''Knýtlinga saga'' () is an Icelandic
kings' saga written in the 1250s, which deals with the kings who ruled Denmark from the early 10th century to the time when the book was written.
There are good reasons to assume that the author was
Óláfr Þórðarson
Óláfr Þórðarson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; – 1259) was an Icelandic skald and scholar. He is usually called Óláfr hvítaskáld (O.N.: ; M.I.: ; "Olaf the white skald") in contrast to a contemporary skald called Óláfr Leggsson ...
(d. 1259), nicknamed ''hvítaskáld'' ("the White Poet"), who was a nephew of
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 ...
.
Óláfr is also known for having written the ''
Third Grammatical Treatise
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system
Places
* 3rd Street (dis ...
''.
He stayed with the Danish ruler
Valdemar II of Denmark
Valdemar II Valdemarsen (28 June 1170 – 28 March 1241), later remembered as Valdemar the Victorious () and Valdemar the Conqueror, was King of Denmark from 1202 until his death in 1241.
In 1207, Valdemar invaded and conquered Bishopric of L ...
in 1240–1241, and Valdemar provided the saga's author with "a great deal of information" and "outstanding accounts".
The work is modelled on the ''
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 ...
'', Snorri's work on the Norwegian kings.
Like Snorri, the author makes frequent use of
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 ...
as documentary sources.
The saga covers the history of the Danish rulers from the early 10th century until the 13th century. In the first part of its history, the saga resembles the synoptics in giving summaries of the major historical events, but later chapters, from those dealing with the sons of
Svend Estridsen (d. mid-1070s) onwards, devote greater attention to the kings themselves.
A central theme is the institution of kingship and all that it demanded of those who held royal office. The exemplary characters and behaviours of good kings such as
Knútr the Holy (d. 1086) and
Eiríkr the Good (d. 1103), are set off against those of incompetent or evil kings. Key benchmarks for good rulership include the promotion of peace and support of the church.
Editions and translations
* ed.
* ed.
* tr. Extracts available from
De Re Militari'.
* Kari Ellen Gade 2009,
Anonymous, Lausavísa from ''Knýtlinga saga'' in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), ''Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300''. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 826–7.
Further reading
*
References
External links
Knut's Invasion of England in 1015-16, according to the Knytlinga SagaExtract in English translation
Jómsvíkíngasaga ok Knytlínga1828 edition of the Old Norse texts
Knýtlinga sagain Old Norse on the website ''heimskringla.no''
Knýtlinga saga in Danish translation by C.C.Rafnon ''heimskringla.no''
Kings' sagas
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