Old NorseYngvi[ˈyŋɡwe],Old High GermanIng/Ingwi[1] andOld EnglishIng are names that relate to atheonym which appears to have been the oldername for the god Freyr.Proto-GermanicIngwaz was the legendary ancestor of theIngaevones, or more accuratelyIngvaeones, and is also the reconstructed name of theElder Futharkrune ᛜ andAnglo-Saxon rune ᛝ, representingŋ.
Old NorseYngvi as well as Old High GermanInguin and Old EnglishIngƿine are all derived from theProto-Germanic *Ingwaz. Sound changes in late-Proto-Germanic transformed *Ingwaz into *Ingwi(z) in thenominative case and *Ingwin in theaccusative case. His epithet *Fraujaz appears in Old Norse compoundsIngvifreyr andIngunarfreyr. In Beowulf we see Hrothgar called (OE)fréa inguina, which means 'Lord of the Inguins', i.e. lord of the Ingvaeones, the 'friends of Ing'. This strongly indicates that the two deities, Ing andFreyr are indeed the same. However, it is also possible that Ing and Freyr were separate people because they had different fathers. Ing's father wasMannus. Freyr's father wasNjörðr. The Ingvaeones, who occupied a territory roughly equivalent to modernDenmark,Frisia,Northern Germany, and theLow Countries at the turn of the millennium, were mentioned byPliny the Elder in hisNatural Histories as one of "five Germanic tribes".Tacitus asserts their descent from the three sons ofMannus or *Mannaz cognate withManus in Hinduism, the 'first man', of whom *Ingwaz may have been one. Other names that retain thetheonym areInguiomerus orIngemar andYngling, the name of an old Scandinavian dynasty.[2]
| Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Ingwaz | Ing | |||
| Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc | ||
   | ||||
| Unicode |
| |||
| Transliteration | ŋ | |||
| Transcription | ŋ | |||
| IPA | [ŋ] | |||
| Position in rune-row | 22 | |||
Theŋ rune (with variants and) together withPeorð andEihwaz is among the problematic cases of runes of uncertain derivation unattested in early inscriptions. The rune may have been an original innovation, or it may have been adapted from theclassical Latin alphabet'sQ.[3] The rune first appears independently on thefuthark row of theKylver Stone, and is altogether unattested as an independent rune outside of such rows. There are a number of attestations of thei͡ŋbind rune
or
(the "lantern rune", similar in shape to the Anglo-Saxongēr runeᛄ), but its identification is disputed in most cases, since the same sign may also be acipher rune ofwynn orthurisaz. The earliest case of such ani͡ŋ bindrune of reasonably certain reading is the inscriptionmari͡ŋs (perhaps referring to the "Mærings" orOstrogoths[citation needed]) on the silver buckle of Szabadbattyán, dated to the first half 5th century and conserved at theHungarian National Museum in Budapest.[4]
TheOld English rune poem contains these obscure lines:
ᛝIng ƿæs ærest mid Eástdenum | "ᛝ Ing was first amidst theEast Danes |
Atorc, the so-called "Ring of Pietroassa", part of a late third to fourth centuryGothichoard discovered inRomania, is inscribed in much-damaged runes, one reading of which isgutanī [i(ng)]wi[n] hailag "to Ingwi[n] of the Goths holy".[5]
InNorse mythology, Yngvi, alternatively spelled Yngve, was the progenitor of theYngling lineage, a legendary dynasty ofSwedish kings, from whom also the earliest historicalNorwegian kings claimed to be descended. Yngvi is aname of the god Freyr, perhapsFreyr's true name, asfreyr means 'lord' and has probably evolved from a common invocation of the god.
In theÍslendingabók (written in the early twelfth century by the Icelandic priestAri Þorgilsson)Yngvi Tyrkja konungr 'Yngvi king ofTurkey' appears as the father ofNjörðr who in turn is the father of Yngvi-Freyr, ancestor of the Ynglings. According to theSkjöldunga saga (a lost epic from 1180 to 1200, saved only partially in other sagas and later translation)Odin came from Asia and conquered Northern Europe. He gave Sweden to his son Yngvi and Denmark to his sonSkjöldr. Since then the kings of Sweden were called Ynglings and those of DenmarkSkjöldungs.
In theGesta Danorum (late twelfth century, bySaxo Grammaticus) and in theYnglinga saga (ca. 1225, bySnorri Sturluson), Freyr is euhemerized as a king of Sweden. In theYnglinga saga, Yngvi-Freyr reigned in succession to his fatherNjörðr who had – in this variant – succeeded Odin. In theHistoria Norwegiæ (written around 1211), in contrast, Ingui is the first king of Sweden, and the father of a certainNeorth, in his turn the father ofFroyr: "Rex itaque Ingui, quem primum Swethiæ monarchiam rexisse plurimi astruunt, genuit Neorth, qui vero genuit Froy; hos ambos tota illorum posteritas per longa sæcula ut deos venerati sunt. Froyr vero genuit Fiolni, qui in dolio medonis dimersus est […]"
In the introduction to hisEdda (originally composed around 1220) Snorri Sturluson claimed again that Odin reigned in Sweden and relates: "Odin had with him one of his sons called Yngvi, who was king in Sweden after him; and those houses come from him that are named Ynglings." Snorri here does not identify Yngvi and Freyr, although Freyr occasionally appears elsewhere as ason of Odin instead of a son of Njörðr.
In theSkáldskaparmál section of hisProse Edda Snorri brings in the ancient kingHalfdan the Old who is the father of nine sons whose names are all words meaning "king" or "lord" inOld Norse, as well as of nine other sons who are the forefathers of various royal lineages, including "Yngvi, from whom the Ynglings are descended". But rather oddly Snorri immediately follows this with information on what should be four other personages who were not sons of Halfdan but who also fathered dynasties, and names the first of these again as "Yngvi, from whom the Ynglings are descended". In the related account in theÆttartolur "Genealogies" attached toHversu Noregr byggðist, the nameSkelfir appears instead ofYngvi in the list of Halfdan's sons.
TheYnglinga Saga section of Snorri'sHeimskringla (around 1230) introduces a second Yngvi, son ofAlrekr, who is a descendant of Yngvi-Freyr and who shared the Swedish kingship with his brother Álf (seeYngvi and Alf).
The elementIng(o)- was widely used inGermanic names from an early period; it is not clear whether it originally referred to theIngaevones, or to the god Yngwi directly.Inguiomer (Inguiomarus) was a relative of theCheruscianArminius in the first century.[6]Ingundis was a wife of the Frankish kingChlothar I, whose sonCharibert I married anIngoberga (all in the sixth century). Other combinations such as masculineInguin,Ingulf,Ingobald, feminineInghildis,Ingedrudis,Ingoflidis, as well as the short formsIngo (masculine) andInga (feminine) are recorded in the early medieval period (seventh to ninth centuries).[7] In Scandinavia and Germany, and areas where these groups settled, names beginning withIng survived into modern usage, e.g.Ingmar,Ingvar,Ingvild,Ingeborg,Ingrid,Ingegerd and the family name Ingalls. In mostSlavic nations there also exists a name ofIgor, of Scandinavian origin, supposedly having the same origin as many similar Scandinavian names, possibly coming from the nameIngvar.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).Yngvi | ||
| Preceded by | Mythological king of Sweden | Succeeded by |
Anglo-Saxon paganism and mythology | |
|---|---|
| Gods and divine figures | |
| Heroic figures | |
| Other beings | |
| Locations | |
| Sources | |
| Society and culture | |
| Modern pagan revival | |
