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they mostly represent the norms and values of the old society. However,
the kings’ sagas also show connections with Norway. Although most saga
authors were Icelanders, the Norwegian court was an important audience.
Some sagas were directly commissioned by the king of Norway, such as
Sverris saga, Hákonar saga and most probably Fagrskinna. king Sverrir is
even said to have supervised the writing of the first part of his saga. As the
kings’ sagas have the Norwegian dynasty as their subject and frequently
express Norwegian patriotism in describing the Norwegian kings’ con
flicts with neighbouring peoples, there can hardly be any doubt of the
Norwegian influence on their composition, although it is more difficult to
distinguish between Norwegian and Icelandic elements.
The contrast or even conflict between Norway and Iceland is often
emphasised in modern scholarship, and the end of the socalled free state
in 1262–64 is regarded as a kind of conquest. there are also hints at such
an opposition in the saga literature. one example is the famous episode of
Snorri’s return to Iceland from Norway in 1220, when the high rank and
rich gifts bestowed on him by the Norwegian king and earl are met with
envy and ridicule;48 another example is the explanation of the emigration
to Iceland as the result of Haraldr hárfagri’s “tyranny”, most clearly
expressed in Egils saga’s account of the conflict between King Haraldr and
Skallagrímr and his family.49 The latter, as well as some other saga epi
sodes, contrasts the simple, straightforward, egalitarian manners of the
Icelanders – in accordance with the description above – with the refined,
haughty, courtly manners of those in Norway. However, the extent to
which Egill and his father represent an Icelandic ideal is an open question,
and even more is the extent to which this ideal was still valid later in the
13th century. nor is the account of Haraldr hárfagri consistently negative,
not even in Egils saga.50 taken together, the Icelandic family sagas are more
likely to express ambivalence towards the Norwegian king: on the one
hand, the wealth and honour that might be gained from his service, on the
other the loss of independence. the actual behaviour of the Icelandic
48 Sturlunga saga, eds. jón jóhannesson, Magnús finnbogason and kristján eldjárn I–II
(Reykjavík: Sturlunguútgáfan, 1946) I, 278 f.; Preben Meulengracht Sørensen, Fortælling
og ære (Århus: Aarhus universitetsforlag, 1993), 121–23.
49 Meulengracht Sørensen, Fortælling og ære, 127–47.
50 Slavica Rancović, “Golden Ages and Fishing Grounds: The Emergent Past in the Ís
lendingasögur,” SagaBook 30 (2006), 56–59.