Paper short abstract:

I explore the phenomenon of rulers’ lists in the context of 9th-century, pre-Christian Scandinavia, focusing on the poem Ynglingatal. I propose that such enumerations of (claimed) ruler successions were technologies of remembrance, linking rulers and their communities to a sacred, primordial past.

Paper long abstract:

The Old Norse skaldic poem Ynglingatal (Enumeration of the Ynglingar) has puzzled scholars for more than a century. This poem, attributed to the skald Þjóðólfr ór Hvini and convincingly dated to the late 9th century, lists a succession of twenty-nine rulers, beginning in the distant mythic past with rulers in the Mälaren region (Sweden) and ending in the skald’s present with Rǫgnvaldr, a ruler in Vestfold (Norway) in whose honour the poem was composed.

Drawing on cultural memory theory and on comparative material concerning the phenomenon of ‘rulers’ lists’ (e.g. in ancient Egyptian and Assyrian cultures), I investigate what function the enumeration of an (actual or claimed) succession of rulers might have had when performed at a ruler’s court in late-9th century Scandinavia. I begin with a brief discussion of the poem’s dating and transmission history. Then, I outline some previous interpretations, which have focussed on the extraordinary deaths, suffered by many of the enumerated rulers. Departing from these, I argue that the poem, in fact, shows little interest in the fate of the individual rulers. Above all, it is concerned with listing: when one ruler dies, a new one follows. With reference to the phenomenon of king’s lists, I propose that this list of rulers is an expression of ‘cold memory’, i.e. an attempt to ‘freeze’ historical change and convey an impression of the stability and durability of rulership – and by extension of the entire community – across generations. As such, the rulers’ list seems to function as a technology of cultural remembrance, linking the succession of rulers and their community to its sacred beginnings in a primordial past.