''Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum'' ( Icelandic for "''Summary of the Norwegian Kings' Sagas''"), often shortened to ''Ágrip'', is a history of the kings of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. Written in

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

, it is, along with the ''

Historia Norvegiæ Historia may refer to: * Historia, the local version of the History channel in Spain and Portugal * Historia (TV channel), a Canadian French language specialty channel * Historia (newspaper), a French monthly newspaper devoted to History topics * ...

'', one of the Norwegian synoptic histories. The preserved text starts with the death of Hálfdan svarti (c. 860) and ends with the accession of Ingi krókhryggr (1136) but the original is thought to have covered a longer period, probably up to the reign of Sverrir (1184–1202). The work was composed by an unknown Norwegian writer around 1190. The only surviving manuscript is Icelandic from the first half of the thirteenth century. The preserved

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins o ...

book consists of four

quires Various measures of paper quantity have been and are in use. Although there are no S.I. units such as quires and bales, there are ISO''ISO 4046-3:2002 Paper, board, pulps and related terms – Vocabulary – Part 3: Paper-making terminology'' ( ...

, a fifth quire has been lost. The first leaf is also missing, therefore the original title of the book, if it had any, is unknown. The name ''Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum'' ("A Synopsis of the Sagas of the Kings of Norway") was first used in an edition in 1835.

Rory McTurk Rory W. McTurk is a British philologist. McTurk graduated from Oxford University in 1963. He took a further degree at the University of Iceland in 1965, and subsequently taught at Lund University, the University of Copenhagen, and University Col ...

(Editor) ''A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture'' (Series: Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture, vol. 31. Wiley-Blackwell) 2005. Pp. xiii, 567. ''Ágrip'' is often compared with the two other Norwegian synoptic histories from the same period, ''Historia Norvegiae'' and the work of

Theodoricus monachus Theodoric the Monk ( la, Theodoricus monachus; also ''Tjodrik munk''; in Old Norse his name was most likely ''Þórir'') was a 12th-century Norwegian Benedictine monk, perhaps at the Nidarholm Abbey. He may be identical with either Bishop Tore of ...

. It broke ground by being the first one written in the vernacular. ''Ágrip'' is also the first of the kings' sagas to quote

skaldic poetry A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditional ...

in the text. The narrative is brief, and much less detailed than the narratives of the later kings' sagas, such as

Fagrskinna ''Fagrskinna'' ( ; is, Fagurskinna ; trans. "Fair Leather" from the type of parchment) is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It is an intermediate source for the ''Heimskringla'' of Snorri Sturluson, containing histories of Norwegian ...

and ''

Heimskringla ''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derive ...

''. The story is noticeably more detailed in descriptions of events and locations in the

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...

region and the city of Nidaros. Together with linguistic factors, this has been seen as an indication that the work was composed in Nidaros. ''Ágrip'' has been translated to

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

(1834),

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

(1835),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

(1929),

Norwegian (nynorsk) Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

(1936),

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

(1995) and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

(2017).

References

Other sources

*Bjarni Einarsson (editor). ''Íslenzk fornrit XXIX : Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum : Fagrskinna - Nóregs konunga tal''. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1984. *Driscoll, M. J. (editor and translator). ''Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum''. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 10. 2nd ed. 2008 (1995)

External links

Stutt ágrip af Noregs konúnga sögum
Old Norse text
Stutt ágrip af Noregs konúnga sögum
Same text on a different website

Information on the manuscript {{DEFAULTSORT:Agrip af Noregskonungasogum Kings' sagas Old Norse prose