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- Erik V Refilsson was a semi-legendary king of Sweden of the House of Muns?, who would have lived in the early 9th century. One of the few surviving Scandinavian sources that deal with Swedish kings from this time is Hervarar saga. It says: "Then Eric the son of Refil succeeded to the Kingdom. He was a great warrior and a very powerful King. The sons of Eric Bj?rnsson were ?nund of Upsala and King Bj?rn. Then the Swedish Realm again came to be divided between brothers. Apparently, he was such a successful king that Rimbert relates that at Ansgar's second visit in Birka it was suggested among the people that Erik (Erik who preceded Bj?rn) was to be elevated to god instead of the new god. Sk?ldatal mentions that he had a court skald named ?lfr jarl inn litli.
His son Bj?rn p? H?ga (Bj?rn at Haugi, Bj?rn at the Barrow, Bj?rn II or Bern) was according to Hervarar saga a Swedish king who ruled together in diarchy with his brother Anund Uppsale: "The sons of Bj?rn Ironside were Erik and Refil. The latter was a warrior-prince and sea-king. King Erik ruled the Swedish Realm after his father, and lived but a short time. Then Erik the son of Refil succeeded to the Kingdom. He was a great warrior and a very powerful King. The sons of Erik were ?nund of Upsala and King Bj?rn. Then the Swedish Realm again came to be divided between brothers. They succeeded to the Kingdom on the death of Erik Refilsson. King Bj?rn built a house called 'Barrow,' and he himself was called Bj?rn of the Barrow. Bragi the poet was with him. King ?nund had a son called Erik, and he succeeded to the throne at Upsala after his father. He was a mighty King. In his days Harold the Fair-haired made himself King of Norway. He was the first to unite the whole of that country under his sway.
This account dates king Bj?rn to the first half of the 9th century, as his nephew Erik Anundsson was the contemporary of Harald Fairhair. Landn?mab?k mentions a Swede named ??r?r knappr who was one of the first settlers in Iceland and whose father was called Bj?rn at Haugi. Moreover, Bj?rn and his court skald Bragi the Old are mentioned also in Sk?ldatal, where a second court skald also is mentioned, Erpr l?tandi.
A confirmation on the historicity of king Bj?rn at Haugi is found in Rimbert's (d. 888) Vita Ansgarii, where he talks of a king Bj?rn (rex Bern) and says on Ansgar's voyage in 827: "Tandem ad portum regni ipsorum, qui Byrca dicitur, pervenerunt, ubi benigne a rege, qui Bern vocabatur, suscepti sunt". This king Bj?rn is generally considered to be the same as Bj?rn at Haugi and this as early as Langebek who lived in the mid-18th century. Some scholars have called this Bern "king of Birca", but this has no foundation in Rimbert's writings, as Rimbert writes that Ansgar went ashore in Birca, which was in king Bj?rn's kingdom. During Ansgar's visits there was also a Swedish king Anund who had been exiled but returned with Danish help, and this Anoundus is the same as Bj?rn's brother ?nund, who is mentioned in Hervarar saga.
This database researched and compiled by Norman Lee Madsen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 21 July 2015.
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775 - 811 (~ 36 år)
