Hagbard and Signy - Locations

Locations

The Danes claimed very early that the name "Sigari oppidum" (Sigar's hill fort) referred to the Swedish Sigerstad in Halland between Halmstad and Falkenberg, where there are many monuments about the legend, such as Hagbard's gallows, Hagbard's stones, Siger's hill, Signy's chamber, Signy's well and Hagbard's mound. These monuments are all mentioned in Tuneld, Geografie Ofver Konungariket Swerige (1793).

A second Dane wrote in 1779 that the most likely location was in Blekinge, where there are a Hagbard's oak and a Signy's chamber. There is also a location in Nerike named Segersjö (Sigar's lake) which has two cairns called Hagbard's cairn and Signy's cairn. There are also locations in Norway.

Laurentius Petri wrote in the Svenska Krönikan (Swedish chronicle) in 1559 that there were many traditions about Habardh and Signill. According to the songs, Hagbard was not Swedish, but the son of a Norwegian king, and Signy was a Swedish princess. The songs also related that Hagbard was hanged not far from Sigtuna in Uppland, where there was a plain called Hagbard's plain in Håtuna Parish.

This placed the events in Old Sigtuna, a version that Johannes Messenius wanted to confirm in Sveopentaprotopolis (1611). He argued that the names in the area of Old Sigtuna contradicted the Danish claims of a Danish location. Later in Scondia illustrata, he contradicted his claims and said that Signill was rather a Danish princess and Habor a Norwegian. However, in 1612, he reasserted that Signy was a Swedish princess, in Old Sigtuna.

In 1678, Old Sigtuna was renamed Sighildsberg in honour of Signy. The interest continued unabated for centuries.