Gripla - 20.12.2016, Qupperneq 290

GRIPLA290
this Hákon refers to his brother as King Ingi (“jngi konongꝛ broðr var”, l.
20), we may identify him as Earl Hákon the Crazy (‘galinn’, d. 1214), son
of Cecilia, daughter of King Sigurðr Munnr. Hákon the Crazy was the
half-brother of Ingi Bárðarson, king of the Birkibeinar faction from 1204 to
1217. In the first letter, moreover, mention is made twice of a King Sigurðr:
first in line 2 as a qualification in the genitive (“ſigurdar konongs”), and
again in line 5 as the maternal grandfather of the sender (“ſigurðꝛ konongr
moðꝛfaðꝛ mín”), whose name is missing. King Sigurðr Munnr was the ma-
ternal grandfather of both King Ingi and Earl Hákon the Crazy. However,
the royal threat (“taka .j. mote kononglega hæmpnd”) in line 9 speaks un-
ambiguously for the king. We may thus attempt to reconstruct line 2:
[...jngi konongr dottoꝛ sonr] ſigurdar konongs. ſænr quediu. Eriki
ærki biſkupi [000]
More could well be missing at the beginning of the line, so this reconstruc-
tion provides the information that at least the equivalent of two more strips
of parchment is missing.12 the witnesses listed in the second letter (lines
16–18), Bishop Johan, the priest Sǫrli, Sigvarðr and a certain “skjaldari”
whose name is lost, have so far not been identified.13
the letters themselves were evidently not dated but assuming they
belong together and originate from around the same time, we can assign
dates to them on the basis of the names and titles of the receiver of the first
letter and the senders of the first and third letters. according to Bǫglunga
saga, King Ingi Bárðarson was elected with the support of archbishop
Eiríkr in the summer or autumn of 1204, after which he appointed his
older half-brother, Hákon the Crazy, who had also been a contender to
the throne, as earl and general by his side.14 About a year and a half later,
the archbishop ceded his office to a successor on account of blindness and
old age. the precise terminus ante quem for the letters cannot be fixed but
in extant papal letters Eiríkr’s successor, Þórir Guðmundsson, is referred
12 the calculation also takes into consideration a left-hand margin.
13 Similar by-names, ‘minniskjöldr’ and ‘skjaldarband’, are found in Hákonar saga, which
covers the subsequent period in norwegian royal history. See the names ‘Magnús minni-
skjöldur’ and ‘andrés skjaldarband’ in the index of names in Þorleifur Hauksson et al.,
Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, II, 295 and 319.
14 Þorleifur Hauksson et al., Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, I, 9–10.