Ármann Jakobsson. Our Norwegian Friend: The Role of Kings in the Family Saga

• Author: Ármann Jakobsson
• Title: Our Norwegian Friend: The Role of Kings in the Family Saga
• Published in: Arkiv för nordisk filologi 117
• Year: 2002
• Pages: 145-60
• E-text: Journals.lub.lu.se
• Reference: Ármann Jakobsson. "Our Norwegian Friend: The Role of Kings in the Family Saga." Arkiv för nordisk filologi 117 (2002): 145-160.

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• Key words: literary elements, history, social reality (samfélagsmynd, bókmenntaleg einkenni, sagnfræði)

Annotation

Jakobsson examines how extensively and how favourably kings are portrayed in the Family Sagas, both individually and collectively. He draws on many saga sources, including Egils saga which is the earliest known source for the version of history whereby King Haraldr is cast “as an indirect ‘father’ of Iceland, maintaining that it was his oppression which drove most of the settlers to Iceland” (p. 149). While Egils saga portrays kings in a negative light, its hero’s faults are also exposed, thus tempering the audience’s lack of sympathy for the kings.

Lýsing

Ármann kannar hve víða og í hve jákvæðu ljósi Noregskonungum er lýst í Íslendingasögunum, bæði sem einstaklingum og hópi. Hann vinnur með margvíslegar heimildir, þar á meðal Eglu sem er elsta heimildin sem gefur þá mynd af Haraldi konungi að hann sé "óbeinn 'faðir' Íslands", þar sem það hafi verið yfirgangur hans sem rak flesta landnámsmenn Íslands af stað (s. 149). Enda þótt konungum sé lýst með neikvæðum hætti eru gallar íslensku söguhetjunnar einnig afhjúpaðir, þannig að andúð lesenda á konungi verður ekki of einhliða.

References

Chapter 4: En af þessi áþján flýðu margir menn: „ By and large, King Haraldr emerges as a good king from the Kings' Sagas. In the Icelandic Family Sagas, King Haraldr acquires a different role. In the earliest historical sources, he had no special role in the settlement of Iceland, apart from the fact that it began during his reign. Later, the Icelandic Family Sagas cast him as an indirect ‘father’ of Iceland, maintaining that it was his oppression which drove most of the settlers to Iceland. The earliest known source for this version of history is Egils saga. There King Haraldr is depicted in terms of a 13th-century monarch who holds the whole of his kingdom as his personal property, allocating it to his servants as fiefs. He collects taxes from all of his population, and declares himself the owner of all lakes and the sea. Scholars have tended to take this at face value, perphaps owing to an inclination to believe everything written by the presumed author of Egils saga, Snorri Sturlu¬son. The power attributed to King Haraldr in Egil saga is, however, far beyond credibility for any viking ruler of the 9th century.“ (s. 149)

Links

• Written by: Jane Appleton
• Icelandic translation: Jón Karl Helgason