Visburr- Norse FigureMortal"King of Sweden"

Vanlandi's Heir

Vísburr's father Vanlandi married Drífa, daughter of the Finnish king Snær the Old, and swore to return to her within three winters. He never came back. Drífa hired the witch Huld to compel him home or kill him. Huld sent a mara that crept onto Vanlandi's chest as he slept at Uppsala and trampled the life out of him. His retainers woke to find their king dead, crushed by something they could not see. Vísburr, the son Vanlandi had left behind in Finland, crossed the sea and claimed his father's throne.

The Bride-Price

Vísburr married the daughter of Auði the Wealthy. She bore him two sons, Gisl and Öndur. He sent her away and kept the mundr, the bride-price her family had paid for the marriage. The mundr was owed back upon divorce. To keep it was to say the marriage had been worth nothing and the wife's family beneath acknowledgment. Vísburr took a second wife and fathered a son he named Domaldi. His first wife's family received nothing. Gisl and Öndur grew up with a disinherited mother and a father who had replaced them all.

The Burning

When the brothers were old enough to gather men, they rode to their father's hall and demanded what he owed. Vísburr refused. He would not pay. He would not leave. Gisl and Öndur barred the doors from outside and set the timbers alight.

The hall burned. The king burned with it.

Þjóðólfr of Hvinir preserved the death in Ynglingatal, his verse-catalogue of the Yngling kings' fates. The stanza names the fire, the sons, the consumed hall. Vísburr was the fourth Yngling king and already the second killed by his own household. His father Vanlandi had died under a spirit his wife sent. His son Domaldi would be cut down by his own starving people.