Iceland review - 2016, Page 60

58 ICELAND REVIEW
HISTORY
kingdom. However, back in Iceland,
Snorri didn’t act on his promise to the
king, and other chieftains followed his
example. The king finally won Iceland
over with the Old Covenant (Gamli sátt-
máli) in 1262-64, which put an end to the
Age of the Sturlungs and to the Icelandic
Commonwealth.
The age has long been considered a
black period in Icelandic history; a savage
period of civil wars led by chieftains in
constant struggle for power, eventually
resulting in the young nation losing
its independence. However, historians*
have reasoned that even though the
period was marked by violent struggles,
‘civil wars’ is an overstatement, and the
centuries preceding it were hardly peace-
ful. The struggles were evidence of the
concentration of power, also occurring
elsewhere in Europe in the middle ages.
Icelandic identity didn’t exist at the time
and as the covenant with Norway secured
peace, people likely approved of the
king’s rule. The Age of the Sturlungs was
also when the Icelandic sagas—on which
the nation, in its fight for independence
centuries later, built its identity—were
written. These include the contemporary
Sturlunga Saga, partly written by Snorri’s
nephew, Sturla Þórðarson (1214-1284)—
the most important historical evidence
about the Age of the Sturlungs.
BLOOD WILL RAIN DOWN
Örlygsstaðabardagi proved a huge blow
to the Sturlungar clan. The conflict-
ing parties were, from the side of the
Sturlungs: Sighvatur Sturluson and his
son Sturla Sighvatsson (1199-1238)
with a combined army of 1,000 men;
against Gissur Þorvaldsson (1208-1268),
chief of the Haukdælir clan, who ruled
large territories in South Iceland, and
Kolbeinn the Young (1208-1245), chief
of the Ásbirningar clan in Skagafjörður,
North Iceland, with a combined army of
1,600 men.
Hungry for power, Sturla had already
claimed his uncle Snorri’s chieftainships
in the West Fjords when he tricked
Gissur into promising his loyalty at
Apavatn lake in the spring of 1238.
Wrathful, Gissur sought his vengeance.
Outnumbering the Sturlungar, Gissur
and Kolbeinn launched their attack in
the early morning of August 21, 1238,
where the Sturlungar were waiting in
Skagafjörður.
Sturla Þórðarson, who survived the
battle, recites in Sturlunga Saga: Sturla
[Sighvatsson] woke up shortly after sunrise.
He sat up and his face was sweating; he
stroked his chin with his hand and said,
“There’s not much meaning in dreams.”
After that he got up and went to the out-
house; Illugi the priest was with him. When
he came back he lay down for a little while,
until a man came into the hall and called
out: “The group of southerners is riding now,
and it’s a whole army!” The Sturlungar
retreated into an enclosed field named
Örlygsstaðir, after which the battle is
named. It was low-lying and poorly suit-
ed for defense. The men took positions
but didn’t have time to unfasten their
shields from the horses.
Their enemies attacked and it soon
became clear that they were the stronger
party. After Kolbeinn struck Sighvatur
with a spear, the wounded chieftain
pleaded: “Let us talk with one another—for
you have the upper hand now in our affair.”
But Sighvatur, 68 years old, was shown
no mercy. His enemies struck again and
again, inflicting 17 wounds on his body.
Sturla fought bravely on. Sturla defend-
ed himself with a spear, which was named
Grásíða, an ancient, inlaid, but not very
strong spear. He continuously laid about him
so hard with this spear that men fell before
him, but the spear bent and several times
he had to straighten it out under his foot.
Eventually, Sturla could defend himself
no longer. After receiving three mortal
wounds, he asked to be spared. This was
granted but Gissur decided otherwise,
declaring: “Here am I to do the work.”
He took a broadaxe from the hand of Þórð
Valdason and struck Sturla mightily on the
head from the left, behind the eye, a deep but
narrow wound. The men who were near said
that Gizur leapt into the air with both feet
when he struck Sturla, so that they saw the
sky between his feet and the earth.
In addition to Sighvatur and Sturla,
three of Sturla’s brothers were among
the 49 casualties from the ranks of the
Sturlungar. Gissur lost seven men and
Kolbeinn none. The victors claimed
much of their enemies’ territory but the
war was far from over.
POINT AND EDGE
On accusation of treason, King Haakon
ordered Gissur to assassinate Snorri
Sturluson. Snorri was killed at his home
in Reykholt on September 23, 1241.
Snorri’s nephew, Sturla Sighvatsson’s
brother, Þórður kakali, who was
in Norway when his kinsmen were
killed, returned to avenge them. In
Iceland’s only naval battle, Flóabardagi
on Húnaflói on June 25, 1244, Þórður
crushed Kolbeinn the Young’s fleet of
20 ships and crew of 470, in spite of
having only 12 ships and a crew of 200.
Kolbeinn lost 60 men. He made his sec-
ond cousin Brandur Kolbeinsson chief
of the Ásbirningar clan and died the fol-
lowing year. Then Þórður gathered an
army of 600 men and attacked Brandur’s
army of 700 at Haugsnes in Skagafjörður
on April 19, 1244. The bloodiest battle
in Icelandic history, Haugsnesbardagi
claimed the lives of 60 of Brandur’s
men, among them Brandur himself, and
40 of Þórður’s. The Ásbirningar clan
had been defeated.
Instead of continuing with the blood-
shed, Þórður and Gissur decided to
refer their case to King Haakon, whom
they both served. The king ruled in
Þórður’s favor and sent him back to
Iceland, accompanied by the new bish-
op of Hólar, Heinrekur Kársson, with
the task of making all Icelanders pay
taxes to the king. Þórður took the
land of Garðar in Akranes in the king’s
name and became a near dictator in
Iceland in 1247-50. Heinrekur reported
to Haakon that Þórður wasn’t efficient
enough in winning him followers and
Þórður was called back to Norway. He
died there in 1256, shortly before the
king had decided that he should return
to Iceland.