Svitjod was one of the old names for Sweden, a name still used for the country by the Icelanders.
AGNE or Agni Skjafarbonde was a mythological king of Sweden, of the House of Yngling. Snorri Sturluson relates that he was the son of Dag the Wise, and he was mighty and famous. Dag the Wise or Dagr Spaka (2nd or 3rd century AD) was a mythological Swedish king of the House of Ynglings. The kings before the Ynglings were Gylfi and Odin.DAG was the son of Dyggve, the former king. Agne returned to Sweden and they arrived at Stocksund (Stockholm) where they put up their tent on the side of the river where it is flat. Agne had a torc which had belonged to Agne's great-great-great-grandfather VISBUR (who, interestingly, was the son of Skjalf's niece DrÃfa). Although, they were related, Agne married SKJALF who became pregnant with two sons, ERIK and ALRIK. DAG was so wise that he could understand the song of birds. He consequently had a tame sparrow which flew to various countries and returned to him with tidings like Hugin and Munin to the wise god ODIN. Once the sparrow happened to land on a corn field in a place called Varva in Reidgotaland (considering the date and location, apparently Gothiscandza). Dag was a mythological king of Sweden while Anund was was a semi-mythological king of Sweden. Anund it is believed, was accounted from a runic blót and first brings a Danish fleet to Birka, but then changes his mind and asks the Danes to "draw lots," telling them that attacking Birka would bring bad luck and that they should attack a Slavic town instead. Later runic finds are mainly monuments (rune stones) and often contain solemn inscriptions about people who died or performed great deeds. For a long time it was assumed that this kind of grand inscription was the primary use of runes, and that their use was associated with a certain societal class of rune-carvers.
DAG was succeeded by another mythological king- AGNE, who preceded ERIK and ALRIK. Agne's mound was one of the monuments of the House of Yngling as the saga is part of the Heimskringla. If there ever were genuinely Gothic runes, they were soon replaced by the Gothic alphabet. The letters of the Gothic alphabet, however, as given by the Alcuin manuscript (9th century), are related to the names of the Futhark. Runic was a widespread and common writing system.
A great battle ensued which Agne won and many Finns were killed together with FROSTI. Agne then subdued all of Finland with his army, and captured not only great booty but also Frosti's daughter Skjalf and her kinsman LOGI (in the older Ynglingatal only her kinsman, but in Heimskringla he was her brother, which seems to be a mistake by Snorri Sturluson). When the sparrow did not return, Dag was angry and sacrificed to the gods in order to have an explanation. He was told about what had happened and declaired war on the Goths. He landed in Reidgotaland with a great army and pillaged the land causing people to flee.By the 3d cent. A.D., the Ostrogoths settled in the region north of the Black Sea. By c.375 the Huns conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom ruled by Ermanaric, which extended from the Dniester River, north and east to the headwaters of the Volga River. The ancestors of the Goths were the Gotar of south Sweden. One of a tribe of eastern Goths (Ostrogoths) that conquered and ruled Italy from A.D. 493 to 555. The Ostrogoths settled in Ukraine, while the Visigoths, or West Goths, moved further west of them. Both tribes shared many aspects especially recognizing a non-personified patron deity that the Romans named Mars.
The Gepids (Latin Gepidae) were a Germanic tribe most famous in history for defeating the Huns after the death of Attila. Their first named king, Fastida, stirred up his quiet people to enlarge their boundaries by war and overwhelmed the Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe. Almost annihilating them in the 4th century, then fruitlessly demanded of the Goths a portion of their territory, a demand which the Goths successfully repulsed in battle. Like the Goths, the Gepids were converted to Arian Christianity. Then in 375 they had to submit to the Huns along with their Ostrogoth overlords. After the victory they finally won a place to settle in the Carpathian Mountains. Gepidae, their king Ardaric, warriors of the Gepidae joined Attila the Hun's forces in the Battle of Chalons (the "Catalaunian fields") in Gaul (451). On the eve of the main encounter between allied hordes, the Gepidae and Franks met each other, the Franks fighting for the Romans and the Gepidae for the Huns, and seem to have fought one another to a standstill, with 15,000 dead reported by Jordanes, our main source who traced the Gepids to the province of Spesis- an area westmost of Scythia, from the southwest, the great Danube- the beginnings of Celtic civilization. It was also interpreted that all the Goths drew their descent from Gapt or Gaut where the founder of the kingdom of Geats or Goths remaining in Scandza other than Scandinavia is Odin.
The Mosogoths were a branch of the Goths who settled in Moesia, a region north of Thrace within the Roman Empire. Emperor Honorius decided that Alaric and his race, if they were able to do so, should be allowed to seize for their own home the provinces farthest away, namely, Gaul and Spain. For at this time he had almost lost them, and moreover they had been devastated by the invasion of Gaiseric, king of the Vandals. The Goths again returned to Liguria and hastened toward the city of Rome between Picenum and Tuscia, then departed upon Campania and Lucania when then came the Bruttii. The Bruttians lived during a Carthaginian period of Hannibal and settled Croton from Consentia.The Locrians too revolted to the Bruttians and Carthaginians, the populace having been betrayed by the nobles. The Rhegians were the only people in that quarter who continued to the last in faithful attachment to the Romans. The transactions in Italy, Africa, Sicily, and Spain during yeare 216 BC. The battle of Cannae was about the only alliance with Rome as it remained subdued by famine with no general from Carthage to Sicely. On his return from Campania into Bruttium, Hanno, with the assistance and under the guidance of the Bruttians, made an attempt upon the Greek cities; which were the more disposed to continue in alliance with the Romans, because they perceived that the Bruttians, whom they feared and hated, had taken part with the Carthaginians. The first place attempted was Rhegium, where several days were spent without effect. The general himself, having posted himself upon an eminence which commanded a view of the country and the city, ordered a cohort of Bruttians to approach the walls, call out the leaders of the Locrians to a conference, and promising them the friendship of Hannibal, exhort them to deliver up the city.
Thorsteins saga VÃkingssonar says that Anund was not the son of Ingvar, but the son of his grand-father Östen. It also relates that he had a brother named Olaf who was the king of Fjordane. The original text of Ynglingatal only says that Anund died und Himinfjöllum (under the sky mountains) and that stones were implied. His brother Sigvard in Himinherthy, a placename for the field of the sky is such a placename unknown.
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