Scandinavian history in the Viking age - Department of Anglo-Saxon ...

Scandinavian History in the Viking Age
Nielsen and B. Carlé (1994), 27-47 [UL 701:15.c.95.3106]; M. Cormack ‘Sagas of saints’, (B235):302-
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[B441] The standard corpus edition remains C.R. Unger, Heilagra manna sögur: Fortællinger og
Legender om hellige Mænd og Kvinder, 2 vols (1877) [UL 752:34.c.85.49-50]
Indigenous hagiography
[B442] For West Norse material on the most famous saint of all, Olaf Haraldsson, see (B312 ff.); some
further material can be found in the homily books of the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries. Text: T.
Wisén, Homiliubók: isländska homilier efter en handskrift från tolfte århundradet (1872) [UL
752:34.b.85.2]; G. Indrebø, Gamal norsk homiliebok: cod. AM 619 4to (1931) [UL 593:01.b.1.118]
[B443] There is little of direct historical relevance in the material on the two other major Norwegian
saints with supposed Viking-age roots. Saint Hallvard is said to have been a kinsman of saint Olaf who
was killed in 1043 while defending a pregnant woman, while saint Sunniva is portrayed as an Irish
princess who came to Norway towards the end of the tenth century and took up residence at Selje, later
the site of one of the earliest monasteries in Scandinavia. The antiquity of their cults is reflected in early
texts such as Adam of Bremen (B73), while Odd Snorrason (B310) included an excerpt on Sunniva in his
life of Olaf Tryggvason, the so-called Seljumanna þáttr; otherwise, the most significant surviving
material is in the form of liturgical offices (B780).
Bishops’ sagas
The earliest account of the first Icelandic bishops is that contained in Íslendingabók (B255), but from the
end of the twelfth century further material was composed, including independent biographies. This
tradition seems to have begun with the life of Iceland’s first saint Þorlák, bishop of Skálholt; see (B451).
Most of the vernacular bishops’ sagas composed in Iceland have not been included on the grounds that
they deal with events from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. For collections of texts:
[B445] G. Vigfússon and J. Sigurðsson, Biskupa sögur, 2 vols (1856-78) [UL 752:34.c.85.18-19]
[B446] B. Kahle, Kristnisaga, þáttr Þorvalds ens víðf²rla, þáttr Ísleifs biskups Gizurarsonar,
Hungrvaka, Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 11 (1905) [UL 752:32.c.3.4]
[B447] J. Helgason, Byskupa s²gur, Editiones Arnamagnæanæ A:13 (-1938-78 ff.) [UL 752:1.b.1.11]
For translation:
[B448] D. Leith, Stories of the bishops of Iceland (1895) [UL 752:34.d.85.22]; beware, this translation is
frequently inaccurate
For commentary on the genre:
[B450] P. Koppenberg, Hagiographische Studien zu den Biskupa sögur, unter besonderer
Berücksichtigung der Jóns saga helga, Scandica: wissenschaftliche Reihe 1 (1980) [UL 752:37.c.95.29]
[B451] H. Kuhn, ‘The emergence of a saint’s cult as witnessed by the jarteinabœkr Þorláks biskups’,
SBVS 24 (1994-97), 240-54
On Þorlákr’s cult:
[B452] Á. Egilsdóttir, ‘St Þorlákr of Iceland: the emergence of a cult’, Haskins Society Journal 12
(2002), 121-131
[B455] Hungrvaka contains accounts of the first five bishops of Skálholt from 1056 to 1176, although
largely derived from earlier sources for the first two, Isleif and Gizur. Text: (B446):87-126; (B447):25-
115. Transl.: (B448):33-71; (B250): I,420-58
[B456] Ísleifs þáttr is a late þáttr found embedded in Ólafs saga helga (B315) in Flateyjarbók. Text:
(B446):83-86; (B447):13-23. Transl.: (B448):25-32
Conversion narratives
It is convenient, if a bit cheeky, to include here a couple of conversion narratives, the first of which at
least seems to have been written specifically to chart the development of Christianity in Iceland; for
similar accounts, see in particular (B410-11).
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