One of the old Norwegian kings was King Sverre who died in 1202.
Like many of the other kings at that time and earlier, his life story was told in a saga.
I just obtained a book printed in 1914 in Oslo, then Kristiania,
with King Sverre's saga.
It cost me 20 Norwegian crowns on a flea market the Historical Society in Rygge arranged this weekend.
20 crowns equals a little more than three US dollars. A bargain!
So what can you learn about this man from the internet, before studying his version and the version of his supporters in the book?
Now, you may even want to read an English translation of this book, and that is possible on
Why this interest in a man who lived so long ago?
Well, in theory, he is my direct ancestor, 26 generations back from myself.
He is probably also a direct ancestor of most other Norwegians,
because 26 generations ago the number of direct ancestors belonging to the 26th generation, in theory, is so big (13.5 million?), and the population in this country was so much smaller than that.
Perhaps between half a million to one million? I don't know.
In addition I estimate the king probably became the father of many children.
Then there are of course many reasons to doubt such a claim.
The basic one is that the only nearly certain thing about a newborn baby is you know who the mother is. The father was more a case of belief before DNA came along.
In any case, King Sverre is part of my Norwegian roots, at least culturally,
and now I will have the opportunity to read about him in his saga.
Towards the end of the saga, it says:
"King Sverri died on the Saturday in Ember week, and his body was laid out
with all honour, as was expected. His face was left uncovered, as he had
commanded. All who were present observed, and all afterwards bore one and the
same testimony, that they had never seen a fairer corpse than his. While he was
alive his complexion was very beautiful.
King Sverri was most polished in
manner. He was low of stature, stout and strong, broad of face and well
featured. His beard was usually trimmed, and his eyes were hazel in colour, set
deeply and handsomely. He was calm and thoughtful. He was most eloquent in
speech; his ideas were lofty, his articulation was distinct, and when he spoke,
the ring of his voice was so clear that though he did not appear to speak loud,
all understood him, even though they were far off. He was a seemly chief as he
sat in his high-seat grandly dressed; for though his legs were short he sat high
in the seat. He never drank strong drink to the injury of his reason, and always
ate but one meal a day. He was valiant and bold, very capable of enduring
fatigue and loss of sleep. "
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