The article analyses the traditions concerning the infamous Ynglinga king Ingjald illráði, as transmitted by Snorri Sturlusson and other sources. It is suggested that Ingjald and his father Onundr were subject to a typification on the basis of the ideology of early medieval kingship, becoming antithetical archetypes of the bad and the good king. Analogies with Anglo-Saxon England are ysed to establish a tentative socio-political framework for the narrativ in the Ynglingasaga. The indigenous written sources are claimed to be as relevant a source material as the archaeological sources for the late prehistoric period from the theoretical point of view.