Olav Trygvasons saga - Uvaeret, Hjoerungavaag - G

The ''Jómsvíkinga saga'' ("''Saga of the Jomsvikings''") is a medieval

Icelandic saga The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early e ...

composed by an anonymous author. The saga was composed in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

during the 13th century. It exists in several manuscripts which vary from each other. There are many different versions and translations of the saga.

The saga

At the time of writing,

Wolin Wolin (; formerly german: Wollin ) is the name both of a Polish island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast, and a town on that island. Administratively, the island belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Wolin is separated from th ...

, also known as Willon, off the southern coast of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, was not more than a typical market town of the 13th century. However, the ''Jómsvíkinga saga'' tells the story of its founding, centuries earlier, as the famed Jómsborg by the legendary Danish chieftain Pálna-Tóki. Jómsborg's name is composed of two elements: the Old Norse term ''borg,'' meaning a

citadel A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. In ...

, and the unidentified term, ''Jóm''. The ''Jómsvíkinga saga'' is centered around the tensions between Haraldr Gormsson of Denmark, Hákon Sigurðarson of Norway, and the Jómsvíkings. The Jómsvíkings challenged royal authority in the midst of a power struggle between Denmark and Norway. In order to better understand the ''Jómsvíkinga saga'', it is important to understand the relationship between

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, 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 ...

around this time. In addition to founding Jómsborg, Pálna-Tóki founded the brotherhood of the Jómsvíkings. The saga describes the brotherhood and the laws of the Jómsvíkings. It also mentions their defeat during the semi-legendary naval Battle of Hjörungavágr in 986. This battle occurred between the

Jarls of Lade The Earls of Lade ( no, ladejarler) were a dynasty of Norse '' jarls'' from Lade (Old Norse: ''Hlaðir''), who ruled what is now Trøndelag and Hålogaland from the 9th century to the 11th century. The seat of the Earls of Lade was at Lade G ...

and the Danish invasion fleet of King

Harald Bluetooth Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson ( non, Haraldr Blátǫnn Gormsson; da, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway. He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 958 ...

of Denmark. Jómsvíking chieftain Sigvaldi Strut-Haraldsson, led the Jómsvíkings in an effort to depose Jarl

Hákon Sigurðarson Haakon Sigurdsson ( non, Hákon Sigurðarson , no, Håkon Sigurdsson; 937–995), known as Haakon Jarl (Old Norse: ''Hákon jarl''), was the '' de facto'' ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995. Sometimes he is styled as Haakon the Powerful ( ...

, vassal ruler of Norway. The Jómsvíkings lived monastically and primarily in the Baltic region. The only things that are proven to have existed that were mentioned in the ''Jómsvíkinga saga'' are many of the main characters (excluding Pálna-Tóki), the Battle of Hjörungavágr, and the existence of Jómsborg. Aside from those things, the rest is an unsolved mystery.

History

There are five versions of the ''Jómsvíkinga saga'' that have been recovered over the years. The first, MS AM.291, is an incomplete manuscript written by an Icelander in the late thirteenth century. The second, MS AM. 510 4to, was written in the fifteenth century and contains much more information than the other versions. The third, Codex Holmanius 7, written in the fourteenth century, is shorter than the other versions and gives a brief summary of the saga. The fourth, Flateyjarbók, is a combination of the Jómsvíking saga and the Greater saga of Óláfr Tryggvason. Lastly, the fifth version, was a Latin translation of Arngrímr Jónsson written in the year 1592. Historians have found it difficult to classify the ''Jómsvíkinga saga'' among the Old Norse sagas. It is sometimes counted among the Kings' sagas based principally upon the association with Danish kings. Both the Kings' sagas and the ''Jómsvíkinga saga'' can be looked at through a political lens.

Popular culture

''Jómsvíkinga saga'' served as inspiration for Henry Treece's novel ''Horned Helmet'' (1963).

Translations

*''The Saga of the Jomsvikings: Translated from the Icelandic with Introduction, Notes and Appendices (Nelson's Icelandic Texts),'' N.F. Blake (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1962) *''The Saga of the Jomsvikings: A Translation with Full Introduction'', trans. by Alison Finlay and Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2018), .

References

Other sources

*Fløtre, Odd Karstein (2009) ''Jomsvikingslaget i oppklarende lys'' (Hatlehols AS) *Halldórsson, Ólafur (1993) ''Jómsvíkinga saga'' (Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Phillip Pulsiano et al., Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages; 343–44) * Blake, N.F. (1962) "The Saga of the Jómsvíkings" (Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd)

External links

*Editions available fro
''Old Norse Workfiles''
by Michael Irlenbusch-Reynard.
Jómsvíkinga saga
in Old Norse (with translations into other Scandinavian languages) from heimskringla.no

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jomsvikinga saga Sagas Jomsvikings Medieval literature Icelandic literature 13th-century literature Anonymous works