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Dan (King)Dan is the name of one or more legendary kings of the Danes in medieval Scandinavian texts. The Leire Chonicle The Chronicle of Leire (Chronicon Lethrense) written about 1170 introduces a primeval King Ypper of Uppsala whose three sons were Dan who afterwards ruled Denmark, Nori who afterwards ruled Norway, and sten who afterwards ruled the Swedes. Dan apparently first ruled in Zealand for the Chronicle states that it was when Dan had saved his people from an attack by the Emperor Augustus that the Jutes and the men of Fyn and Scania also accepted him as king, whence the resultant expanded country of Denmark was named after him. Dan's wife was named Dana and his son was named Ro. The Rgsthula The Eddic poem Rgsthula, tells how the god Rg (said to be Heimdall), fathered a mortal son named Jarl 'noble' later known as Rg-Jarl. Rg-Jarl had eleven sons, the youngest of which bore the name Kon the Young (Old Norse Konr Ungr), this name understood to be the origin of the title konungr 'king', though the etymology is in fact untenable. One day, as he was hunting and snaring birds in the forest, a crow spoke to him and suggested he would gain more by going after men, and praised the wealth of "Dan and Danp". The poem breaks off incomplete at that point. The Skjldungasaga According to Arngrim Jonsson's Latin epitome of the lost Skjldungasaga made in 1597: Rg (Rigus) was a man not the least among the great ones of his time. He married the daughter of a certain Danp Norse Danpr, lord of Danpsted, whose name was Dana; and later, having won the royal title for his province, left as his heir his son by Dana, called Dan or Danum, all of whose subjects were called Danes. This tradition is close to that of the Rgsthula. This Dan married Olof the daughter of Wermund and so became brother-in-law to the Offa mentioned in the Old English poem Beowulf. Dan ruled first in Jutland but then conquered Zealand from King Aleif creating the kingdom of Denmark. The Ynglinga Saga Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga saga relates of King Dygvi of Sweden: Dygvi's mother was Drtt, a daughter of King Danp, the son of Rg, who was first called konungr 'king' in the Danish tongue href="/encyclopedia/Old-Norse" title="Old Norse">Old Norse). His descendants always afterwards considered the title of konungr the title of highest dignity. Dygvi was the first of his family to be called konungr, for his predecessors had been called drttinn 'chieftain', and their wives drttning, and their court drtt band'. Each of their race was called Yngvi, or Ynguni, and the whole race together Ynglingar. Queen Drtt was a sister of King Dan Mikillti, from whom Denmark took its name. Here Rg is father of Danp the father of Dan. The title Mikillti can be translated 'Magnificent' or 'Proud'. Snorri does not relate here whether this Dan is also descended from King Fridfrodi or Peace-Frdi whom Snorri presented as ruling in Zealand as a contemporary of Fjlnir son of Frey six generations before King Dygvi. Snorri writes further: In the time when the kings we have been speaking of were in Upsala, Denmark had been ruled over by Dan Mikillti, who lived to a very great age; then by his son, Frdi Mikillti, or the Peace-loving, who was succeeded by his sons Halfdan and Fridleif, who were great warriors. This peaceful Frdi seems a duplicate of the earlier Frdi. In his preface to the Heimskingla (which includes the Ymglinga Saga), Snorri writes: The Age of Cairns began properly in Denmark after Dan Mikillti had raised for himself a burial cairn, and ordered that he should be buried in it on his death, with his royal ornaments and armour, his horse and saddle-furniture, and other valuable goods; and many of his descendants followed his example. But the burning of the dead continued, long after that time, to be the custom of the Swedes and Northmen. Sven Aggesen The 12th century historian Sven Aggesen mentions Danu Elatus 'the Proud' presumably, Dan Mikillti, and makes him the successor to Uffi, that is to Offa son of Wermund, so agreeing with the Skjldungasaga. He said that this Dan was so powerful a king that he had another king as his page and two nobles to hold his horse. The Gesta Danorum Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum presents three different Danish monarchs named Dan, either splitting up a single monarch into many or properly keeping separate what others have confused. Saxo begins his history with two brothers named Dan and Angul, sons of one Humbli, who were made rulers by the consert of the people because of their bravery. They were not however called "kings", as that usage was not then common. Angul is the eponym of the region of Angul and from his people eventually came the English who gave their name to England. Dan fathered two sons, Humbli and Lother on his wife Grytha. Neither Humbli is otherwise known, though Humli is a leader of Huns in the Old Norse Battle of the Goths and Huns. Lother might have some relation to the Norse god Ldur or to the exiled king Heremod mentioned in Beowulf or to both. According to Saxo, Lother is father of the famous hero Skjld. The second king called Dan appears much later in Book 4, as the son of Uffi son of Vermund, (that is Offa son of Wermund). But Saxo passes over him in a few lines as a warlike king whose scorned his subjects and wasted his wealth, much degenerated from his ancestors. He is followed by King Huglek, then Frdi the Active, who is then followed by the third Dan, apparently this Dan being the son of Frdi the Active though Snorri does not specifically give the parentage of any of these kings. Of this Dan, Snorri relates only an anecdote that when Dan was twelve years old, tired of the arrogance of Saxon embassadors who demanded tribute on pain of war, bridged the river Elbe with ships, crossed over, and won a great victory. This Dan is father of Fridlef father of Frothi, in whom one recognizes Fridleif and his son Frdi mentioned often in Norse sources, the latter being, at least by parentage, the Peace-Frdi whom Snorri introduced in the early in the Ynglinga saga.
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