Icelanders and the kings of Norway : mediaeval sagas and legal texts
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Icelanders and the kings of Norway : mediaeval sagas and legal texts
(The northern world : North Europe and the Baltic c. 400-1700 A.D. : peoples, economies and cultures, v. 17)
Brill, 2005
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-250) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The book uses sagas and legal texts to re-examine the relations between mediaeval Icelanders and the Norwegian kings. It demonstrates that the Icelanders - partly subjects of the king, and partly beyond his power - were ready to negotiate with him for their own benefit, and presents a methodological re-evaluation of authorial attributions of the sagas and their use as historical sources. Key to the book is a revisionary analysis of two laws made between the Icelanders and the kings of Norway: a law probably issued by King Olafr inn helgi of Norway (1015-1028), and the purported submission agreements with King Hakon Hakonarson (1217-1263), known as Gizurarsattmali or Gamli sattmali. It also analyses the sagas of the fourteenth-century manuscript Moedruvallabok against the historical context extracted from this legal re-evaluation.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface
Conventions
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1 Mediaeval Icelandic Sagas: Methodological Considerations
1. Introduction
2. The Attribution of the Authorship of Heimskringla to Snorri Sturluson
3. Textual Criticism and Manuscript Culture
4. Sagas as Historical Sources
Chapter 2 The Law of Olafr inn helgi
1. Introduction
2. Gragas in Historical and Literary Studies
3. The Olafsloeg within the Gragas (Konungsbok)
4. The Norwegian King's Power over Icelanders
5 . Icelanders and Norwegians
6. Hauldr - holdr
7 . Conclusion
Chapter 3 Documents of the Icelandic Submission
1. Introduction
2 . The sagas and the Icelandic submission
3 . The Icelandic annals and the Icelandic submission
4 . The evidence of sagas and annals: conclusion
5. Gizurarsattmali and Gamli sattmali: Terminology
6. Documents from 1400 to 1500
6.1. Invocatory clause and oath
6.2. Introductory clause
6.3. Skattr and thingfararkaup
6.4. Summons to go abroad
6.5 . Logmenn and syslumenn
6.6 . Sea-going ships
6.6.1 Icelandic trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
6.7. Other clauses
6.8. Documents from 1400 to 1500: conclusion
7. Documents from 1500 to 1600
8 . Conclusion
Chapter 4 Relations between Icelanders and the early rulers of Norway as depicted in Moedruvallabok
1. Introduction
2. The Moedruvallabok manuscript
3. Haraldr inn harfagri and the settlement of Iceland in Egils saga
4. Haraldr inn harfagri and the settlement of Iceland in the other texts of the Moedruvallabok manuscript
5. Finnboga saga and the settlement of Iceland
6. Icelanders and the Norwegian court
6.1. Chieftains in Iceland and Norway
6.2. Challenging royal power
6.3. The Icelandic free-men
6.4. The guardians of the law
7. Presentations of the settlement of Iceland: Haralds saga ins harfagra (Frissbok) and other sagas
8. Conclusion
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Olafsloeg
Appendix 2. Documents of the Submission
Appendix 3. Haraldr inn harfagri in the Islendingasoegur
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"