I'm Technically a Princess, and You Probably Are, Too (or a Prince)

I took a break from the chase last night to do some more genealogy research into my own family tree. We are a colorful bunch with some big names. If you like history, keep reading. Hopefully, I'll be able to amuse you a little while bringing alive the past.

As of last night, I had traced the ancestry back to Troy, but those ancestors I won't go into, because there isn't enough proof yet that they actually existed. On a future post, I'll go more into the mythological ancestry, but some of the characters I describe today, while probably were real people, definitely have some myth attached to them.

First of all, we have Snaer Jokulsson King of Klenvold. His birth is listed as 140 AD, Kvenland, Bay of Bothnia, between Sweden and Finland. His death is listed at around 210 in Finland. I can't find much on him yet. But his son is quite famous.

His name was Adelbert Fornjotur "The Ancient Giant", Jarl King of Kvenland Snaersson. He was born in about 160, in the same place as his father, and he was apparently a genuine giant. Maybe that's where I get my height from. He is the first known descendant of King William I of England (William the Conqueror). William doesn't look like much of a conqueror, but I'll take history's word for it.

William the Conqueror--what's with the "W" beard?

Fornjotur appears in the ancient sagas of Norway and Finland, and is the father of three sons, Ægir or Hlér, Logi and Kári (my ancestor). The Hversu account informs us that Hlér ruled over the seas, Logi over fire, and Kári over wind.

"The Gentle Giant" Fornjotur. I didn't get my good looks from him. Lol.

But maybe this is where I get my love of nature. This is the homeland of Fornjotur, and wouldn't you know, I've found that Kvenland was also known by the term, "FENNoscandia!"

Fornjotur's son was Kari "Wind" 2nd King of Kvenland Fornjotsson. I like that I'm descended from the King of the Wind. Water would've been cool though, too. 

It was so cold where they lived, they all had beards.

Kari had a son appropriately named King Frosti Kvenland Olsa Jarl of Lloegr Karasson. Finland and Iceland are extremely cold, you know, and many of those ancient names reflect the environment they were familiar with. Frosti was amazing, I just know it, but I can't find a single picture or story about him. Maybe he was shy. Instead, here's a picture of their kingdom:

Frosti married and had some kids, one of which was the unremarkable Jokull Iokull Frostasson.  Jokull had a son named Snaer, "Old Snow", King of Finland, King of  Kvenland, Jokulsson. Maybe he was nicknamed Old Snow because he was yellow and crusty? The world may never know, because I can't find a picture of him, either.

But Snaer, in his lengthy 300 years on Earth, had some children, too, mostly all named for different forms of snow. And one of them, the foremost one, is my ancestor. His name was Thorri "Frozen Snow" Snaersson. He was probably called frozen snow because he was so tough and strong that he seemed unbreakable. 

During the Viking Age, the Norse were extremely resistant to Christianity, and the name Thor, in various spellings, suddenly catapulted into the equivalent blah-ness of "John." It's suspected that parents named their children Thor in defiance of Christian ways.

Mom 1: "What's your son's name?"
Mom 2: "His name is Thor."
Mom 1: "These are my daughters, Thoralee, and Thorina. You know what they say, 'Thor is the new Snaer.'"

Thorri had three children: Norr, the founder of Norway (my ancestor), Gor, the founder of Denmark, and Goi, "Thin Snow," a daughter who was kidnapped, which led to an all out, heroic and frantic search for her. Norr and Gor proceeded to cut a blazing swath across Norway, crushing everyone and everything to find her. 

True Fact: After Norr conquered Norway, it was afterwards known as Norge, which means "Norr's Way."
He probably said something like this as he was destroying everything in his path, "It's Norr's Way of the highway, I tell thee!!".

When they found her with the Norwegian King Hrolf, Norr went ballistic and attacked old Hrolf, and the battle was furious and vicious, but amazingly, neither suffered even a scratch. It was then that Norr discovered his sister sorta liked Hrolf, who had treated her like the Princess she was. Norr also noticed that Hrolf's sister, Hodd, was pretty hot herself, and his Viking mind turned from war to peace in the bat of a blonde eyelash. Hrolf and Goi married, and Norr and Hodd married. The kingdom was at peace. (For the time being, because they were Vikings, after all.)

Hodd knew how to stop the fight.

I'll end this post with a fact you probably didn't know about Vikings, and the ancient Norse. They're often depicted as dirty barbarians, which couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, they were MUCH cleaner than their European counterparts. Items found at burial sites include tweezers, razors, ear cleaners and other items used for hygiene. They bathed once a week, which was more than the Europeans, and in between baths, they soaked in the natural hot springs. Men that weren't born blond dyed their hair and eyebrows and beards with a mixture of lye and natural ingredients, which also eliminated a nasty plaque of the time: lice.

In my next post, I'll explore some of the legendary Viking women in my ancestry. Some of them have solid proof of their existence, and some are said to have existed, but over the centuries, myth has mixed with the truth, which I think makes them even more awesome.

So, like my title says, I'm technically a Viking Princess. I bet most of you all, if you delve back far enough into your own genealogy, can find some royalty, too. If anyone wants some help to get started finding your own grand beginnings, let me know. :)

Not a ninja, and that's okay.