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Guðmundar Saga Biskups
''Guðmundar saga biskups'' or ''Guðmundar saga Arasonar'' is an Icelandic bishops' saga, existing in several different versions, recounting the life of Bishop Guðmundur Arason (1161–1237). Since the saga survives in different versions, it is common to speak of it in the plural, as ''Guðmundar sögur'' (rather than ''Guðmundar saga''). History of the versions The first version, known as the ''Prestssaga Guðmundar byskups'', was composed soon after Guðmundur's death in 1237, possibly at the instigation of abbot Lambkárr Þorgilsson (d. 1249). It recounts the bishop's life as a young man and priest but stops abruptly during a description of Guðmundr's voyage to Norway for consecration in 1202. It may therefore be unfinished. However, it is preserved only through its integration into the later ''Guðmundar sögur'' and ''Sturlunga saga''. A series of four sagas about Bishop Guðmundr, known as ''Guðmundar sögur'' A, B, C, and D, were then written between 1314 and 1344, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 region's westernmost and most list of countries and dependencies by population density, sparsely populated country. Its Capital city, capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which is home to about 36% of the country's roughly 380,000 residents (excluding nearby towns/suburbs, which are separate municipalities). The official language of the country is Icelandic language, Icelandic. Iceland is on a rift between Plate tectonics, tectonic plates, and its geologic activity includes geysers and frequent Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions. The interior consists of a volcanic plateau with sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, and many Glacial stream, glacial rivers flow to the sea through the Upland and lowland, lowlands. Iceland i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bergr Sokkason
Bergr Sokkason was an Icelandic monk, abbot and scholar, who flourished in the earlier fourteenth century. In 1316 he became a monk of the monastery of Þingeyri before moving to the monastery of Munkaþverá, where he became prior in 1322 and abbot from 1325–34 and again from 1345, apparently to 1350. It is not known when Bergr died: the last known mention of him is in 1345. Bergr was a close friend of Lárentíus Kálfsson and Einarr Hafliðason and seems to have been one of the most prolific identifiable authors of medieval Iceland, making him a central figure in the North Icelandic Benedictine School of saga-writing: he wrote '' Nikulás saga erkibiskups'' and '' Mikaels saga höfuðengils''; possibly '' Guðmundar saga C'', the L-version of '' Jóns saga helga'', and '' Jóns þáttr Halldórssonar''; and maybe even a number of romances: '' Kirjalax saga'', '' Rémundar saga keisarasonar'', and '' Dínus saga drambláta''. It has recently been argued that he also composed th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Icelandic Literature
Icelandic literature refers to literature written in Iceland or by Icelandic people. It is best known for the sagas written in medieval times, starting in the 13th century. As Icelandic and Old Norse are almost the same, and because Icelandic works constitute most of Old Norse literature, Old Norse literature is often wrongly considered a subset of Icelandic literature. However, works by Norwegians are present in the standard reader ''Sýnisbók íslenzkra bókmennta til miðrar átjándu aldar'', compiled by Sigurður Nordal on the grounds that the language was the same. Early Icelandic literature The medieval Icelandic literature is usually divided into three parts: *Eddic poetry * Sagas * Skaldic poetry The ''Eddas'' There has been some discussion on the probable etymology of the term "Edda". Most say it stems from the Old Norse term ''edda'', which means great-grandmother, but some see a reference to Oddi, a place where Snorri Sturluson (the writer of the ''Prose Edda'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sagas
Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between Icelandic families. However, sagas' subject matter is diverse, including pre-Christian Scandinavian legends; saints and bishops both from Scandinavia and elsewhere; Scandinavian kings and contemporary Icelandic politics; and chivalric romances either translated from Continental European languages or composed locally. Sagas originated in the Middle Ages, but continued to be composed in the ensuing centuries. Whereas the dominant language of history-writing in medieval Europe was Latin, sagas were composed in the vernacular: Old Norse and its later descendants, primarily Icelandic. While sagas are written in prose, they share some similarities with epic poetry, and often include stanzas or whole poems in alliterative verse embedded in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval Literature
Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th, 15th or 16th century, depending on country). The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works. Like modern literature, it is a broad field of study, from the utterly sacred to the exuberantly profane, touching all points in between. Works of literature are often grouped by place of origin, language, and genre. Languages Outside of Europe, medieval literature was written in Geʽez, Ethiopic, Syriac language, Syriac, Coptic language, Coptic, Japanese language, Japanese, Chinese language, Chinese, and Arabic, among many other languages. In Western Europe, Latin was the common language for medieval writing, since Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church, which domin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sagas Of Icelanders
The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic Saga, sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early eleventh centuries, during the Saga Age. They were written in Old Icelandic, a western dialect of Old Norse, primarily on calfskin. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature. They are focused on history, especially genealogical and family history. They reflect the struggle and conflict that arose within the societies of the early generations of Icelandic settlers. The Icelandic sagas are valuable and unique historical sources about medieval Scandinavian societies and kingdoms, in particular regarding pre-Christian religion and culture and the heroic age. Eventually, many of these Icelandic sagas were recorded, mostly in the 13th and 14th centuries. The 'authors', or rather recorders, of these sagas are largely unknown. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selkolla
