Skjöldvaskur af Norðursundi

Skjöldvaskur af Norðursundi (775–834; ÁÁ 25-ÁL 33) was the second thár of the Siur, elected to the position as successor to Jukka af Essingi, the great Siur war-leader for whom the position had been created. While powerfully respected among the Siur as one of Jukka’s boldest and most astute subordinates, he was perhaps elevated beyond his ability in being granted the thárship, and his weaknesses in the position – as well as the endemic disputatiousness of the Siur – saw the title fall out of use until it was revived in the 17th century with the union of Siur commonholds as Siurskeyti.

Skjöldvaskur af Norðursundi
2nd thár of Siurskeyti
Reign	828–834 (28–33 ÁL)
Predecessor	Jukka af Essingi
Successor	Sterkur Fálk; revived 1623
Born	c. 775 (25 ÁÁ) Norðursundi, commonhold of Norðursundi
Died	834 (33 ÁL) (aged 59) Norðursundi, commonhold of Norðursundi

Very little reliable historical evidence exists of much of Skjöldvaskur’s life, and much of what detail does exist is bound up with Jukka to such a degree that it is arguably more myth than history. He was a fief-ruler (thein in modern terms) and was probably from the northern coast of what is today Árakan in the northern Siur country, based on his fief’s name, and was thus in close proximity to the Secotes who had encamped themselves north of the river Halðamar in what is today Vernland. He appears to have come into Jukka’s councils shortly after the Secote’s first battle with the Siur forces, at Kráknajörð, possibly with the thár seeking to broaden his impromptu alliance beyond colleagues and close associates in the north-eastern Siur country where his own fief and power-base lay, and was a prominent enough figure both as adviser and war-chief to be referenced on several occasions in the Jötunssaga, written three centuries later and still the largest account of Jukka’s war, as the “shield-force of the north” (the literal meaning of Skjöldvaskur) After Jukka’s victory over the Secote at Níualmar in 808, which effectively ended the war, he now had a leading role in guarding the new border and maintaining the peace.

Jukka had presided over a remarkably undisrupted period in Siur society at the time of his death – from a spreading infection from an improperly set broken leg – in 828. To some degree this was the need for self-preservation perhaps overriding internal Siur squabbling; with the Secote merely retreated north of the Halðamar and back beyond the Aphrasian mountains, a close watching brief was understandable. His prestige was such that his advisors were faced with a quandary; who else had such wirda (a Thúrun concept of inherent worthiness not yet pushed wholly aside by the rising Arlatur) to be acceptable to all shades of opinion – and how quickly could he be put in place before someone attempted to seize the role for himself? In this sense it seems quite likely that Skjöldvaskur was effectively drafted into becoming thár, with only some eight weeks elapsing before he could travel from the further west to be given the tháric crown – and this in spite of what seem to have been some ongoing health issues.

For all the respect he may have won as a combatant, however, Skjöldvaskur was not particularly skilled as a peacetime ruler, and could do little in his relatively short time as thár to prevent other theinar from manoeuvring to their own advantages, notably in the Landsþing and some lesser councils. The thárship effectively fell vacant upon his death in 834, with disputes over potential succession unravelling into nothing in the Landsþing as a sense emerged among Siur magnates that the title essentially meant little at present and potentially hindered their ambitions as things stood.