Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1965, Blaðsíða 295

arrival in Norway and thus includes only a fragment of the original
book. According to the prologue this brought the history of Norway
down to the author’s own time. It must be taken for granted that the
author was a Norwegian clergyman, and it seems reasonable to date
his work at the time about 1170. On the other hånd it is doubtful
whether the Historia Norvegice was composed in Norway. Asgaut Stein-
nes has called attention to the faet that the author’s utilization of the
works of Honorius Augustodunensis and Solinus suggests that his source
was the Sorø codex destroyed in the fire of Copenhagen in 1728, and
connexion with Denmark is also suggested by certain characteristic agree-
ments between the Historia Norvegice, the Danish Chronicon Lethrense
(about 1170), and the Topographia Hibernica of Giraldus Cambrensis
(1187), as pointed out by Gustav Storm and Halvdan Koht.
The most important source of the Historia Norvegice is undoubtedly
Adam of Bremen’s famous work on the history of the church of Ham-
burg, but ever since the pioneer-work of Sophus Bugge and Gustav
Storm in the 1870’s there has been disagreement as to the extent of the
loans of the Historia Norvegice from this source. The most significant
parallels between the two works are found in the description of Saint
Olaf’s history. There can hardly be any doubt that this part of the
Historia Norvegiæ is based direct on the work of Adam of Bremen, and
the parallel passages suggest that the Adam manuscript used by the
author was of the same type as the one found in the lost Sorø codex.
The mention of Earl Hakon and Olaf Tryggvason in the Historia Nor-
vegiæ also shows a connexion with the work of Adam of Bremen, but
it cannot be precluded that the relationship between the Historia Nor-
vegiæ and Adam of Bremen should here be due to the author of Historia
Norvegiæ using Ari’s work, which like that of the Norwegian author
must be assumed to be based on Adam. The agreements between the
Historia Norvegiæ and the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontifieum
in this place are not too close to prevent such a conclusion.
The connexion with Adam of Bremen is not, however, the only tie
between the Historia Norvegiæ and non-Norse historiography. As pointed
out by Storm, the Historia Norvegiæ on a number of points shows a
close relationship with a survey of the history of the English Kings, the
Liber de legibus Angliæ, included in Roger of Hoveden’s Chronica.
From an early and more complete edition of this English chronicle the
author of the Historia Norvegiæ according to Storm obtained informa-
295