Selkolla (literally 'seal-head') is a supernatural being in Icelandic folklore. She is described as a fair woman that is sometimes seen having the head of a seal. She is most prominently attested as an antagonist of Bishop Guðmundur Arason (1161–1237). Tales of Selkolla are noted for combining Christian ideas with concepts found in Scandinavian non-Christian traditions. Medieval Sources The main medieval source for stories about Selkolla is different versions of '' Guðmundar saga Arasonar'', specifically versions B and D, where the episode is often now referred to as ''Selkollu þáttr'' ('the Selkolla episode'). ''Guðmundar saga'' version D This summary is based on the D-version of ''Guðmundar saga''. The events of ''Selkollu þáttr'' take place in the Westfjords, beginning when a man and woman are taking a baby girl to be baptised. On the way, they indulge in an "immoral rest" beside a large stone, fittingly called Miklisteinn ('large stone') and "turn onto the alt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rory McTurk
Rory W. McTurk (born July 30th, 1942) 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 College Dublin. He took up a post at the University of Leeds in 1978, where he has gained the position of Professor Emeritus of Icelandic Studies. McTurk has authored, edited and translated many works on Icelandic literature, including the works of Steinnun Sigurðardóttir. He is a recipient of the Order of the Falcon The Order of the Falcon () is the only order of chivalry in Iceland, founded by Christian X of Denmark, King Christian X of Denmark and Iceland on 3 July 1921. The award is awarded for merit for Iceland and humanity and has five degrees. Nowaday .... Selected bibliography * ''Studies in Ragnars Saga Loðbrókar and its Major Scandinavian Analogues'', 1991 * ''Chaucer and the Norse and Celtic Worlds'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Einarr Gilsson
Einarr Gilsson was an Icelandic poet and official. He was the lögmaður of northern and western Iceland from 1367 to 1369. He is mentioned already in letters dating from 1339 and 1340 but his years of birth and death are unknown. He appears to have lived in Skagafjörður.Finnur Jónsson (1924:13). Einarr was the author of Ólafs ríma Haraldssonar, a ríma on Saint Óláfr Haraldsson consisting of 65 '' ferskeytt'' verses. Preserved in Flateyjarbók, it is sometimes considered the earliest known ''ríma''.Finnur Jónsson (1924:13-14) Einarr's other preserved works are poems on Bishop Guðmundr Arason which have come down to us in Guðmundar saga biskups by Arngrímr Brandsson. These consist of a biographical ''dróttkvætt'' poem on the bishop focusing on his wonder-working, a shorter '' hrynhent'' poem on Guðmundr's conversations with archbishop Þórir of Niðarós and a '' flokkr'' on Guðmundr's struggle with the supernatural being Selkolla.Finnur Jónsson (1924:14). F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 biskups''. This movement is characterised by an elaborate rhetorical style new to Icelandic saga-writing at the time (known in English as the 'florid style', Scandinavian as the ''florissante stil'', and Icelandic as the ''skrúðstíll''), with Latinate grammar, Latin and Low German loan-words; and, unusually for Icelandic sagas, which are usually anonymous, a close-knit network of identifiable authors (sometimes self-identified, sometimes named by others). The school is associated particularly with the Northern Icelandic Benedictine monasteries of Þingeyri and Munkaþverá in the diocese of Hólar, and with the students of Jón Halldórsson and Lárentíus Kálfsson. The principal authors and works associated with this literary movement are: * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bishops' Saga
The bishops' saga (Old Norse and modern Icelandic ''biskupasaga'', modern Icelandic plural ''biskupasögur'', Old Norse plural ''biskupasǫgur'') is a genre of medieval Icelandic sagas, mostly thirteenth- and earlier fourteenth-century prose histories dealing with bishops of Iceland's two medieval dioceses of Skálholt and Hólar. Sagas about Skálholt bishops * ''Hungrvaka'' (short biographies of the first five List of Skálholt bishops, bishops of Skálholt, 1056–1176) * ''Þorláks saga helga'' (three redactions, including the earliest of the ''biskupa sögur'') * ''Páls saga biskups'' (the saga of Þorlákr's successor Páll Jónsson, d. 1211) * ''Árna saga biskups'' (composed c. 1300 about Árni Þorláksson, d. 1298) Two ''Þáttr, þættir'' are also relevant: ''Ísleifs þáttr biskups'' and ''Jóns þáttr biskups Halldórssonar, Jóns þáttr Halldórssonar''. Sagas about Hólar bishops * ''Jóns saga helga'' (about Jón Ögmundsson, 1052–1121, in several differen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arons Saga Hjörleifssonar
''Arons saga Hjörleifssonar'' (standardised Old Norse spelling: ''Arons saga Hjǫrleifssonar'') recounts the life of Aron Hjörleifsson (c. 1200–55), an important contemporary of Sturla Sighvatsson and Bishop Guðmundr Arason. The saga has been dated to around 1340, though it survives first in a fifteenth-century vellum fragment (AM 551d beta 4to), with the earliest complete texts being the paper manuscripts AM 212 fol., AM 426 fol., and AM 399 4to (known as the Codex Resenianus). The saga portrays Aron as a supporter of Bishop Guðmundr, and as in turn receiving the benefits of Guðmundr's numinous assistance. It seems to have been written in the wake of the attempts to have Guðmundr canonised around 1320. It claims that Aron was one of the most famous warriors of his time, becoming an outlaw at the hands of Sturla Sighvatsson, travelling as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, and ending his life at the court of Haakon IV of Norway Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; ; ), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
