Contemporary Sagas (Bishops’ sagas and Sturlunga saga)

Abstract

Contemporary sagas tell of people and events in Iceland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They were written soon after the events they describe. The secular contemporary sagas are preserved in the compilation Sturlunga saga, from around 1270–1280, but covering the period 1117–1264. The designation Sturlunga saga first appears in the seventeenth century. Sturlunga saga is a compilation of several sagas. The original sagas were written in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The compilation begins with Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns, telling of a settler from Norway who fled to Iceland to escape the growing power of King Harald Fairhair. The other texts included are Þorgils saga ok Hafliða, Sturlu saga, Prestssaga Guðmundar Arasonar, Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar, Íslendinga saga by Sturla Þórðarson, Þórðar saga kakala, and Svínfellinga saga. Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar is preserved both as a separate saga and as a version included in the Sturlunga saga compilation. Arons saga Hjörleifssonar should also be mentioned in this context, although it was not included in the compilation. Aron was a contemporary of Sturla Sighvatsson and Bishop Guðmundr Arason. The saga has been dated to around 1340. Biskupa sögur (Bishops’ sagas) are biographies of medieval Icelandic bishops. They cover the period from 1056 until 1331, and they were written from the early twelfth century until the mid-fourteenth century. The first Icelandic bishopric was established in Skálholt (South Iceland) in 1056, followed by the establishment of a second bishopric in Hólar (North Iceland) in 1106. The sagas of the bishops of Skálholt cover the period 1056–1206 (Hungrvaka, Þorláks saga Helga, and Páls saga) and 1269–1298 (Árna saga Þorlákssonar). The Biskupa sögur from Hólar cover the periods 1106–1121 (Jóns saga helga), 1203–1237 (the sagas of Guðmundr Arason), and 1324–1331 (Lárentíus saga Kálfssonar). In addition, there are two þættir, or short stories. Ísleifs þáttr tells a story of Ísleifr Gizurarson as a young priest. He became the first bishop of Skálholt (1056–1080). Jóns þáttr Halldórssonar is a short, anecdotal narrative of the life of Jón Halldórsson, bishop of Skálholt (r. 1322–1339). The sagas are all in the vernacular, but remnants of a Latin Þorláks saga and liturgical readings have been preserved. There is evidence for a Latin Jóns saga and Guðmundar saga. The Biskupa sögur are written by contemporary or almost contemporary authors, some of them known by name.