Eystein Simensson 1270 Family

his father: Simen Eysteinson Forset (b. abt 1205 to 1265)
his mother: unknown

Child
Ronnaug Eysteinsdatter Jorstad	b.1310 Jørstad/Jørekstad, Fåberg, Oppland, Nor.	d. abt 1380 Holen, Gausdal, Oppland, Nor.	m. Bottolov Bjornsen of Kråbøl (b. 1310 - d. 1360)
Gudrid Alme Eysteinsdatter Jørstad	b. 1275-1335
Rønnaug Bjorsen Holen (?daughter)	b. 1275- 1335
Margrete Eysteinsdatter	b. abt 1280	d. 1350 Alm, Brøttum, Hedmark, Norway

I'm still trying to lay out the correct ancestors. We do have generations of names alternating between Bottolvsson and Gulbrandsen. Since most married children named their children after their ancestors there are multiple similar names. This makes identifying the correct parents next to impossible. The name Eystein has a long historical lineage but like the former it becomes difficult to follow the family line.

Some of the names here may eventually lead back to the royal lines of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. There is a history that was documented by Snorri Sturluson from the end of the 12th c of the Middle Ages that lays out many of the royal families. Some, however, may be fictional so research still needs to be done to document these connections. An excellent site for information on these early families is the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. They attempt to segregate the fiction from fact. I have, so far, been unable to factually connect the some of the family names on this page with earlier royal families although I do believe there to be a connection. For instance, Eystein (abt 870), is cited in the Ynglinga Saga as the father of "Halfdan"(abt 872). Snorri recorded that Svanhild, the third wife of Harald, son of Halfdan, was the daughter of Eystein "Glumra" Jarls of the Uplander in Kristian and Hedemarken. Geographically this makes some sense with the present listed delineation. Both of these scenarios are listed as at least partially doubtful by the Medieval Foundation. [Foundation for Medieval Genealogy- Norway, Kings 2014]

Wikisource shows a translation of Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson's (1179 – 23 September 1241) Heimskringla (Norweigian is Ynglinga) saga written about 1225. This saga may be more myth than reality but there are few records of this era. This English transcription produced by Douglas B. Killings, and David Widger of the Heimskringla is on the Project Gutenberg web site. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/598/598-h/598-h.htm#link2H_PREF

Halfdan the Black Saga

1. Halfdan Fights with Gandalf and Sigtryg.

Halfdan was a year old when his father was killed, and his mother Asa set off immediately with him westwards to Agder, and set herself there in the kingdom which her father Harald had possessed. Halfdan grew up there, and soon became stout and strong; and, by reason of his black hair, was called Halfdan the Black. When he was eighteen years old he took his kingdom in Agder, and went immediately to Vestfold, where he divided that kingdom, as before related, with his brother Olaf. The same autumn he went with an army to Vingulmark against King Gandalf. They had many battles, and sometimes one, sometimes the other gained the victory; but at last they agreed that Halfdan should have half of Vingulmark, as his father Gudrod had had it before. Then King Halfdan proceeded to Raumarike, and subdued it. King Sigtryg, son of King Eystein, who then had his residence in Hedemark, and who had subdued Raumarike before, having heard of this, came out with his army against King Halfdan, and there was great battle, in which King Halfdan was victorious; and just as King Sigtryg and his troops were turning about to fly, an arrow struck him under the left arm, and he fell dead. Halfdan then laid the whole of Raumarike under his power. King Eystein's second son, King Sigtryg's brother, was also called Eystein, and was then king in Hedemark. As soon as Halfdan had returned to Vestfold, King Eystein went out with his army to Raumarike, and laid the whole country in subjection to him.

2. Battle between Halfdan and Eystein.

When King Halfdan heard of these disturbances in Raumarike, he again gathered his army together; and went out against King Eystein. A battle took place between them, and Halfdan gained the victory, and Eystein fled up to Hedemark, pursued by Halfdan. Another battle took place, in which Halfdan was again victorious; and Eystein fled northwards, up into the Dales to the herse Gudbrand. There he was strengthened with new people, and in winter he went towards Hedemark, and met Halfdan the Black upon a large island which lies in the Mjosen lake. There a great battle was fought, and many people on both sides were slain, but Halfdan won the victory. There fell Guthorm, the son of the herse Gudbrand, who was one of the finest men in the Uplands. Then Eystein fled north up the valley, and sent his relation Halvard Skalk to King Halfdan to beg for peace. On consideration of their relationship, King Halfdan gave King Eystein half of Hedemark, which he and his relations had held before; but kept to himself Thoten, and the district called Land. He likewise appropriated to himself Hadeland, and thus became a mighty king.

