Einar Hafliðason (medieval Icelandic Einarr Hafliðason), 15 September 1307 – 22 September 1393 was an Icelandic priest and author.

Biography

He became a priest in 1334 with the benefice of Höskuldsstaðir á

Skagaströnd Skagaströnd (), previously Höfðakaupstaður (), is a municipality and village in the Northwestern Region of Iceland. It is situated on the western side of the Skagi peninsula, along the east coast of the Húnaflói ('Húna Bay'). The muni ...

and in 1343 the Archbishop of

Nidaros Nidaros, Niðarós or Niðaróss () was the medieval name of Trondheim when it was the capital of Norway's first Christian kings. It was named for its position at the mouth (Old Norse: ''óss'') of the River Nid (the present-day Nidelva). Althou ...

granted him Breiðabólstaður í Vesturhópi, one of the best farms in the region, in what is now Vestur-Húnavatnssýsla, in Northern Iceland. Einarr held this benefice until his death. Einarr was one of the leading clerics in the diocese of

Hólar Hólar (; also Hólar í Hjaltadal ) is a small community in the Skagafjörður district of northern Iceland. Location Hólar is in the Hjaltadalur valley, some from the national capital of Reykjavík. It has a population of around 100. It is th ...

, taking various official roles. He is best known, however, for his writing: he began the annal '' Lögmannsannáll'', a chronicle which Einarr continued up to 1361, when it was taken over by someone else. He almost certainly composed '' Lárentius saga'', a biography of Einarr's friend and teacher Lárentíus Kálfsson, sometime after 1346; and wrote or otherwise appeared in a number of official documents. In 1381, he also translated the miracle-story ''Atburðr á Finnmörk'' from Latin into Icelandic. Einar was thus a prominent member of the

North Icelandic Benedictine School The North Icelandic Benedictine School (''Norðlenski Benediktskólinn'') is a fourteenth-century Icelandic literary movement, the lives, activities, and relationships of whose members are attested particularly by ''Laurentius Saga, Laurentius sag ...

, and '' Laurentius saga'' is an important witness to the lives of its members. Einar was the son of Hafliði Steinsson, who had been a priest of the Norwegian king, a ''ráðsmaðr'' (steward) at

from 1292 to 1308 and finally the priest at Breiðabólstaður í Vesturhópi until his death in 1319; his mother was Hafliði's concubine Rannveig Gestsdóttir. Einar was sent to study with Lárentíus Kálfsson at the monastery of

Þingeyri Þingeyri (, regionally also ) is a settlement in the municipality of Ísafjarðarbær, Iceland. It is located on the coast of Dýrafjörður fjord in the mountainous peninsula Westfjords (in Icelandic written Vestfirðir). On 1 January 2019, it ...

at the age of 10, later becoming a follower and secretary for Lárentíus. Too ill at the time to ordain Einarr, Lárentíus sent Einarr to the southern diocese of Skálholt for consecration there by Bishop

Jón Halldórsson Jón Halldórsson (c. 1275 – 2 February 1339, or Candlemas; Modern Icelandic: ) was a Roman Catholic clergyman, who became the bishop of Iceland (1322–1339). He served in the diocese of Skálholt. He grew up in Norway as a friar of the Dom ...

in 1332. Einarr is also one of the few fourteenth-century Icelanders known to have travelled outside Scandinavia. According to his annals, in 1347 Einarr " ("went ... away from the land

orway {{coord, 50.858, -3.310, display=title, region:GB_scale:10000 Orway is a small hamlet, approximately 1.5 miles squared, situated just on the edge of the Blackdown Hills in Devon, United Kingdom. It is located in the parish of Kentisbeare, near ...

and travelled to the papal court, and was in

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...

for nine nights, and travelled widely in France, and was in Paris for some time").''Lögmannsannáll'', in ''Islandske annaler indtil 1578'', ed. by

Gustav Storm Gustav Storm (18 June 1845 – 23 February 1903) was a Norwegian historian, a professor at the Royal Frederick University in Christiania from 1877. He was a driving force in the research of Scandinavian history and literature of the Middle ...

(Christiania: Grøndahl, 1888), p. 274. Einarr's son was Árni, a farmer at Auðbrekka í Hörgárdal, the father of Þorleifr Árnason.

Notes

Sources

* http://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?pageId=3552604, 'Fornir bæir undir Hekluhrauni', ''Sunnudagsblað Tímans'', 5. April 1964. * http://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?pageId=3560386, 'Pétur Nikulásson Hólabiskup', ''Sunnudagsblað Tímans'', 6. June 1971. * Elton, Oliver (trans.), ''The Life of Laurence Bishop of Hólar in Iceland'' (London: Rivington, 1890), available a
https://archive.org/details/lifeoflaurencebi00einauoft
* Árni Björnsson (ed.), ''Laurentius saga biskups'', Rit handritastofunar Íslands, 3 (Reykjavík: Handritastofnun Íslands, 1969). * Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir (ed.), ''Biskupa sögur III - Árna saga biskups, Lárentius saga biskups, Söguþáttr Jóns Halldórssonar biskups, Biskupa ættir'', Íslenzk fornrit, 17 (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka fornritfélag, 1998). {{DEFAULTSORT:Haflidason, Einarr 1307 births 1393 deaths Einarr Haflidason 14th-century writers Einarr Haflidason Einarr Haflidason Einarr Haflidason