Talk:Olof Skötkonung

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Cognomen[edit]

Att: Berig

"The meaning of the cognomen Skötkonung is disputed. One theory holds that "Sk" /ɧ/ is an ancient version or distortion of "G" /j/, and that thus, "Skötkonung" /ɧøːtkoːnɵŋː/ would really be "Götkonung" /jøːtkoːnɵŋː/, meaning "King of the Geatas"."

I think that providing the theories of the name is beneficial and can't see why it should be deleted. As for factuality, we're talking about a king that lived over a thousand years ago, so whatever there is to be found it is all just myths and speculation anyway. To help the situation, I have compiled a list of theories that can explain the name:

The aforementioned, "pseudoentymological" theory, which, if you know anything about the Swedish language, is very straightforward. Östgötar and Västgötar is even today pronounced "Ö-skötar" and "Vä-skötar".
That he "satt på skötet", that is, was very young when he became king/was honored as a king before he was born.
That he collected taxes. "Skot" is an old version of "Skatt" (tax)
"Sceat" is an old english word for coin, and he were the first king to have coins made.
That he had spent time in Scotland

[1]
How about building houses instead of throwing rocks?
Ion seal 10:28, 22 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What is your source for these theories? This seems to be based on current Swedish phonetics rather than those of 1000 years ago. Haukur 11:05, 22 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

[2], [3], [4] and various other websites and books I have read. Those are the most common theories floating around and I have seen them in several places, however I don't know the original sources, but I trust that everyone who have written about it and apparently agree are just as credible as anyone when it comes to such a loose topic.

But, seeing as that all (except point 2; see http://hem.passagen.se/skagert/Olof_Skoetkonung.htm) is apparently approved in the Swedish Wikipedia, I would assume that it doesn't go against the rules of Wikipedia.

It's not really based on current phonetics, as that way of speaking is slowly dying out. I don't know if it goes that far back in time, although I wouldn't be surprised, but I have read that theory in history books, so I assume it's credible.

Ion seal 12:42, 22 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Saint"[edit]

The disambiguation page has him as St Olaf of Sweden, as does this site. Is this enough for it to be mentioned in the article? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 15:44, 30 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Unreliable material added[edit]

For the 2nd time I have removed the George-Washington-descent stuff now with a blog-type source which definitely is unreliable. Genealogical entries all over the Internet are particularly infested with humbug and must be reliably sourced. Descent from ancient Scandinavian kings cannot be proven. --SergeWoodzing (talk) 11:55, 25 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that the material is not fit for the article. Olof became, through his daughter Ingegerd Olofsdotter of Sweden, the ancestor of a great many people, including many european rulers. A general note about this, possibly with Washington as one of several examples, could perhaps be inserted. But then a better source than what has been presented so far is needed.

Andejons (talk) 12:11, 25 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

"Sainthood"[edit]

@Pisarz12345: I have looked at the material you've added on Olof's supposed sainthood, and I'm not impressed. Some of the references are to blogs and the likes, which are not suitably reliable. One source claims that he was christened by Ansgar, which is patently false as there was a gap of over a hundred years between them. Except for one of the references - that to katolsk.no, the Catholic church in Norway -, not one of them gives any further reference to anything more than a vague "legend". Katolsk.no does appear to have attempted to do some wider reading, and even if parts of what it writes on the life of Olof is rather uncritical, it does explicitly deny that Olof was martyred. It should also be noted that Wikipedia is among the sources it lists, so I would not take it too seriously.

It should also be noted that Olof is not noted as a saint in Svenskt Biografiskt lexikon, the first place one should look when doing any sort of serious biographical work on historical swedes.

This leads me to conclude that the only legend of Olof seems to be one that lives on internet pages. If Olof is venerated as a saint somewhere, a source that talks about specifics would be far more compelling than lists of saint, compiled more to be long and impressive than with serious scholarship in mind.

Andejons (talk) 06:47, 2 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]