Erling Vidkunsson

Erling Vidkunsson was a powerful Norwegian nobleman and regent in the fourteenth century. He served as guardian and leading councillor during the minority of Magnus Eriksson and represented the high aristocracy in a period of union between Norway and Sweden.

Erling Vidkunsson died in Oslo. Erling was among the most powerful Norwegian magnates of the fourteenth century and acted as regent or guardian during the minority of Magnus Eriksson; his position linked aristocratic landholding with the politics of the Norwegian-Swedish union monarchy.

In Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, II: The Wife, Erling Vidkunsson, Ingeborg of Norway and Knud Porse stand behind the regency politics of the period, while Erlend joins a conspiracy associated with the king’s cousins Jon and Sigurd Havtoresson.