1. Ágrip af Nóregs konunga sǫgum (Ágr)

Manuscript

Ágr:       Ágrip, AM 325 II 4° (Icelandic, c. 1225).

Editions: Ágr 1929, ÍF 29 (Ágr and Fsk), Ágr 2008.

This short work (whose title, meaning ‘Summary of the histories of the kings of Norway’, is editorial) was probably composed in Trøndelag, Norway at the end of the twelfth century; it is preserved in a single, Icelandic, ms. It is the earliest surviving vernacular history of Norway, and the first to use skaldic poetry as source material for the sagas of kings (Fidjestøl 1982, 21). The first leaf and a gathering at the end are missing, so Ágr’s original coverage is unknown, but it is thought to have begun with Hálfdan svarti ‘the Black’ in the mid ninth century and ended in 1177 with Sverrir Sigurðarson’s accession to the Norwegian throne. The surviving part recounts the reigns of kings from Haraldr hárfagri ‘Fair-hair’ to Ingi in the twelfth century, in widely varying detail. The question of Ágr’s sources is extremely complex. Its author seems to have translated sections directly from the Latin Historia de antiquitate regum Norwagiensum by Theodoricus. There are also similarities between Ágr and the anonymous Latin Historia Norwegiae, though here the two works may draw on a now-lost common source. A number of other lost sources have been proposed, and Ágr’s author also used orally-transmitted material, including skaldic poetry. (On the sources see further the summaries by Bjarni Einarsson in ÍF 29, x-xvii and Driscoll in Ágr 2008, xiii-xx.)

Poetry

Ágr preserves seven stanzas, three of which relate to the reigns up to 1035 covered in SkP I: Anon Oddmjór, Anon (Ágr) Lv and Sigv Lv 26; the two anonymous stanzas are preserved only in Ágr. The remaining four are edited in SkP II and listed at SkP II, lv. Eyv Hál is named as a source (ÍF 29, 18), but nothing is quoted from it, nor are the events described in this part of Ágr mentioned in the surviving stanzas of Hál.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Ágr = [Anonymous] Ágrip af Nóregs konunga sögum.
3. Ágr 1929 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1929. Ágrip af Nóregs konunga sǫgum. ASB 18. Halle: Niemeyer.
4. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
5. ÍF 29 = Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum; Fagrskinna—Nóregs konungatal. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. 1985.
6. Theodoricus = Theodrici monachi historia de antiquitate regum Norwagiensium. In MHN 1-68.
7. SkP I = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Ed. Diana Whaley. 2012.
8. Ágr 2008 = Driscoll, Matthew J., ed. and trans. 2008. Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum: A Twelfth-Century Synoptic History of the Kings of Norway. 2nd edn. Viking Society for Northern Research Text Series 10. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. SkP II = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade. 2009.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Fagrskinna’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=56> (accessed 29 November 2024)
12. Russell Poole 2012, ‘ Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Háleygjatal’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 195. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1186> (accessed 29 November 2024)
13. Kari Ellen Gade 2012, ‘ Anonymous, Lausavísa from Ágrip af Nóregskonunga sǫgum’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1072. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3063> (accessed 29 November 2024)
14. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Lausavísur 26’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 732.