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Rex Gulring nomine (Chronicon Thietmari 7.38)

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Malinowski G.

Orbis Linguarum

2019

issue 53

177-189

When in the seventh book of his Chronicle Thietmar presents the events of year 1016, in his description of events in England he reverts to the year 1014, when Æthelred the Unready II decided to destroy the earthly remains of Sweyn Forkbeard, buried in Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. However, the corpse of Sweyn was sent back to Denmark by his fiends and Thietmar constructs this expedition as a journey towards the far north. He presents the constellations of the northern sky and then turns to a description of the Scythians who inhabit northern land. After this description Thietmar unexpectedly turns to a brief account about one of the rulers of that country, named Gutring. However, we do not know of any Scandinavian king of that name in any kingdom. The reading Gutring, which is followed by all later editors and translators was proposed by Lappenberg in his 1839 critical edition of Thietmar’s works. But the analysis of the Dresden codex clearly indicates that the name was originally written as Gulring, which is an Old Norse name or sobriquet gullhringr, ‘gold ring’, ‘gold hoop’. The Gulring mentioned by Thietmar is in all likelihood Ring Dagsson Gabarin (964-post 1018), the King of Hedmark. The identity of the King Gulring described by Thietmar was already established in the 18th century, but because of the fact that in 1839 Lappenberg spoiled Thietmar’s text by changing the correct spelling of the Norse leader Gulring to Gutring, this identification was neglected and then forgotten by modern scholars.

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Rex Gulring nomine (Chronicon Thietmari 7.38)