Date estimation in the sagas

I have had a few discussions recently about profiles whose dates were "obviously wrong" (people born before their parents, and so on).

I started writing a Wiki page with guidance on the subject - here: http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Viking_birth_dates

I'd like to have feedback and comments - if we get some harmony of thinking, we can go out and make some changes to the dates currently on Geni for these lines.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Harald. This summary will be useful even outside the sagas. The same principles apply to nearly all early medieval profiles.

This will be a start to correct these wrong written birthyears of some saga profiles on Geni. Let us fulfil this work in the sagatree on Geni. I will help in this work. I hope there are other Geni users who also will help to make a good sagatree.

Merry Christmas to all of you out there at internet !

Fantastic @Harald. I will take a closer look tomorrow.

Thanks Harald. Harald Hårfagre was my 26th gr. grandfather and I have been trying to trace him back to the Pharoahs of Egypt!!! I am almost there! I realise that dates are a huge guess.

Don't waste many cycles on the Hårfagre - Pharaoh connection.
You'll find the line from Olav Haraldsson straight back to Adam in Flateyarbok, but the lines making the jump from Odin to Noah don't have much credibility.

Nicely written wiki Harald.

A Swedish historian, Dick Harrisson, claims that most info on the legendary nordic kings from viking time is unreliable redagarding their family relations - allthough they likely existed. And all legendary kings from before the viking time (before about 800) should be conciderd fictional, since they are only supported by nordic saga literature (written down during the 13th and 14th centuries) and other non-concurrent literature. No other literature exists from before viking time, and almost no other literature from viking time. I think this is true for all the Nordic countries.

People often make fun of Geni because of all these saga kings and religious figures. It is not possible to delete them all from Geni - people will put them back. I suggest that we always mark them as "legendary king", "fairy king" or "fictional" in the title field. This warning will be clearly visible in the tree, and will show that at least some level of scientific scepticism exiests at Geni. Please help me to mark hem like this. I do not have access to all profiles.

+1

I love seeing {legendary} (etc) in profiles. It helps me understand that this person may or may not have existed, "and" that we have stories about him / her.

I like {legendary} much better than {fictional}, because {legendary} states something about the nature of the source, it doesn't take a position on its truthfulness.
To quote Wikipedia: "Verifiability, not truth".