Einherjar, I
Methuselah (a.k.a. Halfdan, Hvitserk)
Overview
Halfdan alias EinherJar, I was a Viking leader and a commander of the Great Heathen Army which invaded the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, starting in 865.
One of six sons of Ragnar Lodbrok named in Norse sagas, Halfdan's brothers or half-brothers included Björn Ironside, Ivar the Boneless, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, Ubba and Hvitserk. Because Halfdan is not mentioned in any source that mentions Hvitserk, some scholars have suggested that they are the same individual – a possibility reinforced by the fact that Halfdan was a relatively common name among Vikings and Hvitserk "white shirt" may have been an epithet or nickname that distinguished Halfdan from other men by the same name.
Halfdan was the first Viking King of Northumbria and a pretender to the throne of Kingdom of Dublin. It is also possible he was for a time co-ruler of Denmark with his brother Sigurd Snake-in-the-eye, because Frankish sources mention certain Sigfred and Halfdan as rulers in 873. He died at the Battle of Strangford Lough in 877 trying to press his Irish claim.
The Viking age had begun in 793 with the sacking of the monastery at Lindisfarne, but by the second half of the ninth century, raiders were becoming conquerors. The Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia in 865 and, led by the three sons of the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok, it had set about its task. Northumbria fell in 866 and East Anglia in 869; Mercia had been neutered as a fighting force in 867. In less than five years, three of the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had fallen – only Wessex remained.
The Vikings were masters of intelligence gathering. Their traders penetrated deep into Early Medieval societies, bringing back reports of the shifting political allegiances of the kingdoms of Europe. By 870, the leaders of the Great Army were well acquainted with the fact that Wessex was led by a young, untried king, Æthelred, who had only a younger and even less tried brother to succeed him.
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were held together by oaths and personal obligations – kill the king, and the Vikings could reset these obligations in their own favour, either by installing a puppet or taking direct rule. For the magnates of Wessex, having witnessed the fates of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, it must have seemed as if the Viking tide was inexorable. The wilier among them may have already been sending out feelers to the Great Army, inquiring as to the reward attendant upon a change of allegiance.
But first the leaders of the Great Army expedition, Halfdan and Bagsecg, had to show that they were serious – just how serious they were was demonstrated when they launched their attack in December 870. Winter was when men huddled by their fires; it was no time for war. But with the Wessex fyrd – the levy of free men and royal retainers that made up the kingdom’s army – having returned to their fields, winter allowed the Great Army complete freedom of action.
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