3. Halfdan's Marriage

Halfdan the Black got a wife called Ragnhild, a daughter of Harald Gulskeg (Goldbeard), who was a king in Sogn. They had a son, to whom Harald gave his own name; and the boy was brought up in Sogn, by his mother's father, King Harald. Now when this Harald had lived out his days nearly, and was become weak, having no son, he gave his dominions to his daughter's son Harald, and gave him his title of king; and he died soon after. The same winter his daughter Ragnhild died; and the following spring the young Harald fell sick and died at ten years of age. As soon as Halfdan the Black heard of his son's death, he took the road northwards to Sogn with a great force, and was well received. He claimed the heritage and dominion after his son; and no opposition being made, he took the whole kingdom. Earl Atle Mjove (the Slender), who was a friend of King Halfdan, came to him from Gaular; and the king set him over the Sogn district, to judge in the country according to the country's laws, and collect scat upon the king's account. Thereafter King Halfdan proceeded to his kingdom in the Uplands.

13. Of EYSTEIN The Bad.

Eystein, a king of the Uplands, whom some called the Great, and some the Bad, once upon a time made war in Throndhjem, and subdued Eyna district and Sparbyggia district, and set his own son, Onund, over them; but the Throndhjem people killed him. Then King Eystein made another inroad into Throndhjem, and ravaged the land far and wide, and subdued it. He then offered the people either his slave, who was called Thorer Faxe, or his dog, whose name was Saur, to be their king. They preferred the dog, as they thought they would sooner get rid of him. Now the dog was, by witchcraft, gifted with three men's wisdom; and when he barked, he spoke one word and barked two. A collar and chain of gold and silver were made for him, and his courtiers carried him on their shoulders when the weather or ways were foul. A throne was erected for him, and he sat upon a high place, as kings are used to sit. He dwelt on Eyin Idre (Idre Isle), and had his mansion in a place now called Saurshaug. It is told that the occasion of his death was that the wolves one day broke into his fold, and his courtiers stirred him up to defend his cattle; but when he ran down from his mound, and attacked the wolves, they tore him into pieces. Many other extraordinary things were done by this King Eystein against the Throndhjem people, and in consequence of this persecution and trouble, many chiefs and people fled and left their udal properties.

There is another history that gives King Eystein more value as a king. He apparently does oversee the kingdom while a fellow king and brother, Sigurd the Crusader, goes on a pilgrimage to the middle east. Eystein makes many improvements to the lives of the people in his absence. Thus his names as "Eystein the Good" has some truth at least in the Icelandic writings of THEODORICUS MONACHUS, AN ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE NORWEGIAN KINGS, written before 1193. translated by DAVID AND IAN MCDOUGALL linked in wikipedia.

Magnús left three sons—Eysteinn, Sigurðr and Óláfr. 310
On his way to Ireland, he had brought Sigurðr with him 311
to the Orkneys. After his father died he returned to Nor-
way and was elevated to the throne along with his broth-
ers. Óláfr, cut off by a premature death, was removed from
the light of this world in the third year after the death of
his father.312 And all Norway mourned him, because he had
been well liked by all on account of his gracious manners
and agreeable speech. After his death, his two brothers divided
the kingdom between them. After he had ruled the king-
dom for twenty years, however, Eysteinn departed from
human affairs; 313 and his brother Sigurðr alone ruled all
Norway for seven years.
Eysteinn was a paragon of honesty who governed him-
self no less than his subjects with moderation and wisdom.
He was a king who loved peace, an assiduous manager of
public affairs, and above all a fosterer of the Christian religion.
For this reason he built a monastery in honour of Saint
Michael the Archangel beside the city of Bergen, as one
can still see to this day.314 In fact, he built buildings which
were of great benefit to the kingdom in very many places—
for example, the palace at Bergen, which was a beautiful
piece of craftsmanship, though made of wood, and which
has now almost collapsed from excessive age. He also built
the port at Agðanes, to the great benefit of sailors;315 and
in this he imitated Augustus Caesar,316 who built the port15
[Monochus chap.32- 12-33]

My record here leaves about a 200 years gap in the family history and where the Royal Histories end. Naming patterns in the Scandinavian countries have proved to be pretty consistent such as knowing that Ronnaug Eysteinsdatter is definitely Eystein of some thing Torsteinsdatter is obviously the daughter of some Thorstein. Records for family lines in this distant time were primarily recorded for the wealthy or royal families in the church records although independent historians have also been useful. Interestingly, King Christian III, tried to break the marriage line of the royal families during the Reformation (beginning about 1537) by having the imported Danish farm administrators marry landless or non-royal women.

