Gripla - 20.12.2008, Page 74

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North Atlantic specifically and practically, and that this learning would
have been a great advantage in the competition for administrative posi-
tions.
Here it is worthwhile bringing in Gunnar Harðarson’s observation
that other royal officials in Haukr’s circle wrote or collected books as well
(Gunnar Harðarson 1995, 181–183). In Bergen, where Haukr was lögmaðr
from at least 1311 to 1322, his contemporary Snara Ásláksson, the keeper
of the seals, probably owned the manuscript De la Gardie 4–7, which con-
tains a fragment of Viðræða æðru ok hugrekkis (Gunnar Harðarson 1995, 43
and 179).11 Gunnar emphasized that at this time, Norway was a single, cen-
tralized state whose districts and tributary lands were governed by admini-
strative personnel, some of whom were clerics and some of whom were
laymen. Their actions were unified by a common ideal of the Christian
monarchy that was exemplified in the reign of the Norwegian kings begin-
ning with Magnús Hákonarson and that was particularly apparent under
the rule of Hákon V. As Gunnar did not discuss the relationship between
the literary culture of these functionaries and the Christian monarchy they
serve, we are led to suppose that the former simply reflects or upholds the
latter.
However, Helgi’s arguments suggest that this relationship was not so
innocent. In Haukr’s case, at least, most if not all of Hauksbók appears to
have been compiled out of ambition, rather than dedication to the Christian
monarchy of Norway. For example, Jón Helgason (1960, xii) noted that
Haukr did not do a very good job of his redaction of Landnámabók, and
Helgi took this as evidence for Haukr’s lack of real interest in genealogies
other than his own. The dating of the parts of Hauksbók also supports this
view, because most of the manuscript seems to have been written between
1302 and 1308, when Haukr was lögmaðr of Oslo. This is precisely the
period of his knighthood and appointment to the royal council. One might
imagine Haukr taking advantage of his secretaries and access to libraries to
try to cement his remarkable position in Norway by physically piling up
11 Gunnar Harðarson (1995, 182–183) also compared Hauksbók to the lost manuscript
Ormsbók (ca. 1350–1375), associated with the lögmaðr Ormr Snorrason, son of Haukr’s con-
temporary, the lögmaðr Snorri Narfason. Like Hauksbók, Ormsbók contained Trójumanna
saga and excerpts from a translation of Petrus Alphonsus’ Disciplina clericalis, but because
Ormsbók is later than Hauksbók and its translation of Disciplina clericalis is not the same
one as Hauksbók’s, it sheds less light on Hauksbók than Hauksbók sheds on it.