Anglo-Norse monarchs

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 27. Chapters: Monarchs of Jorvik, Norse monarchs of East Anglia, Cnut the Great, Sweyn Forkbeard, Harthacnut, Harold Harefoot, Eric Bloodaxe, Amlaíb mac Gofraid, Amlaíb Cuarán, Guthrum, Ivar the Boneless, Ragnall ua Ímair, Gofraid ua Ímair, Svein, King of Norway, Guthred, Guthrum II, Æthelwold of Wessex, Sihtric Cáech, Eohric of East Anglia, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Eowils and Halfdan. Excerpt: Eric Haraldsson (Erik, anglicised form of Old Norse: ; died 954), nicknamed 'Bloodaxe' (blóðøx), was a 10th-century Scandinavian ruler. He is thought to have had short-lived terms as the second king of Norway and possibly as the last independent ruler of the kingdom of Northumbria (c. 947/8-948 and 952-5). Distinct from the king of Norway of the Norse sagas, a member of the Fairhair dynasty, the historical Eric of Northumbria has recently been argued to have actually belonged to the Uí Ímair (House of Ivar), a distinct dynasty long established in the British Isles by the time of his rule. The little historical data which is available has been used by historians to reconstruct a narrative of his life and career. There is a distinction between contemporary or near contemporary sources for Eric's period as ruler of Northumbria, and the entirely saga-based sources that detail the life of Erik of Norway, a chieftain who ruled the Norwegian Westland in the 930s. Norse sources have identified the two as the same since the late 12th century, and while the subject was controversial among early modern historians, most historians have identified the two figures as the same since W. G. Collingwood's article in 1901. This identification has been rejected recently by the historian Claire Downham, who argued that later Norse writers synthesized the two Erics, possibly using English sources. This argument, though respected by other historians in the area, has not produced consensus. Contemporary or near-contemporary sources include different recensions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Erik's coinage, the Life of St Cathróe and possibly skaldic poetry. Such sources reproduce only a hazy image of Eric's activities in Anglo-Saxon England. Strikingly, Erik's historical obscurity stands in sharp contrast to the wealth of legendary depictions in the kings' sagas, where he takes part in the sagas of his father Harald Fairhair and his younger brother Haakon the Good. These include the late 12