Ozur Toti

Ozur Toti was a 9th-century Norwegian hersir who lived in Halogaland. In the Heimskringla and Egil's Saga, he is identified as the father of Gunnhild Mother of Kings, the wife and queen of Erik Bloodaxe, though elsewhere she is identified as a daughter of Gorm the Old.^[1]

Heimskringla and Egil's Saga both assert that Gunnhild was Ozur's daughter.^[2] Accounts of her early life vary between sources. Egil's Saga relates that "Eirik fought a great battle on the Northern Dvina in Bjarmaland, and was victorious as the poems about him record. On the same expedition he obtained Gunnhild, the daughter of Ozur Toti, and brought her home with him."^[3]

Egil's Saga names two sons of Ozur, Eyvind the Shabby and Alf Askman, and relates that they became hirdmen of Erik's.^[4]

Notes

^ According to the 12th century Historia Norvegiae, Gunnhild was the daughter of Gorm the Old, king of Denmark, and Erik and Gunnhild met at a feast given by Gorm. Modern scholars have largely accepted this version as accurate. E.g., Bradbury 38; Orfield 129; Ashley 444; Alen 88; Driscoll 88, note 15. In their view, her marriage with Erik was a dynastic union between two houses, that of the Norwegian Ynglings and that of the early Danish monarchy (who may have claimed descent from Ragnar Lodbrok), in the process of unifying and consolidating their respective countries. Jones 94–95. The purported descent of Gorm from King Ragnar through his son Sigurd Snake-eye comes from, inter alia, Ragnarssona þáttr §§ 3-4; but many modern scholars regard the tales of Ragnar and his family as confused and unreliable. See, e.g., Jones 204-211; Forte 69. Gwyn Jones in particular supported the identification of Gunnhild as the daughter of Gorm, and regarded the stories of her origins in Halogaland and her tutelage by Finnish wizards as part of a general Icelandic hostility towards Gunnhild and Erik. Jones 121–22. Gwyn Jones regarded many of the traditions that grew up around Gunnhild in the Icelandic sources as fictional. Ibid. However, both Theodoricus monachus and the Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum report that when Gunnhild was at the court of Harald Bluetooth after Erik's death, the Danish king offered marriage to her; these accounts call into question the identification of Gunnhild as Harald's sister. Theodoricus ___; Driscoll ___.
^ E.g., "Harald Fairhair's Saga" § 34.
^ Egil's Saga § 37.
^ Egil's Saga. § 49 (Palsson 113).

References

Alen, Rupert and Anna Marie Dahlquist. Royal Families of Medieval Scandinavia, Flanders, and Kiev. Kings River Publications, 1997.
Anderson, Poul. "Aftermath" (Historical note). Mother of Kings. Tor Books, 2003.
Ashley, Michael. The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1998.
Bradbury, Jim. The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. Routledge, 2002.
Chantepie de la Saussaye, Pierre Daniël. The Religion of the Teutons. Bert J. Voss, trans. New York: Ginn & Co., 1902.
Driscoll, M. J., ed. Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum. Viking Society for Northern Research, 1995. ISBN 0-903521-27-X
Finlay, Alison, ed./trans. Fagrskinna, a Catalogue of the Kings of Norway. Brill Academic Publishers, 2004. ISBN 90-04-13172-8
Forte, Angelo & Oram, Richard & Pedersen, Frederik. (2005). Viking Empires. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-82992-2
Fox, Denton. "Njals Saga and the Western Literary Tradition." Comparative Literature, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn, 1963), p. 289–310.
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. 2nd ed. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1984.
Magnusson, Magnus, and Hermann Palsson, trans. Njal's Saga. Penguin Classics, 1960.
Ordower, Henry. "Exploring the Literary Function of Law and Litigation in 'Njal's Saga.'" Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring – Summer 1991), pp. 41–61.
Orfield, Lester B. The Growth of Scandinavian Law. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2002.
Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway Lee Hollander, trans. Univ. of Texas Press, 1991.
Theodoricus monachus (David and Ian McDougall, trans.; introduction by Peter Foote). The Ancient History of the Norwegian Kings. Viking Society for Northern Research, 1998. ISBN 0-903521-40-7
Thorsson, Örnólfur, et al., eds. "Egil's Saga". Bernard Scudder, trans. The Sagas of the Icelanders: a selection. Penguin Classics, 2000.
Tunstall, Peter, trans. The Tale of Ragnar's Sons. Northvegr, 2004.

[1] According to the 12th century Historia Norvegiae, Gunnhild was the daughter of Gorm the Old, king of Denmark, and Erik and Gunnhild met at a feast given by Gorm. Modern scholars have largely accepted this version as accurate. E.g., Bradbury 38; Orfield 129; Ashley 444; Alen 88; Driscoll 88, note 15. In their view, her marriage with Erik was a dynastic union between two houses, that of the Norwegian Ynglings and that of the early Danish monarchy (who may have claimed descent from Ragnar Lodbrok), in the process of unifying and consolidating their respective countries. Jones 94–95. The purported descent of Gorm from King Ragnar through his son Sigurd Snake-eye comes from, inter alia, Ragnarssona þáttr §§ 3-4; but many modern scholars regard the tales of Ragnar and his family as confused and unreliable. See, e.g., Jones 204-211; Forte 69. Gwyn Jones in particular supported the identification of Gunnhild as the daughter of Gorm, and regarded the stories of her origins in Halogaland and her tutelage by Finnish wizards as part of a general Icelandic hostility towards Gunnhild and Erik. Jones 121–22. Gwyn Jones regarded many of the traditions that grew up around Gunnhild in the Icelandic sources as fictional. Ibid. However, both Theodoricus monachus and the Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum report that when Gunnhild was at the court of Harald Bluetooth after Erik's death, the Danish king offered marriage to her; these accounts call into question the identification of Gunnhild as Harald's sister. Theodoricus ___; Driscoll ___.

[2] E.g., "Harald Fairhair's Saga" § 34.

[3] Egil's Saga § 37.

[4] Egil's Saga. § 49 (Palsson 113).

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