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28-691: Flateyjarbók is the largest medieval Icelandic manuscript, comprising 225 written and illustrated vellum leaves. It contains mostly sagas of the Norse kings as found in the Heimskringla , specifically the sagas about Olaf Tryggvason , St. Olaf , Sverre , Hákon the Old , Magnus the Good , and Harald Hardrada . But they appear here expanded with additional material not found elsewhere (some of it being very old) along with other unique differences. Most—but not all—of

56-441: A historical source, though with more caution. It is not common to believe in the detailed accuracy of the historical narrative and historians tend to see little to no historical truth behind the first few sagas, however, they are still seen by many as a valuable source of knowledge about the society and politics of medieval Norway. The factual content of the work tends to be deemed more credible where it discusses more recent times, as

84-514: A text called Jarlasǫgurnar ('sagas of the jarls', which seems to correspond to the saga now known as Orkneyinga saga ). The author may have had access to a wide range of the early Scandinavian historical texts known today as the 'synoptic histories', but made most use of: The author also made extensive use of skaldic verse which he believed to have been composed at the time of the events portrayed and transmitted orally from that time onwards, and clearly made use of other oral accounts, though it

112-502: Is "Jonn Hakonar son" and that the book was scribed by two priests. One of them, "Jon prestr Þórðar son", scribed the contents from the tale of Eirík the Traveller down to the end of the two Olaf sagas and the other, " Magnús prestr Thorhallz sun ", scribed the earlier and later material and also drew the illustrations. Further material was inserted towards the end of the 15th century. The manuscript first received special attention by

140-579: Is summarized as follows by Anthony Faulkes : The title Heimskringla comes from the first words of the first saga in the compilation ( Ynglinga saga ), Kringla heimsins , "the orb of the Earth". The earliest parchment copy of the work is Kringla , now in the National and University Library of Iceland , catalogued as Lbs fragm 82. It is a single vellum leaf from c. 1260, a part of the Saga of St. Olaf ;

168-484: Is uncertain to what extent. Up until the mid-19th century, historians put great trust in the factual truth of Snorri's narrative, as well as other old Norse sagas. In the early 20th century, this trust was largely abandoned with the advent of saga criticism , pioneered by the Swedish historians Lauritz and Curt Weibull . These historians pointed out that Snorri's work had been written several centuries after most of

196-784: The Vinland colony with some differences from the account contained in Eiríks saga rauða ("History of Eirík the Red"). Here also are preserved the only Icelandic versions of the Orkneyinga saga ("History of the Orkney Islanders") and Færeyinga saga ("History of the Faroe Islanders"). From internal evidence the book was being written in 1387 and was completed in 1394 or very soon after. The first page states that its owner

224-495: The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies . Flateyjarbók consists of the following texts: Flateyjarbók is currently being translated into English by the Saga Heritage Foundation of Norway. The translator is Alison Finlay, professor of Medieval English and Icelandic Literature at Birkbeck, University of London . A Norwegian edition, translated by Edvard Eikill and comprising six volumes,

252-662: The Black . A version of Óláfs saga helga , about the saint Olaf II of Norway , is the main and central part of the collection: Olaf's 15-year-long reign takes up about one third of the entire work. Thereafter, the saga of Harald Hardrada narrates Harald's expedition to the East, his brilliant exploits in Constantinople , Syria , and Sicily , his skaldic accomplishments, and his battles in England against Harold Godwinson ,

280-622: The Center of the Earth by Jules Verne ; the work is the one Professor Liedenbrock finds Arne Saknussem's note in. By the mid-16th century, the Old Norse language was unintelligible to Norwegian, Swedish or Danish readers. At that time several translations of extracts were made in Norway into the Danish language, which was the literary language of Norway at the time. The first complete translation

308-632: The Crusader , where the Norwegian fleet is attacked by Arab Muslim pirates, referred to as Vikings. The stories are told with energy, giving a picture of human life in all its dimensions. The saga is a prose epic, relevant to the history of not only Scandinavia but the regions included in the wider medieval Scandinavian diaspora . The first part of the Heimskringla is rooted in Norse mythology ; as

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336-584: The additional material is placed within the royal sagas, sometimes interlaced. Additionally, the manuscript contains the only copy of the eddic poem Hyndluljóð , a unique set of annals from creation to 1394, and many short tales not otherwise preserved such as Nornagests þáttr ("the Story of Norna Gest"). Especially important is the Grœnlendinga saga ("History of the Greenlanders"), giving an account of

364-462: The basis for Icelandic writing about Scandinavian kings, and was expanded by scribes rather than entirely revised. Flateyjarbók , from the end of the fourteenth century, is the most extreme example of expansion, interweaving Heimskringla text with many þættir and other whole sagas, prominently Orkneyinga saga , Færeyinga saga , and Fóstbrœðra saga . The text is also referenced in Journey to

392-631: The collection proceeds, fable and fact intermingle, but the accounts become increasingly historically reliable. The first saga tells of the mythological prehistory of the Swedish and Norwegian royal dynasty, the Ynglings , tracing their lineage to Freyr (Yngve) of the Vanaland people, who arrived in Scandinavia with Odin from the legendary Asgard . The subsequent sagas are (with few exceptions) devoted to individual rulers, starting with Halfdan

