Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.01.2018, Page 91

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A B S T R A C T
Loftur Helgason goes to Bergen
A Description of Incidents in the Context of Constitutional Change
in the Late 13th Century
The article recounts the account from the Árna saga about Loftur Helgason’s trip
to Bergen in 1282 and his stay there over winter, explained in terms of the formal
sources about the organization of the government and changes in the law in the lat-
ter half of the 13th century. These changes were aimed at introducing into Iceland
the power of both the King and the Church and in fact marked the actual changes
throughout the Norwegian state. Loftur was Skálholt’s official and the story about
him was part of a long-standing dispute about the position of the chieftains versus
the new power of the Church and the opposition to its introduction. The article
defines the political confusion described in the Árna saga in Bergen in the winter of
1282–1283 as, on the one hand, changes in the constitution and, on the other hand,
legislation, and at the same time whether the Kings Hákon Hákonarson and his
son Magnús had systematically pursued a policy of having the Church be an inde-
pendent party to the government of the state from 1247 onward until the death of
the latter in 1280. When the disagreement is looked at as continuing, it is seen that
Icelanders had made preparations for changes in the constitution with assurances
of introduction of the power of the Church beginning in 1253 and the power of
the King from 1262, but, on the other hand, the disagreements in both countries
disappeared in the 1270s in the face of the conflict of interests that resulted from
the laws that followed in the wake of the constitutional changes. Árna saga tells
of this and how the disputes were described, but also that their nature changed as
King Erikur came to power in 1280, as he gave the power of the King a new policy
that was aimed against the power of the Church. Ousting of the archbishop from
Norway and the Christian funerals of the excommunicated chieftains are examples
of the conditions of government that could not have been, if the King had no longer
had executive power over Christian concerns, as he had already conceded power
over spiritual issues to the Pope in Rome with the Settlement at Túnsberg in 1277.
Keywords: Árna saga, law, constitution, 13th century, church power, royal power,
chieftains
Lára Magnúsardóttir