Brännö is an island in the Southern Göteborg Archipelago and a locality

Urban areas in Sweden

Urban area is a common English translation of the Swedish term tätort. The official term in English, used by Statistics Sweden, is, however, locality. There are 1,940 localities in Sweden . They could be compared with census-designated places in the United States.A tätort in Sweden has a minimum of...

 situated in Göteborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County

Västra Götaland County

Västra Götaland County is a county or län on the western coast of Sweden.The county is the second largest of Sweden's counties and it is subdivided into 49 municipalities . Its population of 1,550,000 amounts to 17% of Sweden's population...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. It had 698 inhabitants in 2005. It belongs to the parish of Styrsö

Styrsö

Styrsö is a small island and a locality situated in Göteborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 1,331 inhabitants in 2005.It lies in the Southern Göteborg Archipelago of Sweden with about 1,400 inhabitants. Regular ferries connect the island to Gothenburg and a bridge links Styrsö...

 within Gothenburg Municipality

Gothenburg Municipality

Gothenburg Municipality is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Gothenburg....

.

History

Due to its geographical location, Brännö has throughout the centuries been a strategic location for seafarers and chieftains, from both Sweden and the adjacent Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 and Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

.

It is believed that its inhabitants are the same as the Brondings

Brondings

The Brondings were a Germanic tribe. They and Breca the Bronding are mentioned in Beowulf , as Beowulf's childhood friend, and in Widsith , where Breca is the lord of the Brondings...

 who are referred to in the Anglo-Saxon

Old English language

Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 poems Beowulf

Beowulf

Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...

and Widsith

Widsith

Widsith is an Old English poem of 144 lines that appears to date from the 9th century, drawing on earlier oral traditions of Anglo-Saxon tale singing. The only text of the fragment is copied in the Exeter Book, a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late 10th century containing...

. Beowulf, England's national epic

National epic

A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation; not necessarily a nation-state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with aspirations to independence or autonomy...

, relates that Breca the Bronding was the childhood friend of the hero Beowulf

Beowulf (hero)

Beowulf is a legendary Geatish hero and later turned king in the epic poem named after him, one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in the English language.-Etymology and origins of the character:...

 and Widsith tells that Breca later was the lord of the Brondings.[1]

Brännö is mentioned in the icelandic Sagas as the location of several important thing

Thing (assembly)

A thing was the governing assembly in Germanic and introduced into some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead...

 assemblies in the Viking Age

Viking Age

Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...

 and later.[2] The Laxdaela saga relates that the beautiful Irish princess Melkorka

Melkorka

Melkorka is the name given in Landnámabók and Laxdœla saga for the Irish mother of the Icelandic goði Ólafr Höskuldsson. According to Laxdœla saga, Höskuldr purchased a Melkorka, who he believed to be a mute thrall-woman, from a Rus' merchant on Brännö while on a trading expedition to Norway, and...

 was sold as a thrall

Thrall

Thrall was the term for a serf or unfree servant in Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age.Thralls were the lowest in the social order and usually provided unskilled labor during the Viking era.-Etymology:...

 to the Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

ic chieftain Höskuld Dalakollson, during a fair on Brännö, in the 10th century.

External links

• Note 1: The Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, the posthumous dictionary by Joseph Bosworth
  Joseph Bosworth
  Joseph Bosworth , English scholar of Anglo-Saxon language and Anglo-Saxon literature, was born in Derbyshire.-Biography:Educated at Repton, whence he proceeded to the University of Aberdeen, he became in 1817 vicar of Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire, and devoted his spare time to literature and...
  
  (1898), see bróc - brot
• Note 2: Brännö History Local fan site dedicated to Brännö (in Swedish)