Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 11

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requested a meeting with Charlemagne; this was granted, and a group of
danish magnates attended at a location north of the elbe called Badenflot.26
After Godofridus’s death in 810, the next danish king to pursue these
contacts, Hemmingus, sent envoys bearing gifts to the emperor at Aachen
and concluded a peace treaty in 811.27 When Hemmingus himself died in
812, Herioldus and Reginfridus, claimants of kingship in denmark, sent
an embassy asking for peace and the release of their brother, a younger
Hemmingus;28 a meeting was held on the border between sixteen danish
magnates and the representatives of the empire, and Hemmingus was
handed over.29
Herioldus (also known as Harioldus and Heroldus in frankish sources
and as Haraldr klakk in the much later Icelandic sources) was to become
a key player whose diplomatic engagement took him repeatedly to the
Carolingian heartland. expelled from denmark by the sons of Godofridus
in 814, he sought refuge and protection with Louis the Pious.30 three years
later, facing persistent aggression from Herioldus, the sons of Godofridus
themselves sent an embassy to the emperor, asking for peace – unsuccess-
fully in the event.31 In 822 separate embassies from nordmannia, represent-
ing respectively Herioldus and two surviving sons of Godofridus, all three
of them now linked in an evidently fragile joint kingship,32 participated in
a highly cosmopolitan assembly at the imperial residence at frankfurt.33 In
the following year Herioldus came from ‘nordmannia’, asking for help
against the sons of Godofridus, who threatened to expel him once again.
the frankish counts theotharius and Hruodmundus were despatched to
the sons of Godofridus in order to investigate and inform the emperor.
they returned in company with archbishop ebbo of Rheims, who had
gone to denmark to preach at the emperor’s behest.34 In 825 Louis held a
26 Maund, ‘“A turmoil of Warring Princes”’, 34.
27 Carolingian Chronicles, 92–4.
28 Annales Regni Francorum, in Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgeschichte, ed. Reinhold Rau,
3 vols., Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters (darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1955), 1:100; cf. Carolingian Chronicles, 95.
29 Maund, ‘“A turmoil of Warring Princes”’, 36.
30 Annales Regni Francorum, 106; Carolingian Chronicles, 99.
31 Annales Regni Francorum, 110-12; Carolingian Chronicles, 102.
32 Maund, ‘“A turmoil of Warring Princes”’, 37.
33 Annales Regni Francorum, 130; Carolingian Chronicles, 112.
34 Annales Regni Francorum, 134–6; Carolingian Chronicles, 114.
sCHoLARs And skALds