From the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: King Magnus III had [two] illegitimate children by Mistress (1):

The other problem that we have here is trying to say that Norway had only Norwegian Kings. We need to think of regions not nations. The problem is also outlined in the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. These people were very mobile. They fought, settled and were pushed off the land by weather, war, and plagues. My own DNA as I1-m253 seems to verify that my ancestors were some of the first people to the region of central Norway. They stayed in the region as verified by historical record for at least seven hundred years and sometimes on the same farm for over two hundred years. My DNA is also the same verified strain as the Swedish royal family rather than the single ancestor of the Norwegian royal line at this time.

Even though we have very little information on the family there were events in the early history of the area that caused havoc for the locals.

"The Little Ice Age adversely affected Norwegian agriculture and fishery; many farms, entire villages were abandoned; famine (Great Famine 1315-1317), and the plague (1347-1348) drastically reduced the population, Norway suffering higher population losses than any other country in Europe on that occasion. Norwegian shipping similarily declined."
[World History of Norway, http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/scandinavia/xnorway.html]

"Two consecutive severe crop failures were more than what most agricultural communities could sustain. Not to mention that the harvest of 1316 was worse than that of 1315; in fact, crop yields in 1316 were the worst in several centuries. Data from the Winchester and Westminster manors show that wheat yields were 64.1 percent, 55.9 percent, and 87.5 percent, and that barley yields were 86.9 percent, 69.7 percent, and 80.2 percent of the average during the 150 year period from 1217 to 1410. Crop yields were lowest on 1316 during the period given above (24). England, specifically, never saw a similar subsistence catastrophe in cereals during the whole of the Middle Ages (25).
Livestock had increasingly become headaches for farmers. The damp weather disabled the appropriate harvest of hay and thus the livestock were left outside to forage during the winter to find the food on themselves. These animals which were already malnutritioned, staggered in the cold weather and many died in the cold. Sheep were especially severely hit by the cold (26). Epidemics were also constantly problems. Initially, cattle had been affected by rinderpest, and later on sheep would be affected by a parasitic worm called the liver fluke (27). Due to these reasons, flocks of Bolton Priory in northern England reported 913 out of 3000 animals left after the winter of 1316/1317 (28) was over and similar situations were reported throughout northern Europe. Some chroniclers called this phenomenon the "Great Dying of Beasts." [Kim. Early Years of the Little Ice Age in Northern Europe 1300-1500]

        Foundation for Medieval Genealogy.      http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/NORWAY.htm
        Gausdalssleckt (web site for the Gausdal parish, Oppland, Nor. in Norwegian) http://gausdalsslekt.net
        Geni.com - records of Ben. Nordby, Oslo, Norway 2014 and records of Joseph Frederick Strausman May 2020.
        Kim, Shin. Early Years of the Little Ice Age in Northern Europe. Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, International Program. 2007.
        LDS, International Genealogical Records, 1999-   familysearch.org
        Nor. Nat. Archives/Arkivverket Digitalarkivet - http://digitalarkivet.uib.no
      Oluf Rygh: Norwegian Farm Names - http://www.dokpro.uio.no/rygh_ng/rygh_form.html
        Oppland records on GENI.com managed by Ingar Benjamin Nordby 2015
        Østby- og Vassvik-slekt records in Norwegian. Slekt.ostby.priv.no
        Sturlusson, Snorri. Heimskringla / (Ynglinga in Nor.), written 1225. a national document in the Icelandic Archives which is translated into English by Douglas B. Killings, and David Widger is on the Project Gutenberg web site. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/598/598-h/598-h.htm#link2H_PREF
        Monochus, Therodorus. AN ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE NORWEGIAN KINGS, written before 1193. translated by DAVID AND IAN MCDOUGALL, Viking Society for Northern Research, University College, University College, London.1998 -
        World History of Norway, http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/scandinavia/xnorway.html