SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

BERGR SOKKASON'S MICHAELS ."'AGA AND ITS
SOURCES
By CHRISTINE FELL
FROM the main source of information about Bergr
Sokkason we know that he was the author or translator
of many lives of saints.' We also know enough about his
own life to be able to hazard a guess at their dates of
composition. These facts are mainly to be found in the
Laurentius Saga Holabiskups» written by Einar Haflioason.
Not only did Einar himself know Bergr personally, but
since Bergr was also apparently a close friend of Bishop
Laurentius, Einar naturally had cause to make fairly
frequent references to him. Einar Haflioason was himself
educated at :Pingeyrar and at H6lar, and refers in his
writing to the quality of the academic community he
worked in. He mentions authors, translators, fine scholars,
masters of Latin prose, and verse-makers, both at :Pingeyrar
and at H6lar, mainly casual references, but sufficient to
show that Einar was impressed by the scholarship surrounding
him. He suggests that a monastery filled with
such monks as were at :Pingeyrar might well be considered
a fine one," but in spite of his references to academic activity
he gives few names of specific works or specific authors, It
is therefore worth noting that the work of Bergr Sokkason
apparentlyimpressedEinarto such an extent that he makes
two direct references to Berg's achievements in the field of
hagiography. First he writes that Bergr compiled in the
northern tongue, and with great eloquence, the lives of
i Abbreviations of texts are:
Bps. Biskupa sogur (gefnar ut af hinu islenzka Bokmentafelagi, 1858-67).
Hms, Heilagra Manna Sogu» (ed. C. R. Unger, 1877).
Isl, An". Islandske Annaler indlil 1578 (ed, G. Storm, 1888).
I have used a normalised orthography throughout.
2 Bps. I 789 fl.
• "Sannliga matti pat segja, at fagrligt var pat klaustr, sem sva var skipat af
slikum munkum, sem pa var at Ioingeyrum" (Bps. I 832).