The Gjermundbu find – a petty king’s grave in Ringerike showing influences from the East

Abstract

The Gjermundbu find came to light under difficult, wartime circumstances in 1943. With travel and other restrictions in place, a full-scale rescue excavation was not possible, and the find is poorly documented. What is certain, is that we are dealing with a very rich grave from the end of the 10th century, with few if any parallels outside the milieu of the large ship graves. The cremation grave held some very uncommon objects, like a helmet and a chain mail, as well as five or six horses and one or two sledges. While there are many similarities between the Gjermundbu find and the Vendel and Valsgärde burials in Sweden, the closest parallels to the find are the so-called druzhina burials in present-day Russia and Ukraine, and the authors suggest that the buried man was a petty king, who had served in the retinue of Vladimir the Great or one of his predecessors, together with other warriors from Ringerike.