Ulfcytel Snillingr

Ulfcytel (died 1016) was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman. He was apparently the ealdorman of East Anglia from 1004 to his death at the battle of Assandun, although he is not called an ealdorman in any of the charters he witnessed. Scandinavian sources refer to him as Ulfkell Snillingr, the byname meaning bold.

Leofsige, ealdorman of Essex, was exiled for killing a shire reeve in 1002. It is not certain that any ealdorman was appointed by King Æthelred the Unready to replace Leofsige, although John of Worcester's chronicle calls Ulfcytel the dux—war leader—of the East Anglians, and he appears as leader of the East Anglians on several occasions.

It may be that Ulfcytel was married to a daughter of King Æthelred (by his first wife) named Wulfhild, as suggested by a supplementary text to the Jómsvíkinga saga. From 1004 onwards he witnessed a large number of King Æthelred's charters, being described in these as a minister, that is thegn, rather than an ealdorman.

Ulfcytel's name is of Scandinavian origin, but no details of his family are known. It is possible that he was in some way related to the family or affinity of Æthelstan Half-King which had dominated politics in East Anglia and Essex from the 930s to the 990s. In addition to the English sources, Ulfcytel also appears as a character in Saint Olaf's saga in the Heimskringla, and here East Anglia is called "Ulfcytel's land".

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