The bishops' saga (Old Norse and modern Icelandic ''biskupasaga'', modern Icelandic plural ''biskupasögur'', Old Norse plural ''biskupasǫgur'') is a genre of medieval Icelandic

saga 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 ...

s, 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 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 '' þættir'' are also relevant: '' Ísleifs þáttr biskups'' and '' Jóns þáttr Halldórssonar''.

Sagas about Hólar bishops

* ''Jóns saga helga'' (about Jón Ögmundsson, 1052–1121, in several different versions) * '' Guðmundar saga biskups'' (about Guðmundur Arason, 1161–1237, in several different versions) * '' Laurentius Saga'' (the latest of the ''biskupa sögur'', about Lárentíus Kálfsson, 1267–31) Several of the Hólar sagas are associated with the North Icelandic Benedictine School which flourished in the fourteenth century.

Editions

* The principal modern edition of these sagas is ''Biskupa sögur'', Íslenzk fornrit, 15-17 (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 2002–3). * * * A number of these sagas are edited and translated in

Sources

Icelandic literature Old Norse literature Bishops' sagas {{Iceland-saga-stub