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- Stenkil (Old Icelandic: Steinkel, Old Swedish: St?nkil) was King of Sweden who ruled circa 1060 until 1066. He succeeded Emund den Gamla and became the first king from the House of Stenkil. He was not from Uppsala, but probably from V?sterg?tland and related to the previous dynasty by marriage to Emund's daughter.
He supported the Christianization of Sweden and cooperated with bishops from the Archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. However, when Adalvard the Younger at Sigtuna wanted to destroy the Temple at Uppsala, Stenkil stopped Adalvard's plans, as he feared a pagan insurgence. According the Hervarar saga, Stenkil's son Inge the Elder was deposed and exiled for wanting to cancel the pagan sacrifices at the temple.
Stenkil resided mainly in V?sterg?tland where he was long remembered as the king who "loved West Geats before all his other subjects", and he was lauded as a great archer whose hit marks were long shown with admiration. The tradition that Stenkil was beloved by the Geats appears to be supported by Snorri Sturluson's "Heimskringla".
In a speech by Thorvid, the "lagman (lawspeaker) of V?sterg?tland, before a battle with Harald Hardrada, the lawspeaker expresses the Geats' (Gautland people) loyalty to Stenkil:
The lagman of the Gautland people, Thorvid, sat upon a horse, and the bridle was fastened to a stake that stood in the mire. He broke out with these words: "God knows we have many brave and handsome fellows here, and we shall let King Steinkel hear that we stood by the good earl bravely. I am sure of one thing: we shall behave gallantly against these Northmen, if they attack us; but if our young people give way, and should not stand to it, let us not run farther than to that stream; but if they should give way farther, which I am sure they will not do, let it not be farther than to that hill."
According to a legend Stenkil was buried in the "royal hill" near Levene in V?sterg?tland. His two sons Halsten and Inge the Elder would both become kings of Sweden. The Hervarar saga has a great deal to tell about Stenkil:
There was a great man of noble family in Sweden called Steinkel. His mother's name was Astrith, the daughter of Njal the son of Fin the Squinter, from Halogaland; and his father was R?gnvald the Old. Steinkel was an Earl in Sweden at first, and then after the death of Eymund, the Swedes elected him their King. Then the throne passed out of the line of the ancient kings of Sweden. Steinkel was a mighty prince. He married the daughter of King Eymund. He died in his bed in Sweden about the time that King Harold fell in England. Steinkel had a son called Ingi, who became King of Sweden after Haakon.
The Hervarar saga describes Stenkil as the son of a Ragnvald and later historians have identified this father as Ragnvald Ulfsson who was the earl of Staraja Ladoga and the grandson of the legendary Viking Skagul Toste. But this presumed family-connection is not supported by any other sources and must therefore be regarded as very uncertain. The Icelandic sagas mention a wife and two sons to Ragnvald Ulfsson but none are identical with Stenkil and his mother Astrid.
This database researched and compiled by Norman Lee Madsen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 21 July 2015.
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1000 - 1066 (~ 66 år)
