Halsten Stenkilsson

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Halsten Stenkilsson (Old Icelandic: Hallstein^[1]) was king of Sweden after his father Stenkil's death (1066), and he ruled together with his brother Inge the Elder.^[2][3][4] The date of his death is not known.^[3]

Little is known of his time as king.^[3] In a scholia in the work of Adam of Bremen, he is reported to have been elected king after the death of two pretenders,^[3] but deposed after a short while.^[3][4] The information that he ruled together with his brother Inge comes from a papal letter from 1081, by Pope Gregory VII, where Halsten and his brother are named with the initials A and I, and where they are called kings of Västergötland^[3] (rege wisigothorum^[5]). His co-rulership with his brother Inge is also mentioned in the Hervarar saga^[2]. In the regnal list of the Westrogothic law, he is said to have been courteous and cheerful, and whenever a case was submitted to him, he judged fairly,^[3][4] and this was why Sweden mourned his death.^[3]He was the father of the co-rulers Philip and Inge the Younger.^[2][3][4]

The Hervarar saga, which is one of the few sources about the kings of this time, has the following to tell:

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b} Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, Guðni Jónsson's og Bjarni Vilhjálmsson's edition at «Norrøne Tekster og Kvad».
2. ^ ^{a b c d} The Saga of Hervör and Heithrek, in Stories and Ballads of the Far Past, translated from the Norse (Icelandic and Faroese), by N. Kershaw.Cambridge at the University Press, 1921.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} The article Halsten in Nordisk familjebok (1909).
4. ^ ^{a b c d} “Halsten”, Nationalencyklopedin, <http://databas.bib.vxu.se:2057/jsp/search/article.jsp?i_art_id=197854> 
5. ^ Kaliff, A. (2001) Gothic Connections, Contacts between eastern Scandinavia and the southern Baltic coast 1000BC-500AD. Occasional Papers in Archaeology 26. Uppsala. p. 16.