''Magnúss saga lagabœtis'' (Magnus the Lawmender's saga) is an

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

kings' saga, concerning the life and reign of King Magnus VI the Lawmender of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Only fragments of it survive today. The saga was written by the

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic historian and chieftain

Sturla Þórðarson Sturla Þórðarson ( ; ; 29 July 1214–30 July 1284) was an Icelandic chieftain and writer of sagas and contemporary history during the 13th century. Much academic debate is dedicated to evaluating his life, bias as an historian of medieval Ice ...

. Sturla was in Norway in 1278, and it is assumed that he started work on the saga then, on request of King Magnus himself. He had earlier commissioned Sturla to write the saga of his father, ''

Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar'' ("The Saga of Haakon Haakonarson") or ''Hákonar saga gamla'' ("The Saga of Old Haakon") is an Old Norse Kings' Saga, telling the story of the life and reign of King Haakon Haakonarson of Norway. Content and styl ...

''. There are indications that the saga's narrative continued until the death of King Magnus, which would have to mean that Sturla finished it in Iceland some time between King Magnus' death in 1280 and Sturla's death in 1284. Only one leaf of parchment, from a 14th-century manuscript, survives of the saga today. In addition, some passages were copied into Icelandic

annals Annals (, from , "year") are a concise history, historical record in which events are arranged chronology, chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction betw ...

, and have thus been passed down to us today. The small fragments we have show us glimpses of a realistic narrative style, written in strict chronological order, reminiscent of Sturla's work in ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar''. It is not known whether the narrative started with Magnus' accession to the throne upon his father's death, thus continuing the narrative of ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar'', or whether it started with Magnus' birth, as the beginning of the saga is not preserved. ''Magnúss saga lagabœtis'' was one of the last kings' sagas to be written, and King Magnus was the last of the Norwegian kings to have his saga written.

References

External links

* in Old Norse. Kings' sagas Works by Sturla Þórðarson {{saga-stub