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The history
The Story of Inga - mother of a birkebeiner king
by Rolf Kjærnsli
On a Christmas day in the year 1205 A.D. a strange party came to the hamlet of Lillehammer. They were heading north, moving stealthily and often at night. There was a woman in the party and a baby child, of whom they took great care.
The party put up at a small farmhouse and stayed there over Christmas, hardly venturing out in daytime. The woman enjoyed a few days of rest, giving her a chance to attend to her eighteen months old son. She was Inga from Varteig, a small community in south-eastern Norway, and the child was begotten by the late king Håkon Sverresson, who had died before the child was born.
Encounter with the king
The writers of the sagas were all men; their attention was focused on men, and only occasionally women stand out from the shadow thrown by strong men. Inga is mentioned only a few times, and then rather off-handedly. But we can picture to ourselves the lot of a woman topical at all times: a girl in her last teens having obtained permission from her parents to leave home and work in the inn of her uncle. She is well liked by all patrons but is careful to keep them at a distance. Passing through Borg (the present city of Sarpsborg) on his way to Oslo the young king Håkon Sverresson puts up at he inn, takes an interest in the beautiful girl and is in no hurry to leave. To Inga he is the king, but he speaks to her in an uncondescending way, sharing his thoughts and learning with her. He is also a fine figure of a man, arousing feelings she had not known up to then. The saga says: "Inga was in the king's chamber and slept in the same bed as he".
A divided nation
Civil war had been raging in the country for many years. Faction pitted itself against faction, each having a pretender fighting for the throne and the supremacy of the country.
One faction was the birkebeiners. They were the underdogs, often in such dire need that they had nothing but the bark of birch trees to wrap around their feet, wading in snow from skirmish to skirmish. The word birkebeiner, "birch-leg", was originally a term of abuse and ridicule but has come to mean a person strong in adversity, never daunted by trials and hardships.
The chieftain of the birkebeiners, Sverre Sigurdsson, had fought his way to the throne, and under his son, Håkon Sverresson, a temporary peace was established. After his visit to Borg Håkon travelled by Oslo to Bergen to celebrate Christmas there. Early in January 1204 he died under mysterious circumstances. The fighting flared up again. The baglers were strong in the area on both sides of the Oslo fjord, also in Inga's home district, where she gave birth to a son in the summer of 1204. In this child the baglers saw a dangerous rival pretender. The birkebeiners knew that the life of young Håkon was at stake and decided to take him up north to Nidaros (Trondheim), where the newly elected birkebeiner king Inge had established his court, and where the child would be safe.
Escape
True friends took care of Inga and her child and set out on a journey north in December 1205. They came to Hamar on Christmas Eve, but left that township in a hurry, because bishop Ivar there was a sly supporter of the baglers and had got news of the child being in his diocese.
So it was that the party of refugees came to Lillehammer on a dark and cold night when farmers and small tradesmen were sitting down to a late evening meal. There were friendly birkebeiners in the Lillehammer area, and the small farmhouse kept mother and child in hiding over Christmas.
Early in January 1206 the party set forth again. Finding it risky to follow the main route up the valley, Gudbrandsdalen, to Nidaros, they decided to cut across the mountains to the neighbouring valley Østerdalen.
Over the mountains
As to the actual crossing the saga is rather sparing of words. The most concrete piece of information is about the weather: "They suffered much from wind, frost and snow".A blizzard made it hard to find the way, and it was decided that the two best skiers, Torstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka, together with two local guides should go ahead and bring the child in safety.
The birkebeiners found shelter in a mountain barn and fed the child with melted snow. One of the guides was sent back to pick up the rest of the party. It is safe to assume that the original birkebeiner route went farther north than the present birkebeiner trail. One question is left unanswered by the saga. Did Inga cover the whole distance across the mountains, or only parts of it? Did the blizzard force her to return to Lillehammer, or was she in the group picked up by the local guide and brougt to the mountain shed? It is unlikely that she wanted to part from her baby child for long, and the saga gives some evidence that she joined the advance party and was with them for the rest of the journey.
The supposition that Inga completed over the mountains, in rough weather and with primitive ski equipment, is an inspiration to the present-day participants in Inga-låmi, Norway's largest ski race exclusively for women, counting 4000 entries from 14 different nations.
In Nidaros and Bergen
There is no doubt that she was together with Håkon when they arrived in Nidaros. She had some apprehensions about how king Inge would receive them. After all, also in the eyes of a birkebeiner king young Håkon was a rival pretender. However, the refugee party had a warm reception; the old birkebeiner warriors took the lively child to their hearts, and mother and son had a good year in Nidaros.
When Håkon was three years old they moved with Inge and his court to Bergen. At the age of seven he was put to school and the prince soon proved to be a boy of many talents. The prince? It was maliciously whispered that the late Håkon Sverresson was not the father of young Håkon. Inga had no reason to doubt who was the father of her son. But what could she prove?
The evil whispering gave her some dark moments.
The final test
When king Inge died in 1217 the struggle for the throne was renewed, with much dissension and unrest. Inga offered to go through the ordeal of carrying hot iron to prove that Håkon was of royal birth, but the test did not take place before the following year.
Carrying hot iron was the "lie detector" of that age. Red-hot bits of iron were to be carried in bare hands; the hands were then bandaged - and if, after three days, there was no sign of burns, then the witness spoke the truth.
Crowds of people were gathered outside the Church of Christ in Bergen when the bandages were to be taken off. "And when the skin of the hand was disclosed God in his mercy made great wonders in that the hand was quite unscathed; and all those who were standing by claimed that the hand was even more beautiful than before. To this both friends and enemies bore witness". So says the saga.
Inga's last years
Under Håkon Håkonsson peace was established in the country and Norway had a hey-dey in the Middle Ages.Inga was now honoured and respected. But her days of sorrow were not over. Some time after she came to Nidaros as a refugee she had married Vegard Verdal, a birkebeiner chieftain. Three years after Inga carried the iron Vegard was ambushed and killed whilst executing his duty as the king's deputy in a northern district.
Inga was never queen, but even though the saga does not spend many words on her she stands forth as a distinctive personality - brave, undaunted, and beautiful. The saga's last mention of her is that she died in 1234. She was then about 50 years old.