''Magnúss saga lagabœtis'' (Magnus the Lawmender's saga) is an

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is 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 of Scandinavia and t ...

kings' saga Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were comp ...

, concerning the life and reign of King Magnus VI the Lawmender of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Only fragments of it survive today. The saga was written by the

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic historian and chieftain

Sturla Þórðarson Sturla Þórðarson ( ; ; 29 July 1214–30 July 1284) was an Icelandic chieftain and writer of sagas and contemporary history during the 13th century. Biography The life of Sturla Þórðarson was chronicled in the Sturlunga saga. Sturla was th ...

. Sturla was in Norway in 1278, and it is assumed that he started work on the saga then, on request of King Magnus himself. He had earlier commissioned Sturla to write the saga of his father, ''

Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar'' ("The Saga of Haakon Haakonarson") or ''Hákonar saga gamla'' ("The Saga of Old Haakon") is an Old Norse Kings' Saga, telling the story of the life and reign of King Haakon Haakonarson of Norway. Content and style ...

''. There are indications that the saga's narrative continued until the death of King Magnus, which would have to mean that Sturla finished it in Iceland some time between King Magnus' death in 1280 and Sturla's death in 1284. Only one leaf of parchment, from a 14th-century manuscript, survives of the saga today. In addition, some passages were copied into Icelandic

annals Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between ann ...

, and have thus been passed down to us today. The small fragments we have show us glimpses of a realistic narrative style, written in strict chronological order, reminiscent of Sturla's work in ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar''. It is not known whether the narrative started with Magnus' accession to the throne upon his father's death, thus continuing the narrative of ''Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar'', or whether it started with Magnus' birth, as the beginning of the saga is not preserved. ''Magnúss saga lagabœtis'' was one of the last kings' sagas to be written, and King Magnus was the last of the Norwegian kings to have his saga written.

References

External links

The preserved fragments of the saga
in Old Norse. Kings' sagas Works by Sturla Þórðarson {{saga-stub