 the battle of brÃ¡vellir or the battle of brÃ¥valla was a legendary battle that is described in the norse sagas as taking place on the brÃ¡vellir between sigurd ring, king of sweden and the geats of west gÃ¶taland, and his uncle harald wartooth, king of denmark and the geats of east gÃ¶taland. ==sources== this battle is said to have taken place in the mid 8th century and it is retold in several sources, such as the norse sagas hervarar saga, bÃ³sa saga ok herrauds and sÃ¶gubrot af nokkrum, but it is most extensively described in the danish gesta danorum. ==cause== harald had inherited sweden from his maternal grandfather ivar vidfamne, but ruled denmark and east gÃ¶taland, whereas his subordinate king sigurd ring was the ruler of sweden and west gÃ¶taland. according to legend, harald wartooth realised that he was growing old (150) and may die of old age and so never go to valhalla. he consequently asked sigurd if he would let him leave this life gloriously in a great battle.  ==preparation== according to saxo grammaticus, both hosts prepared for seven years, and mustered armies of 200 000 men. harald was joined by the legendary heroes ubbe of friesland, uvle brede, are the one-eyed, dag the fat, duk the slav, hroi whitebeard and hothbrodd the indomitable as well as 300 shieldmaidens led by hed, visna of the slavs and hedborg. sigurd recruited the legendary heroes starkad, egil the bald, grette the evil (a norwegian), blig bignose, einar the fatbellied and erling snake. famous swedes were arwakki, keklu-karl, krok the peasant, gummi and gudfast from gislamark. they were joined by scores of norwegians, slavs, finns, estonians, curonians, bjarmians, livonians, saxons, angles, frisians, irish, rus' etc... all picking their sides. whole forests were chopped down in order to build 3000 longships to transport the swedes. harald's danes had built so many ships that they could walk across the sound. the numbers are obviously exaggerated, certainly tenfold or more. for comparison with the 3000 swed
Battles_involving_Denmark Battles_involving_Estonia Battles_involving_Sweden Battles_involving_the_Vikings Battles_of_the_Middle_Ages Events_in_Norse_mythology War_in_mythology