420-546: The death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177. Some of the exact sources of Heimskringla are disputed, but they include earlier kings' sagas, such as Morkinskinna , Fagrskinna and the 12th-century Norwegian synoptic histories and oral traditions, notably many skaldic poems. The author or authors explicitly name the now lost work Hryggjarstykki as their source for the events of the mid-12th century. No known manuscript attributes authorship to Heimskringla . The matter

448-414: The distance in time between the events described and the composition of the saga was shorter, allowing traditions to be retained in a largely accurate form, and because in the twelfth century the first contemporary written sources begin to emerge in Norway. Whereas prior to Heimskringla there seems to have been a diversity of efforts to write histories of kings, Heimskringla seems thereafter to have been

476-471: The events it describes. In Norway, the historian Edvard Bull famously proclaimed that "we have to give up all illusions that Snorri's mighty epic bears any deeper resemblance to what actually happened" in the time it describes. A school of historians has come to believe that the motives Snorri and the other saga writers give to their characters owe more to conditions in the 13th century than in earlier times. Heimskringla has, however, continued to be used as

504-415: The learned in 1651 when Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson of Skálholt , with the permission of King Frederick III of Denmark , requested all folk of Iceland who owned old manuscripts to turn them over to the Danish king, providing either the original or a copy, either as a gift or for a price. Jon Finnsson, who resided on Flatey ('Flat Island') in the fjord of Breiðafjörður on the northwest coast of Iceland,

532-403: The rest of the manuscript was lost to fire in 1728. Heimskringla consists of several sagas, often thought of as falling into three groups, giving the overall work the character of a triptych . The saga narrates the contests of the kings, the establishment of the kingdom of Norway, Norse expeditions to various European countries, ranging as far afield as Palestine in the saga of Sigurd

560-635: The son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex , where he fell at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, only a few days before Harold fell at the Battle of Hastings . After presenting a series of other kings, the saga ends with Magnus V of Norway . Heimskringla contains the following sagas (see also List of Norwegian monarchs ): Heimskringla explicitly mentions a few prose sources, now mostly lost in then-contemporary forms: Hryggjarstykki ('spine pieces') by Eiríkr Oddsson (covering events 1130–61), Skjǫldunga saga , an unidentified saga about Knútr inn gamli, and

588-408: The text in Old Norse. A new Danish translation with the text in Old Norse and a Latin translation came out in 1777–83 (by order of Frederick VI as crown prince). An English translation by Samuel Laing was finally published in 1844, with a second edition in 1889. Starting in the 1960s English-language revisions of Laing appeared, as well as fresh English translations. In the 19th century, as Norway

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616-510: The work may achieve wide distribution at a low price". The most recent English translation of Heimskringla is by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes and is available open-access . Kings%27 sagas Kings' sagas ( Icelandic : konungasögur , Nynorsk : kongesoger, -sogor , Bokmål : kongesagaer ) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings , also known as saga kings . They were composed during

644-556: Was achieving independence after centuries of union with Denmark and Sweden, the stories of the independent Norwegian medieval kingdom won great popularity in Norway. Heimskringla , although written by an Icelander, became an important national symbol for Norway during the period of romantic nationalism . In 1900, the Norwegian parliament, the Storting , subsidized the publication of new translations of Heimskringla into both Norwegian written forms, landsmål and riksmål , "in order that

672-593: Was completed in 2019. Heimskringla Heimskringla ( Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈheimsˌkʰriŋla] ) is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas . It was written in Old Norse in Iceland . While authorship of Heimskringla is nowhere attributed, some scholars assume it is written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (1178/79–1241) c. 1230. The title Heimskringla

700-405: Was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts ( kringla heimsins , "the circle of the world"). Heimskringla is a collection of sagas about Swedish and Norwegian kings , beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings , followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to

728-717: Was given as a present from Bishop Brynjólfur to King Frederick III in 1656, and placed in the Royal Library of Copenhagen. In 1662, the bishop presented the king with a second medieval manuscript, the Codex Regius ( Konungsbók eddukvæða ). It and Flateyjarbók survived the Copenhagen Fire of 1728 and the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807 and were eventually repatriated to Iceland in 1971 as Icelandic national treasures. They are preserved and studied by

756-469: Was made around 1600 by Peder Claussøn Friis , and printed in 1633. This was based on a manuscript known as Jofraskinna . Subsequently, the Stockholm manuscript was translated into Swedish and Latin by Johan Peringskiöld (by order of Charles XI ) and published in 1697 at Stockholm under the title Heimskringla , which is the first known use of the name. This edition also included the first printing of

784-481: Was then the owner of the book which was already known as the Flateyjarbók . At first Jon refused to release his precious heirloom, the biggest and best book in all of Iceland, and he continued to refuse even when Bishop Brynjólfur paid him a personal visit and offered him five hundreds of land. Jon only changed his mind and bestowed the book on the bishop just as the bishop was leaving the region. The manuscript

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