(
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 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 ...
. Written in
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 ...
, it is, along with the ''
Historia Norvegiæ'', 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 Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...
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 or bales, there are ISO''ISO 4046-3:2002 Paper, board, pulps and related terms – Vocabulary – Part 3: Paper-making terminology'' (20 ...
, 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 ("A Synopsis of the Sagas of the Kings of Norway") was first used in an edition in 1835.
''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 (; 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 the Diocese of Hamar ...
. 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: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...
in the text. The narrative is brief, and much less detailed than the narratives of the later kings' sagas, such as
Fagrskinna
''Fagrskinna'' ( ; ; trans. "Fair Leather" from the type of parchment) is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It is assumed to be a source for what is known as the '' Heimskringla'', containing histories of Norwegian kings from the 9th ...
and ''
Heimskringla
() is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland. While authorship of ''Heimskringla'' is nowhere attributed, some scholars assume it is written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (117 ...
''. The story is noticeably more detailed in descriptions of events and locations in the
Trøndelag
Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...
region and the city 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 ...
. Together with linguistic factors, this has been seen as an indication that the work was composed in Nidaros.
''Ágrip'' has been translated to
Danish (1834),
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
(1835),
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
(1929),
Norwegian (nynorsk) (1936),
English (1995),
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
(2017) and
Norwegian (bokmål) (2022).
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 sögumOld Norse text
* Same text on a different website
Information on the manuscript
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agrip af Noregskonungasogum
Kings' sagas
Old Norse prose