page_title: Helena (wife of Inge the Elder)
section_title: Name and background
hierarchical_section_title: Helena (wife of Inge the Elder) / Name and background
caption_attribution_description: English: Erroneous 16th century gravestone on the false tomb of 12th century King Ingi the Younger and his [sic] Queen Helen (he is actually buried in a different part of the church, she was probably a somewhat later Swedish princess who married King Canute V of Denmark and from there retired to Vreta)Place: Vreta Church, Linköping, Sweden
context_page_description: Helena or Elin, possibly also known as Maer, Mär or Mö, was Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Inge the Elder, and a supposed sister of King Blot-Sweyn of Sweden.
context_section_description: The background of Queen Helena is not confirmed, but her activities as queen show that she had an affiliation to Östergötland. The Icelandic Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (late 13th century) has the following to say about Inge I's spouse: "King Inge married a woman called Maer [or Mö]; the name of her brother was Sweyn. No one was as beloved by Inge as Sweyn, and Sweyn therefore became a very powerful man in the kingdom". However, an older source, a Danish royal genealogy from c. 1194, gives another name: "The abovementioned Christina, the grandmother of Valdemar [I], was the daughter of the Swedish King Inge and Queen Helena". While "Helena" is the usual Latin spelling of the Swedish Christian name Elin, Maer is simply an old Nordic word for "maiden", "girl" (in modern Swedish, mö), and may not be an actual name; at any rate it is extremely rare as a Scandinavian personal name. Because of this it is sometimes assumed that Inge was married two times. Alternatively, however, they have been assumed to be one and the same person; the maiden Elin, to Christian foreigners spelled as Helena in Latin, sister to Sweyn. According to a third opinion, the sibling pair Maer and Sweyn is legendary or rather allegoric, since it simply translates as "maiden" and "swain".
caption: A 17th century gravestone in Vreta Abbey with a partially incorrect inscription mentions an Ingi and a Helen – their burial somewhere in the church has been accepted as fact.
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