Saga - 2011, Page 138

sis of the documents generically known as Gamli sáttmáli, I have
suggested that they were first composed and written down by the
Icelanders in the fifteenth century.5 They represent an effort on the
part of the Icelanders — an effort born out of economic and politi-
cal pressures — to produce a document which could tell the history
of their country’s submission to the Norwegian crown in the thir-
teenth century, and thus enable them to negotiate with the
Norwegian crown in the fifteenth century. I have argued that the
documents were written on the basis of the textual evidence avail-
able, such as sagas and annals, but also included conditions and cir-
cumstances specific to the time when they were recorded in the fif-
teenth century. The continued re-writing of these agreements
through out the sixteenth century, and into the seventeenth century,
produced the text which scholars unanimously date to 1262, and
which is known as Gizurarsáttmáli: like the fifteenth-century texts,
this text represents an attempt to produce a written document of the
thirteenth-century submission which would conform to both avail-
able historical data and contemporary interests.
Helgi Skúli Kjartansson summarizes my argument in support of
the theory that the documents were later fabrications in the follow-
ing way:
Bein rök hennar fyrir þessu eru af tvennu tagi: ungur aldur handrita,
og hins vegar tímaskekkjur í efni og orðalagi textanna. Því kem ég að,
hvoru um sig, síðar. Hér við bætast þau óbeinu rök sem felast í því að
niðurstöður fyrri fræðimanna séu gallaðar og ósannfærandi og þar reki
sig eitt á annars horn.6
First of all, it is important to note that the „indirect reason“ (óbeinu
rök) mentioned in this passage is no part of my argument, but Helgi
Skúli Kjartansson’s own. I have presented the analysis of the agree-
ments through a discussion of past scholarship not only as an aca -
patricia pires boulhosa138
5 There are twelve extant texts of documents of the submission recorded in ten
manuscripts from the fifteenth century, or the very beginning of the sixteenth
century (c. 1500): AM 137 4° (folio 101r), AM 148 4° (folios 107r–107v), AM 135 4°
(folio 107r), AM 151 4° (folio 139v), AM 157 b 4° (folio 27r), AM 168 b 4° (folios
12r–12v), AM 175 a 4° (folio 19r), AM 456 12° 41 (folios 41v–42r), GKS 3269 b 4°
(folio 66v), AM 136 4° (folios 105r–105v), AM 137 4° (folios 3v–4r), AM 456 12°
(folios 36r–37r). The text of the last three manuscripts differs significantly from
the others; they will be discussed below.
6 Helgi Skúli Kjartansson, „Gamli sáttmáli — hvað næst?“, p. 137.
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