Fornjot "The Ancient Giant", King of Kvenland {myth} - Hello!

Fornjot "The Ancient Giant", King of Kvenland {myth} is my grandson Joshua's 41st great grandfather.

Fornjot is my 44th Great Grandfather - we are going back a long way here. Whether mythical or not, I claim him as a Viking Patriarch :).

is my 44th great grandfather

The whole history written in different saga's about Kvenland, old Finland is really interesting, this mythical person is also ancestor to old kings in Norway, Scotland and Denmark, Viking mythology is really engaged also with Kvenland. After 1300 Sweden took Finland, and started to wash away their own ancient culture and history.

Well. He is my ancestor too ;)

https://www.geni.com/path/Saga-Rewell+is+related+to+Fornjot-The-Anc...

https://www.geni.com/path/John-Nathansen+is+related+to+Fornjot-The-...
he is my ancestor too. but was he real ?

Fornjot is known to us from 2 sagas that exist in a single manuscript (Flateyarbok) written on Iceland in the 1300s.

Did this story-recording priest write down a true story? We'll probably never know.

Interesting it is.

"In Orkneyinga saga, Fornjót is said to be "a king". It is stated that he "reigned over Gotland, which we now know as Finland and Kvenland". The specific term "King of Kvenland" is not used.

Hversu Noregr byggðist has very similar usage for the title. This time, the great-grandson of Fornjót (who is said to be "a man"), Snær, and his son Thorri are told to be kings. Kvenland now appears in relation to Thorri, of whom it is said that "he ruled over Gothland, Kvenland (Kænlandi), and Finland". Fornjót's great-grandson Snær is also mentioned in Ynglingasaga, in relation to Finland.

In addition to Orkneyinga Saga (c. 1230), Hversu Noregr byggðist (c. 1387), and its appended Ættartölur (1387), medieval accounts that discuss the lineages sprung from Fornjót and his descendants - mainly Nór and Gór - leading to the later rulers of Sweden and other countries, include: Beowulf (8th-10th century), Íslendingabók (8th-10th century), Ynglingatal (late 9th century), Historia Norvegiæ (late 12th century), Skáldskaparmál (c. 1220), Hyndluljóð (13th century), Gesta Danorum (started c. 1185, finished c. 1216), Ynglinga saga (c. 1225).

However, whether or not Fornjót and his immediate descendants were actual historical people has been debated. Kyösti Julku notes that no geographical errors have been found in the descriptions of the Orkneyinga saga. He asks why therefore the people described in the account should be considered not to have existed." (Kvenland, wikipedia)

This is a interesting read also: http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEurope/ScandinaviaFinland.htm

Here's the quote from http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/is3/is302.htm:

"There was a king named Fornjot, he ruled over those lands which are called Finland and Kvenland; that is to the east of that bight of the sea which goes northward to meet Gandvik; that we call the Helsingbight. Fornjot had three sons; one was named Hler, whom we call Ægir, the second Logi, the third Kari; he was the father of Frost, the father of Snow the old, his son’s name was Thorri"

I don't see Gotland in there. But this is not the original text; I've seen translation errors before.

He is my 38th great grandfather..

He is my 41st great grandfather..

Interesting information...he is my 41st great grandfather

Giants, goes back to the belief that some people were both taller and stronger before the christianisation, most probably due to the fact that they trained more, worked harder and ate better in order to be stronger in battle. Recently discoveries also gives support to the fact that people living in good times also was longer than people living under starvation and poverty.

At various historical events around the world, there would thus existed pagans that were of significant height and strength well above the average and this in turned have likely given rise to the belief in giants, long before the times of the Bible and after, so behind the myth, there is a core of truth, but like always greatly exaggerated.

One interesting folklore in parts of Sweden tells the story about how people shortly after becoming Christians actually got smaller and weaker and that hand tools used by their forefathers were suddenly too large and had to be reduced in size to be adjusted to them.

He is my 40th great grandfather, long way back.... hope its real

Maybe everything is real, even illusions?

Anyway, farming might be the reason why humans today are smaller, weaker, and have a weaker bone structure than people in pre-agricultural societies?

Consider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wadlow - 2.72 metres tall. There are diseases that cause giants.

