
''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar'' ("The Saga of Haakon Haakonarson") or ''Hákonar saga gamla'' ("The Saga of Old Haakon") is an
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 ...
Kings' Saga, telling the story of the life and reign of King
Haakon Haakonarson 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 ...
.
Content and style
The circumstances of the saga's composition are exceptionally well understood, as they are recorded in some detail in ''
Sturlunga saga
''Sturlunga saga'' (often called simply ''Sturlunga'') is a collection of Icelandic Norse saga, sagas by various authors from the 12th and 13th centuries; it was assembled in about 1300, in Old Norse. It mostly deals with the story of the Sturlun ...
'' (particularly ''Sturlu þáttr''): the saga was written in the 1260s (apparently 1264–65) by the Icelandic historian and chieftain
Sturla Þórðarson (nephew of the noted historian
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...
). Sturla Þórðarson was at the court of Haakon's son
Magnus Lagabøte when Magnus learned of his father's death in
Kirkwall
Kirkwall (, , or ; ) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. First mentioned in the ''Orkneyinga saga'', it is today the location of the headquarters of the Orkney Islands Council and a transport hub wi ...
in
Orkney
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...
. Magnus is said to have immediately commissioned Sturla to write his father's saga. This was awkward for Sturla: 'King Hákon had instigated the death of Sturla's uncle, Snorri Sturluson, in 1241.
Sturla rightly regarded Hákon as his most dangerous enemy, for he had steadfastly resisted the king's subjugation of Iceland to Norway, which was accomplished in 1262–1264.
Skúli Bárðarson (d. 1240), Hákon's most dangerous rival for royal power, was the maternal grandfather of Magnús, who supervised the composition of his father's biography, much as
King Sverrir is said to have "sat over"
Karl Jónsson as the Icelandic abbot wrote Sverrir's biography'. Sturla makes extensive use of written evidence in this text, in a manner that has been argued to correspond with contemporary European practices.
Manuscripts and transmission
The saga survives in three main redactions, preserved primarily in the manuscripts
Eirspennill
''Eirspennill'', also known as AM 47 fol, is a medieval manuscript which contains copies of four sagas: ''Heimskringla'', ''Sverris saga'', ''Böglunga sögur'', and ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar''. The manuscript is considered to date to the earl ...
,
Codex Frisianus, and
Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey, Breiðafjörður, Flatey") is an important medieval Iceland, Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and p ...
. However, there is not yet a satisfactory stemma of the saga, as the relationships between its manuscripts are complex.
According to
Kari Ellen Gade's edition of the verse in the saga in the
Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages is a project which is editing the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic skaldic poetry., along with all poetry written down in runes. The project will publish nine volumes and is supported by a website. The c ...
edition, the key manuscripts of the saga are:
[''Poetry from the Kings' Sagas 2'', ed. by Kari Ellen Gade, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009), accessed from http://www.abdn.ac.uk/skaldic/db.php?id=565&if=db&table=doc.]
*
Eirspennill
''Eirspennill'', also known as AM 47 fol, is a medieval manuscript which contains copies of four sagas: ''Heimskringla'', ''Sverris saga'', ''Böglunga sögur'', and ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar''. The manuscript is considered to date to the earl ...
, AM 47 fol, 139v-194v (early C14).
*
Jöfraskinna, preserved in NRA 55 A (one-leaf fragment).
* Fríssbók,
Codex Frisianus, AM 45 fol., 84ra-124rb (early C14).
* Gullinskinna, preserved in AM 325 VIII 5 c 4° (one-leaf fragment).
* AM 42 fol
x, copy of G, 82r-177v.
* AM 80 fol
x (80
x), also a copy of G, by
Ásgeir Jónsson (end of C17)
* Skálholtsbók yngsta, AM 81 a fol (Icelandic, c. 1450–75), 64va-120vb.
* Holm perg 8 fol, 32v-81v (32v-68v c. 1340–70; 69r-81v c. 1500), with AM 325 VIII 5 a 4° (three leaves originally belonging to the first section of Holm perg 8 fol.)
* AM 304 4°
x (c. 1600-50 and later, copied from Holm perg 8 fol. when it was more complete than it is now).
* AM 325 VIII 5 b 4° (c. 1300–25). Two leaves.
* AM 325 X 4° (c. 1370), 11ra-12vb.
*
Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey, Breiðafjörður, Flatey") is an important medieval Iceland, Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and p ...
, GKS 1005 fol.
* NRA 55 B (55 B), a one-leaf fragment (c. 1300–25)
Editions and translations
* ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, Bǫglunga saga, Magnúss saga lagabœtis'', ed. by Sverrir Jakobsson, Þorleifur Hauksson, and Tor Ulset, Íslenzk fornrit, 31–32, 2 vols (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 2013) (now the standard edition of the Old Icelandic)
* ''Poetry from the Kings' Sagas 2'', ed. by Kari Ellen Gade, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009) (verse only)
* ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, etter Sth. 8 fol., AM 325 VIII 4to og AM 304 4to'', ed. by Marina Mundt, Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt: Norrøne tekster, 2 (Oslo: Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt i kommisjon hos Forlagsentralen, 1977); supplement: James E. Knirk, ''Rettelser til Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar etter Sth. 8 hi, AM 325 VIII 4° og AM 304 4°'', Norrøne tekster, 2 (Oslo: Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt, 1982)
* ''Icelandic Sagas and Other Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles'', ed. by Gudbrand Vigfusson, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, 88, 4 vols (London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1887–94), https://archive.org/details/icelandicsagasot01stur, https://archive.org/details/icelandicsagasot02stur, https://archive.org/details/icelandicsagasot04stur (Old Norse edition volume 2; English translation vol 4b pp. 1–373 by G. W. Dasent)
* Sturla Þórðarson, ''Håkon Håkonssons saga'', trans. by Anne Holtsmark (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1964) (Norwegian translation)
* ''Norwegische Königsgeschichten'', trans. by Felix Niedner, rev. edn, Thule: altnordische Dichtung und Prosa, 17–18, 2 vols (Düsseldorf: Diederichs, 1965) (German translation)
* Sturla Tordsson, ''Soga om Håkon Håkonsson'', trans. by Kr. Audne, 2d edn by Knut Helle, Norrøne bokverk, 22 (Oslo: Norske samlaget, 1963), trans. by James Johnstone (Edinburgh: Brown, 1882, repr. from 1782)
Other sources
*
Ármann Jakobsson (2015
"Views to a kill. Sturla þórðarson and the murder in the cellar."''Saga book of the Viking Society for Northern Research'' vol. 39, p. 5-20
*Rohrbach, Lena (2017) “Narrative Negotiations of Literacy Practices in Íslendinga saga and Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar“. In: Jón Viðar Sigurðsson/ Sverrir Jakobsson (eds.): Sturla Þórðarson (1214-1284). Life and Legacy. (Northern World). Leiden: Brill, 93–106.
*
Ross, Margaret Clunies (2010) ''The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga'' (Cambridge University Press)
*
McTurk, Rory (2005) ''A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture'' (Wiley-Blackwell)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hakonar saga Hakonarsonar
1260s works
Kings' sagas
13th-century literature
Works by Sturla Þórðarson
Flateyjarbók