The Vikings - The Chronicles of the Kings of Norway
Heimskringla
or
The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
By
Snorri Sturlson
(c. 1179 - 1241)
Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #15b
Originally written in Old Norse, app. 1225 A.D., by the poet
and historian Snorri Sturlson. English translation by Samuel Laing (London,
1844).
The text of this edition is based on that published as "Heimskringla: A
History of the Norse Kings" (Norroena Society, London, 1907), except for
"Ynglinga Saga", which for reasons unknown is curiously absent from the
Norroena Society edition. "Ynglinga Saga" text taken from Laing's original
edition (London, 1844).
This electronic edition was edited, proofed, and prepared by Douglas B.
Killings DeTroyes@AOL.COM, April 1996.
Some corrections and "Ynglinga Saga" added courtesy of Ms. Diane Brendan, May
1996.
The "Heimskringla" of Snorri Sturlason is a collection of sagas concerning
the various rulers of Norway, from about A.D. 850 to the year A.D. 1177.
The Sagas covered in this work are the following:
While scholars and historians continue to debate the historical accuracy
of Sturlason's work, the "Heimskringla" is still considered an important
original source for information on the Viking Age, a period which Sturlason
covers almost in its entirety.
Selected Bibliography:
Original Text - Athalbjarnarson, Bjarni (ed.): "Heimskringla" vol. I-III
(Reykjavik, 1946-51). Other translations - Hollander, Lee M.: "Heimskringla"
(University of Texas Press, 1964) Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson:
"King Harald's Saga" (Penguin Classics, London, 1966). "Saga of Harald
Hardrade" only. Morris, William and Eirikr Magnusson: "Heimskingla", in "Saga
Library", vol III-VI (London, 1893).
Recommended reading:
Jones, Gwyn: "A History of the Vikings" (Oxford University Press, Oxford,
1968; Revised, 1984).
PREFACE OF SNORRE STURLASON.
In this book I have had old stories written down, as I have heard them
told by intelligent people, concerning chiefs who have have held dominion in
the northern countries, and who spoke the Danish tongue; and also concerning
some of their family branches, according to what has been told me. Some of
this is found in ancient family registers, in which the pedigrees of kings
and other personages of high birth are reckoned up, and part is written down
after old songs and ballads which our forefathers had for their amusement.
Now, although we cannot just say what truth there may be in these, yet we
have the certainty that old and wise men held them to be true.
Thjodolf of Hvin was the skald of Harald Harfager, and he composed a poem
for King Rognvald the Mountain-high, which is called "Ynglingatal." This
Rognvald was a son of Olaf Geirstadalf, the brother of King Halfdan the
Black. In this poem thirty of his forefathers are reckoned up, and the death
and burial-place of each are given. He begins with Fjolner, a son of
Yngvefrey, whom the Swedes, long after his time, worshipped and sacrificed
to, and from whom the race or family of the Ynglings take their name.
Eyvind Skaldaspiller also reckoned up the ancestors of Earl Hakon the
Great in a poem called "Haleygjatal", composed about Hakon; and therein he
mentions Saeming, a son of Yngvefrey, and he likewise tells of the death and
funeral rites of each. The lives and times of the Yngling race were written
from Thjodolf's relation enlarged afterwards by the accounts of intelligent
people.
As to funeral rites, the earliest age is called the Age of Burning;
because all the dead were consumed by fire, and over their ashes were raised
standing stones. But after Frey was buried under a cairn at Upsala, many
chiefs raised cairns, as commonly as stones, to the memory of their
relatives.
The Age of Cairns began properly in Denmark after Dan Milkillate had
raised for himself a burial cairn, and ordered that he should be buried in it
on his death, with his royal ornaments and armour, his horse and
saddle-furniture, and other valuable goods; and many of his descendants
followed his example. But the burning of the dead continued, long after that
time, to be the custom of the Swedes and Northmen. Iceland was occupied in
the time that Harald Harfager was the King of Norway. There were skalds in
Harald's court whose poems the people know by heart even at the present day,
together with all the songs about the kings who have ruled in Norway since
his time; and we rest the foundations of our story principally upon the songs
which were sung in the presence of the chiefs themselves or of their sons,
and take all to be true that is found in such poems about their feats and
battles: for although it be the fashion with skalds to praise most those in
whose presence they are standing, yet no one would dare to relete to a chief
what he, and all those who heard it, knew to be a false and imaginary, not a
true account of his deeds; because that would be mockery, not praise.
OF THE PRIEST ARE FRODE
The priest Are Frode (the learned), a son of Thorgils the son of Geller,
was the first man in this country who wrote down in the Norse language
narratives of events both old and new. In the beginning of his book he wrote
principally about the first settlements in Iceland, the laws and government,
and next of the lagmen, and how long each had administered the law; and he
reckoned the years at first, until the time when Christianity was introduced
into Iceland, and afterwards reckoned from that to his own times. To this he
added many other subjects, such as the lives and times of kings of Norway and
Denmark, and also of England; beside accounts of great events which have
taken place in this country itself. His narratives are considered by many men
of knowledge to be the most remarkable of all; because he was a man of good
understanding, and so old that his birth was as far back as the year after
Harald Sigurdson's fall. He wrote, as he himself says, the lives and times of
the kings of Norway from the report of Od Kolson, a grandson of Hal of Sida.
Od again took his information from Thorgeir Afradskol, who was an intelligent
man, and so old that when Earl Hakon the Great was killed he was dwelling at
Nidarnes -- the same place at which King Olaf Trygvason afterwards laid the
foundation of the merchant town of Nidaros (i.e., Throndhjem) which is now
there. The priest Are came, when seven years old, to Haukadal to Hal
Thorarinson, and was there fourteen years. Hal was a man of great knowledge
and of excellent memory; and he could even remember being baptized, when he
was three years old, by the priest Thanghrand, the year before Christianity
was established by law in Iceland. Are was twelve years of age when Bishop
Isleif died, and at his death eighty years had elapsed since the fall of Olaf
Trygvason. Hal died nine years later than Bishop Isleif, and had attained
nearly the age of ninety-four years. Hal had traded between the two
countries, and had enjoyed intercourse with King Olaf the Saint, by which he
had gained greatly in reputation, and he had become well acquainted with the
kingdom of Norway. He had fixed his residence in Haukadal when he was thirty
years of age, and he had dwelt there sixty-four years, as Are tells us. Teit,
a son of Bishop Isleif, was fostered in the house of Hal at Haukadal, and
afterwards dwelt there himself. He taught Are the priest, and gave him
information about many circumstances which Are afterwards wrote down. Are
also got many a piece of information from Thurid, a daughter of the gode
Snorre. She was wise and intelligent, and remembered her father Snorre, who
was nearly thirty-five years of age when Christianity was introduced into
Iceland, and died a year after King Olaf the Saint's fall. So it is not
wonderful that Are the priest had good information about ancient events both
here in Iceland, and abroad, being a man anxious for information, intelligent
and of excellent memory, and having besides learned much from old intelligent
persons. But the songs seem to me most reliable if they are sung correctly,
and judiciously interpreted.
Copyright © 1996.
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