kingdom · Scandinavia and the Baltic

Värmland

700 CE – 1000 CE (approx.)

Forested petty kingdom north of Lake Vänern, known mostly from the Norse sagas, later absorbed into the Swedish realm.

Origins

Värmland, the land around the rivers flowing into Lake Vänern, is known mainly from Icelandic sagas written centuries later. Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga saga tells that Olof the Tree-Feller, driven from Uppsala, cleared the forests here and founded a new line of kings.

Rule and society

Its people lived by farming, iron extraction from bog ore and forest trades, and met at their own assemblies. The sagas describe Värmland as a borderland contested by Norwegian, Svear and Geatish kings, with local kings or jarls of uncertain historical reality.

Decline and legacy

By around 1000 Värmland was drawn into the orbit of the Swedish kings, although Norwegian rulers such as Olaf Haraldsson also tried to claim it. It became a province of the Kingdom of Sweden, keeping its own law and lawman in the Middle Ages.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Lineage

VärmlandKingdom of Sweden 970 CE – present

More states of Scandinavia and the Baltic →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Värmland. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/varmland
MLA
“Värmland.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/varmland. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Värmland.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/varmland.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Värmland’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/varmland (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