Konungens

Konungens is the genitive form associated with the Swedish noun kung, meaning “the king’s” or “of the king.” In modern Swedish the standard possessive is kungens, formed by adding the suffix -ens to the noun stem kung. Konungens is an older or historical variant and is primarily found in older texts, historical context, or certain proper names. Both kungens and konungens express possession and are placed before the noun they modify, as in kungens palats (the king’s palace) or kungens råd (the king’s council). The possessive suffix -s is written directly after the noun, without an apostrophe, which differs from the English convention.

In contemporary usage, kungens is overwhelmingly more common, while konungens survives mainly in historical orthography or stylistic choices that aim for an archaic tone. The form reflects a historical spelling of the noun kung, whose older form konung is related to Old Norse konungr. The distinction between the two forms illustrates shifts in Swedish spelling and standardization over time.

Related considerations include plural possessives, where kungarnas denotes “the kings’,” and a general pattern in Scandinavian languages where similar possessive suffixes attach to nouns (for example, kongens in Danish or kongens in Norwegian Bokmål). Konungens thus serves as a historical variant that helps readers recognize older texts and the evolution of Swedish orthography.