Ynglinga

Ynglinga commonly refers to the Ynglinga saga, the opening section of Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla, and to the legendary royal line it describes—the Yngling dynasty, the early kings of Sweden. The saga presents the kings as descended from Yngvi, a figure associated with the god Freyr in the mythic tradition, and traces their rule from the sacred center at Uppsala through a sequence of rulers whose deeds blend myth with history. It emphasizes divine favor, rites, and omens as legitimating aspects of kingship and frames the kings’ authority as rooted in sacred ancestry.

The Ynglinga saga was composed in the early 13th century by the Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson and was incorporated into Heimskringla, a larger history of the Norwegian kings. It draws on older oral and textual sources and presents a narrative that many readers interpret as mytho-historic, including genealogies that link Swedish rulers to Odin in some versions. The text thus situates the Yngling dynasty at the center of Nordic royal myth and memory.

Historically, scholars treat the saga as a mixture of legendary material and later historical retrojections, rather than a literal account of early Swedish governance. Its value lies in shaping medieval and modern conceptions of Nordic monarchy and in preserving a substantial body of mythic and genealogical material. As a literary and historical source, the Ynglinga saga remains a foundational text for Norse literature and the study of Sweden’s legendary early rulers.