Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1965, Síða 302

which are now both lost, and it has been possible to identify one of
these sources as Ari’s æfi Noregs-konunga. The other must have been
written in Latin, and to all appearance this Latin source must be identi-
fied with Sæmundr’s book. Only if so, a satisfactory explanation of a
number of cases of agreement between the Ågrip and the poem Noregs
konunga tal can be given, the most important of these being the men-
tion of the places of interment of four Norwegian kings and the reign
of five years attributed to Erik Blood-Axe. No other source than Sæ-
mundr’s work can be assumed to have given the latter piece of in-
formation to the author of the Ågrip.
The fourth work on the Norwegian kings which must be included
among the sources of the Ågrip, is the Catologus regum Norwagiensium.
This source certainly did not play the same part to the author of the
Ågrip as it did to Theodoricus, but in the Ågrip, too, it is possible in a
few places to point out passages informed by an ecclesiastical linguistic
tone and containing statements about the reigns of various princes as
well as of church building and of burial-places. The special character
of these passages cannot be due to loans from Theodoricus. No doubt
the explanation is that the author renders ecclesiastical tradition. As in
the case of Theodoricus’s work this tradition must in part be viewed as
oral, but to all appearance certain information must be due to the
Catalogus regum Norwagiensium. This especially applies to the state-
ment in the Ågrip, that Olaf Kyrre reigned for 27 years, including the
year in which Olaf stayed in the west after his father’s death.
The Ågrip cannot like Theodoricus’s work be considered expressive of
the view of the history of Norway prevalent at the archiepiscopal see at
Trondheim, but still there can hardly be any doubt that this was where
the Ågrip was written. The Catalogus regum Norwagiensium must be
assumed to have been put down at the Norwegian archiepiscopal see,
and there the original of Theodoricus’s work was no doubt kept. Hence
it follows that also the two Icelandic sources used by the author of the
Ågrip, Sæmundr’s and Ari’s pioneer works, must have been accessible to
the clergy at Trondheim about 1190.