Ongentheow (; ; died c. 515) was the name of a semi-legendary Swedish king of the house of Scylfings, who appears in Old English sources.
He is generally identified with the Swedish king Egil Vendelcrow mentioned in Ynglingatal, Historia Norwegiae and in Ynglinga saga.Sune Lindqvist, the article Angantyr in Svenskt biografiskt lexikonThe article Beowulf in Åke Ohlmarks' Fornnordiskt lexikon (1994)Nerman 1925:99ffBo Gräslund simply calls Ongentheow "Egil in Beowulf" in his article Gamla Uppsala during the Migration Period in Myth, Might and Man (2000) The reason why they are thought to have been the same is that each has the same position in the line of Swedish kings and is described as the father of Ohthere and grandfather of Eadgils.The identification is due to the sequence of succession only and not based in name, Ongenþeow and Egil being unrelated etymologically.
The name Ongentheow contains as its second element þeōw "servant, slave". The first appears to be ongēan "against, opposite".The composition of the two elements has been interpreted as meaning "the opposite of a slave" i.e. "king" by N. J. Higham, An English Empire: Bede and the Early Anglo-Saxon Kings, Manchester University Press (1995), p. 239.
Old English sources
Beowulf
In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, Ongentheow is described as a fearsome warrior, and it took two Geatish warriors Eofor and Wulf Wonreding to take him down.
The epic tells that the Geats under their new king Hæþcyn captured the Swedish queen, but old king Ongenþeow saved her, at a hill fort called Hrefnesholt, although they lost her gold.Lines 2931–2936 Ongenþeow killed Hæþcyn,Lines 2483–2485, 2925–2931 and besieged the Geats at Hrefnesholt.Lines 2934–2942 The Geats were, however, rescued by Hygelac, Hæþcyn's brother,Lines 2434–2435 who arrived the next day with reinforcements.Lines 2942–2946 Having lost the battle, but rescued his queen, Ongenþeow and his warriors returned home.Lines 2947–2958
However, the war was not over. Hygelac, the new king of the Geats, attacked the Swedes.Lines 2959–2965. The Geatish warriors Eofor and Wulf fought together against the hoary king Ongenþeow.Lines 2965–2966. Wulf hit Ongentheow's head with his sword so that the old king bled over his hair, but the king hit back and wounded Wulf.Lines 2966–2977. Then, Eofor retaliated by cutting through the Swedish king's shield and through his helmet,Lines 2977–2982 giving Ongentheow a death-blow.Lines 2485–2490, 2977–2982 Eofor took the Swedish king's helmet, sword and mail and carried them to Hygelac.Lines 2987–2990 When they came home, Eofor and Wulf were richly rewarded,Lines 2992–2997 and Eofor was given Hygelac's daughter.Lines 2998–2999 Because of this battle, Hygelac is referred to as Ongentheow's slayer.Line 1969
Widsith
Ongentheow is also mentioned in passing by the earlier poem Widsith as the king of Sweden:
Egil
In Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók and in Historia Norwegiae, he was called Egil Vendelcrow (Vendilcraca/Vendilkráka, a name traditionally given to those living at the royal estate of Vendel in Sweden).Lagerqvist & Åberg in Öknamn och tillnamn på nordiska stormän och kungligheter p. 29 Snorri Sturluson, however, gave the name Vendelcrow to Egil's son Ottar (Ohthere). In these sources, Egil was the son of Aun the Old, and like him, not very warlike. After he had made the thrall Tunni (or Tonne) responsible for the treasury, Tunni rebelled against Egil. They fought eight battles after which Egil fled to Denmark, according to the Ynglinga saga (Ynglingatal does not mention where he fled and Historia Norwegiae does not mention any escape at all). Snorri wrote that Fróði, the Danish king, aided Egil in defeating Tunni, and made Egil a tributary to the Danish king.
Egil was killed by a bull during the sacrifices at Gamla Uppsala.
The Historia Norwegiæ presents a Latin summary of Ynglingatal, older than Snorri's quotation:
The even earlier source Íslendingabók also cites the line of descent in Ynglingatal and it also gives Egil as the successor of Aunn and the predecessor of Óttarr: xvi Aun inn gamli. xvii Egill Vendilkráka. xviii Óttarr.Guðni Jónsson's edition of Íslendingabók
Interpretation The argument for connection between Ongenþeow and Egil being the same figure are as follows. It is important, though, to note that this is an interpretation of the facts and not definite proof of a connection.
The two versions seem contradictory, but it has been shown that the two stories may very well describe the same event (Schück H. 1907, Nerman B. 1925), and that Ynglingatal was probably misinterpreted by Snorri due to a different dialectal meaning of the word farra. Ynglingatal says
If there is any authenticity behind the traditions, the origin of Ynglingatal was most probably a Swedish poem which has not survived (see also Sundquist 2004). In Old Swedish, farra did not mean "bull" but it meant "boar" (cf. English farrow meaning "young pig"). Moreover, in Old Norse Trjóna normally meant a pig's snout (modern Scandinavian tryne). Flæmingr meant "sword" (originally a Flemish sword imported by Vikings).
Moreover, the sword of the snout can hardly refer to the horns of a bull, but it is more natural to interpret it as the tusks of a boar. In English, the lines can be translated as but the giant beast coloured its tusk red on Egil.
In Old English, the name eofor meant "boar" and consequently Ynglingatal could very well relate of Eofor (the boar) killing Egil with kennings for boars. These kennings, sung originally by Swedes, were later misinterpreted by Norwegians and Icelanders as literal expressions due to the different dialectal meanings of farra.
Moreover, according to Schück, the name Tunni which has no meaning in Old Norse should in Proto-Norse have been *Tunþa and derived from *Tunþuz. Consequently, it would have been the same word as the Gothic Tunþus which meant "tooth". This would mean that the name of Egil's enemy, actually meant "tooth" and Tunni and the bull/boar would consequently have been the same enemy, i.e. Eofor.
Some scholars have suggested that the name Ongentheow is connected to the Danish king Ongendus (fl. c. 700) who appears in one sentence of Alcuin's life of Willibrord.C.bH. Talbot (1954), Translation of Alcuin's Life of Willibrord
Notes
Primary sources Ynglingatal Ynglinga saga (part of the Heimskringla) Historia Norwegiae Beowulf Widsith Íslendingabók
Secondary sources Nerman, B. Det svenska rikets uppkomst. Stockholm, 1925. Sundquist, O. "Freyr"s offspring. Rulers and religion in ancient Svea society". (2004)