Saga - 2011, Page 144

agreements in this group, he chooses to dismiss the oath they con-
tain. He admits that „örðugt er að skýra, hvers vegna eiðurinn
fylgir þessari sam þykkt í sumum handritum“,29 but he goes on to
suggest that the oaths were written down as a reminder of the orig-
inal sáttmáli from 1262. The same reasoning applies to the clauses in
the document which are anachronistic if dated to 1302, such as, for
example, the mention of a jarl to rule over Iceland.30 By discounting
some parts of the text in this way, though, Jón Jóhannesson effec-
tively works with imaginary documents, and not with the puzzling
but real evidence that lies in front of him.
Scholars who argue that the extant documents represent distinct
agreements suggest that it was customary for Icelanders to write a
hyllingarbréf whenever a Norwegian king succeeded to the throne.
The hyllingarbréf would mark the renewal of the Icelanders’ alle-
giance to the king and of the terms of the first agreement with King
Hákon Hákonarson, and that is why they contained the clauses then
agreed.31 If all documents of the Gamli-sáttmáli type are dated to
1302, there would be two distinct agreements dated to 1302, as there
is a group of texts (extant in three manuscripts) which significantly
differs from the other documents.32 Konrad Maurer explains that the
Icelanders composed two set of documents in 1302: one was a
hyllingarbréf and the other was an explanatory letter in which they
expressed their willingness to pay homage under certain conditions.
Ólsen, on the other hand, dates the latter to 1306. Helgi Skúli Kjart -
ans son criticises me for not discussing Ólsen’s suggestion, but while
I regret not mentioning this particular point somewhere in my work,
this does not render my research misleading.33 Ólsen bases the 1306
dating on the account of annals and Lárentíus saga biskups, which
mention a meeting at the Alþingi and a document sent to the king.34
patricia pires boulhosa144
29 Ibid., p. 249.
30 Ibid., p. 251.
31 Konrad Maurer, Island, p. 472; Jón Jóhannesson, Íslendinga saga II, p. 251. An
original letter from 1419 seems to have been sent to King Eirk of Pomerania for
that purpose (Diplomatarium Islandicum IV, nr. 330, pp. 268–69).
32 The manuscripts are AM 137 4° 3, AM 456 12° 36, and AM 136 4°. Patricia
Boulhosa, Icelanders and the Kings of Norway, pp. 223–226 and Gamli sáttmáli:
Tilurð og tilgangur, pp. 112–116.
33 Helgi Skúli Kjartansson, „Gamli sáttmáli — hvað næst?“, p. 137.
34 Björn M. Ólsen, Um upphaf konungsvalds á Ísland (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka
þjóðvinafélag 1908), pp. 63–64.
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