Euphemia of Rügen

Euphemia of Rügen
Euphemia of Rügen
Queen Consort of Norway
Reign	1299–1319
Born	1270
Died	1319
Burial	St Mary's Church, Oslo
Spouse	Haakon V of Norway
Issue	Ingeborg of Norway
Father	Günther, Count of Arnstein
Mother	NN of Rügen

Euphemia Güntersdotter of Rügen (or Euphemia of Arnstein) (1270 – May 1312) was the Queen consort of Norway as the spouse of Haakon V of Norway. She is famous in history as a literary person, and known for her translation of ballads.^[1]

Biography

Euphemia was born the daughter of Günther, Count of Arnstein, but she grew up at the court of her maternal grandfather Witzlaw II, Prince of Rügen (1240–1302). She married Haakon V of Norway in the spring of 1299. Haakon's brother, King Eric II, subsequently died in July 1299 at which time Haakon became king of Norway. The marriage between Euphemia and Haakon had probably been agreed on at a Danish-Norwegian settlement meeting in the autumn of 1298, where Prince Witzlaw participated as a mediator and guarantee. The couple resided at Akershus Castle in Oslo.

Queen Euphemia was well known for her cultural interests. She loved to read and owned a large collection of books, which was said to have been one of the largest collections in Europe at that time. Queen Euphemia represented the emerging knightly culture. Queen Euphemia, who was eager to cultivate continental culture within the Nordic courts, had translations made of three French and German 1100-century chivalric knight novels in verse and sent copies to the Swedish court. The three ballads were titled Herr Ivan lejonriddaren (1303), Hertig Fredrik av Normandie (1308) and Flores och Blanzeflor (1312). Each poem has a final statement that they were translated by initiative from Queen Euphemia. These became known as the Euphemia ballads (Eufemiavisene) and were popular in both Norway and Sweden.

Her only surviving child was Ingeborg of Norway. In 1312, Ingeborg married Duke Eric Magnusson of Sweden, who was a younger son of King Magnus III of Sweden and the brother of King Birger of Sweden. Their son Magnus Eriksson would succeed both Haakon as king of Norway and Birger as king of Sweden.^[2]

King Haakon and Queen Euphemia were buried in St. Mary's Church in Oslo. Remains of two people, deemed to be Haakon and Euphemia, were discovered during excavations of the ruins of that church and reinterred in the Royal Mausoleum in Akershus Castle.^[3]