Ingjald

Ingjald illråde ("ill-ruler") was a more or less historical Swedish king of the House of Ynglings.

According to the sagas, he was the son of Anund and brought up by a man called Svipdag the blind. Svipdag gave him a wolf's heart, which caused Ingjald to become more cruel and evil than any other man.

He married Gauthild whose maternal grandfather was Olof the Sharp-sighted, the king of Nerike.

At the death of his father Anund, he invited seven neighbouring kings to a banquet. Among those kings were king Algaut of the Geats in Westrogothia and king Sporsnjall of Nerike, but king Granmar of Sudermannia did not arrive. At the banquet Ingjald swore in front of the drunk kings to increase the size of his kingdom in all directions.

Later at night he left his hall and set it on fire, killing all the six kings inside. Later he also deceitfully disposed of king Granmar and five other kings, and he thus earned the name Illråde (ill-ruler) as he fulfilled his promise.

Ingjald had two children, a son Olof Trätälja and a daughter Åsa. His daughter had inherited her father's psychopathic disposition. She married king Gudröd of Scania. Before she murdered her husband she managed to make him kill his own brother Halvdan, the father of the great Ivar Vidfamne.

In order to avenge his father, Ivar Vidfamne gathered a vast host and departed for Sweden, where he found Ingjald at Ränninge gåd, on the island of Fogdö in Lake Mälaren. When Ingjald and his daughter realized that it was futile to resist, they set the hall on fire and succumbed in the flames.

Ingjald has often been seen as the one who unified Sweden.

Preceded by: Anund

Semi-legendary king of Sweden

Succeeded by: Ivar Vidfamne