gamla Uppsala ("Old Uppsala") is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 16,231 inhabitants in 1991.

As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political centre.
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Nationalencyklopedin (NE) is the most comprehensive contemporary Swedish language encyclopedia, initiated by a government grant. The printed version consists of 20 volumes with 172,000 articles; the Internet version is slightly larger (260,000 articles as of June 2005).
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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 (1179 – 1242) ca. 1230.
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Orvar-Odd (i.e. arrow-odd) was a legendary hero of whom an anonymous Icelander wrote in the latter part of the 13th century. The saga of Orvar-Odd became very popular and it contained old legends and songs.
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