Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1965, Page 287

question of the written sources of the various works; but only when the
last question has been answered, is it possible to decide the extent to
which the various writers built on oral tradition, and the problem how
their personal points of view influenced the representation.
Chapter I. The Earliest Icelandic Historiography. In the beginning of
the chapter an attempt has been made at elucidating the historical work
which in later Icelandic literature was ascribed to the priest and chief
Sæmundr Sigfusson (1056-1133). Only a few lines of Sæmundr’s book
which presumably was written in Latin, are extant. They are found in
Icelandic translation as an interpolation in Oddr Snorrason’s Saga Olaf s
Tryggvasonar. The other main aid for the evaluation of Sæmundr’s lost
work is the poem Noregs konunga tal, which was composed in the period
1184-97 an<f later recorded in the Flateyjarbok. The information given
there makes it reasonable to assume that Sæmundr’s book included the
Norwegian kings from Halfdan Svarti to Magnus the Good, and further-
more the poem has handed down a complete list of the number of years
which Sæmundr ascribed to the reigns of the Norwegian princes from
Harald Fairhair to Magnus the Good. These indications, as a comparison
with corresponding information in other sources shows, must be inter-
preted as applying to periods of full power, not including years of com-
mon government with a preceding prince. The various events seem to
have been dated relatively within the reign of the prince in question,
whereas there is no reason to believe that Sæmundr’s work contained
indications of years after Christ.
On the basis of Noregs konunga tal it is furthermore possible to draw
certain conclusions regarding composition and view of history in Sæ-
mundr’s work. Harald Fairhair, Hakon the Good, Olaf Tryggvason, and
Olaf Haraldsson seem to have been the central characters of the account,
but the honourable description of Erik Jarl and above all the sober pre-
sentation of the rebellion against Saint Olaf are rather more remarkable.
These and other features testify to no small objectivity in the author,
but furthermore they indicate that his sympathy was with the yeoman
aristocracy, which is not surprising considering Sæmundr’s extraction.
No doubt, however, it was of equally great importance for Sæmundr’s
description of the history of Norway that it was written by a clergyman
who through his education as well as his experiences at home and abroad
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