I read an article the other day about an Egyptian mummy where the deceased had clearly been suffering from acromegaly (a disease that makes one grow larger than is healthy for you). Some sufferers are very well functioning giants, but usually die before growing old because their hearts wear out.

Farming tends to feed a lot more people than hunting, so in an agricultural society there are more people who might be randomly hit by this kind of disease.

One of them giantess. Anna Haining Bates was a Canadian giantess famed for her great stature of 7 feet 11.5 inches (2.43 m). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Haining_Bates

These days, in places with decent healtcare, kids who show signs of excessive growth are treated with medicine that makes them stop growing - usually before they reach 2m. So the number of giants in the population is going down over time.

My 39th Great Grandfather. :)

What is the foundation of the birth year 100? Any textbook suggesting this year? The "About" text should explain that. I added a {citation needed} after the birth year.

The idea that a specific date can be estimated is ridiculous, it is not even certain that he ever existed.
The About is very repetitious and not really anything more than cut&paste from various websites of questionable authority. It needs a total re-write

Alex Moes wrote

"The idea that a specific date can be estimated is ridiculous"

Yes, if you actually believe that the estimated dates are real reality. Any estimation is just an estimation, please, look that word up in any dictionary. A lot of things can actually be estimated.

When it comes to humanity, we know our limitations, no man could have been younger than 12, very few woman gave birth before their first ovulation, thus was not likely a minor, furthermore, most men becomes less fertile the older they get and every woman will have their menopause which finally puts end to their capability of giving birth, with few exceptions this means that they will never have any children at all after the age of 55, so you have a lots of variables that acts as limiters both up and down in any genealogical line, to top that off we have something called average values, in this case, at which general age people did have had their children, with all that combined in a process of reconstructing we can pretty much narrow down their timelines, and it doesn't much matter if someone was 20 or 40, because it levels out at 10 generations.

Still stupid? Yes, but only if you think that any estimation is the same as theirs actual date of births.

Applied on Fornjots line, says that he earliest was born around the year 480.

I suggest that you instead of scratching your hair off just start in the other end by beginning with your self and your closest family, your parents, their siblings, their families, their children and slowly work backwards generation per generations, and if, ??? you actually really comes down to Fornjot, then we can have a discussion about mythological profiles real date of birth.

The repetitions come from all the people senselessly duplicating the profile (including the About Me) and then being merged back in. Yes, it needs pruning.

Hi Ulf,

My working model is based on 30 year generations as this is in my experience the average. As you say the peaks and troughs are washed out.

The problem with using this method for saga characters who fall into this sort of time frame is choosing your starting point, "reference datum" if you will. If you start from a historical figure with a birth date around 1100 AD by the time you extrapolate back 7 or 8 centuries the margin of error makes the exercise futile. Not just because of the random nature of the actual generational gaps but also because different sources rarely agree on how many generations there are between Person X and Fornjot.

Hopefully this expanded explanation will clarify why i think this type of exercise is futile, perhaps you do not agree but i cannot help that.

As Harald says the About section needs some editing. This is a task that any user with a bit of time and some reading skills can achieve, the profile is not locked so there is no need for a Curator to have to take on this minor chore.

In fact I find tidying up About sections is a very good way to gain a deeper knowledge of a person, nothing like reading the same paragraph over and over to understand it better!

Just a word of warning, if you intend to copy&paste from another site be aware that the site you are copying from could change their text at any time without your knowledge. Sometimes you will find two quoted texts in an About referencing a site, say Wikipedia, which say two different things :)

Also, copy & paste may or may not be allowed, depending on the copyright policies of the site. (Wikipedia allows copy & paste, but only if you attribute the source. Most other sites, like Find-A-Grave, are more restrictive.)

He is my 54th great grandfather at least twice. I am decended through his son king kari. Two lineages converge when Rongvlad Olafsson daughter Ascrida joins Eystein Glumra Ivansson. I am a descendant from both these lines

Following my lineage two my 54th great grandfather Fornjot the Ancient I have followed a line of Kings that goes on for centuries. Further down i discovered many crucial ties to many other nations. His 48th grandaughter ( my 6th great grandmother was married to Abraham Clark whom in the begining of July 1776 was one of the 56 men that signed the Declaration of Independance.

Seems he is my 41st great grandfather. ;)

He is my:
Fornjot "the Ancient Giant", King of Kvenland is your 43rd great grandfather.
Amazing....