{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/heim/01intro.htm","path":"neu/heim/01intro.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/heim/01intro.htm","text":"[OMACL release #15b]\nThe Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturlson\n*****************************************************************\nTHE ONLINE MEDIEVAL AND CLASSICAL LIBRARY\nThe Online Medieval and Classical Library (OMACL) is an archive\nbeing assembled as a service to the Internet. The purpose of\nthis archive is to provide a free and easy way for the average\ncomputer user to access some of the most important works of\nClassical and Medieval civilization.\nUnless otherwise noted, all OMACL texts are PUBLIC DOMAIN in the\nUnited States. Because copyright laws vary from country to\ncountry, OMACL does not make any representation as to copyright\nstatus outside of the United States. Please check with the\ncopyright laws of your country before posting this text.\nOMACL encourages the free distribution of its texts, provided\nthat they are distributed in their entirety. OMACL also asks\nthat if you plan on using its texts as source material for your\nown research, please cite us as such.\nOMACL can be reached at:\nINTERNET --\n[email protected]\nFTP --\nftp://ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu\nAnonymous login, then set for directory:\npub/history/Europe/Medieval/translations\nWWW --\nhttps://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/\nSome texts have also been released, in slightly different form,\nvia PROJECT GUTENBURG. For information about Project Gutenburg\ntexts, contact Michael Hart at [email protected]\n*****************************************************************\nHeimskringla\nor\nThe Chronicle of the Kings of Norway\nby\nSnorri Sturlson\n(c.1179-1241)\nOriginally written in Old Norse, app. 1225 A.D., by the poet and\nhistorian Snorri Sturlson. English translation by Samuel Laing\n(London, 1844).\nThe text of this edition is based on that published as\n\"Heimskringla: A History of the Norse Kings\" (Norroena Society,\nLondon, 1907), except for \"Ynglinga Saga\", which for reasons\nunknown is curiously absent from the Norroena Society edition.\n\"Ynglinga Saga\" text taken from Laing's original edition (London,\n1844).\nThis electronic edition was edited, proofed, and prepared by\nDouglas B. Killings ([email protected]), April 1996. Some\ncorrections and \"Ynglinga Saga\" added courtesy of Ms. Diane\nBrendan, May 1996.\n*****************************************************************\nPREPARER'S NOTE:\nThe \"Heimskringla\" of Snorri Sturlason is a collection of sagas\nconcerning the various rulers of Norway, from about A.D. 850 to\nthe year A.D. 1177.\nThe Sagas covered in this work are the following:\n1. Ynglinga Saga\n2. Halfdan the Black Saga\n3. Harald Harfager's Saga\n4. Hakon the Good's Saga\n5. Saga of King Harald Grafeld and of Earl Hakon Son of Sigurd\n6. King Olaf Trygvason's Saga\n7. Saga of Olaf Haraldson (St. Olaf)\n8. Saga of Magnus the Good\n9. Saga of Harald Hardrade\n10. Saga of Olaf Kyrre\n11. Magnus Barefoot's Saga\n12. Saga of Sigurd the Crusader and His Brothers Eystein and Olaf\n13. Saga of Magnus the Blind and of Harald Gille\n14. Saga of Sigurd, Inge, and Eystein, the Sons of Harald\n15. Saga of Hakon Herdebreid (\"Hakon the Broad-Shouldered\")\n16. Magnus Erlingson's Saga\nWhile scholars and historians continue to debate the historical\naccuracy of Sturlason's work, the \"Heimskringla\" is still\nconsidered an important original source for information on the\nViking Age, a period which Sturlason covers almost in its\nentirety.\nSELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:\nORIGINAL TEXT --\nAthalbjarnarson, Bjarni (ed.): \"Heimskringla\" vol. I-III\n(Reykjavik, 1946-51).\nOTHER TRANSLATIONS --\nHollander, Lee M.: \"Heimskringla\" (University of Texas Press,\n1964)\nMagnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson: \"King Harald's Saga\"\n(Penguin Classics, London, 1966). \"Saga of Harald Hardrade\"\nonly.\nMorris, William and Eirikr Magnusson: \"Heimskingla\", in \"Saga\nLibrary\", vol III-VI (London, 1893).\nRECOMMENDED READING --\nJones, Gwyn: \"A History of the Vikings\" (Oxford University Press,\nOxford, 1968; Revised, 1984).\n*****************************************************************\nPREFACE OF SNORRE STURLASON.\nIn this book I have had old stories written down, as I have heard\nthem told by intelligent people, concerning chiefs who have have\nheld dominion in the northern countries, and who spoke the Danish\ntongue; and also concerning some of their family branches,\naccording to what has been told me. Some of this is found in\nancient family registers, in which the pedigrees of kings and\nother personages of high birth are reckoned up, and part is\nwritten down after old songs and ballads which our forefathers\nhad for their amusement. Now, although we cannot just say what\ntruth there may be in these, yet we have the certainty that old\nand wise men held them to be true.\nThjodolf of Hvin was the skald of Harald Harfager, and he\ncomposed a poem for King Rognvald the Mountain-high, which is\ncalled \"Ynglingatal.\" This Rognvald was a son of Olaf\nGeirstadalf, the brother of King Halfdan the Black. In this\npoem thirty of his forefathers are reckoned up, and the death and\nburial-place of each are given. He begins with Fjolner, a son of\nYngvefrey, whom the Swedes, long after his time, worshipped and\nsacrificed to, and from whom the race or family of the Ynglings\ntake their name.\nEyvind Skaldaspiller also reckoned up the ancestors of Earl Hakon\nthe Great in a poem called \"Haleygjatal\", composed about Hakon;\nand therein he mentions Saeming, a son of Yngvefrey, and he\nlikewise tells of the death and funeral rites of each. The lives\nand times of the Yngling race were written from Thjodolf's\nrelation enlarged afterwards by the accounts of intelligent\npeople.\nAs to funeral rites, the earliest age is called the Age of\nBurning; because all the dead were consumed by fire, and over\ntheir ashes were raised standing stones. But after Frey was\nburied under a cairn at Upsala, many chiefs raised cairns, as\ncommonly as stones, to the memory of their relatives.\nThe Age of Cairns began properly in Denmark after Dan Milkillate\nhad raised for himself a burial cairn, and ordered that he should\nbe buried in it on his death, with his royal ornaments and\narmour, his horse and saddle-furniture, and other valuable goods;\nand many of his descendants followed his example. But the\nburning of the dead continued, long after that time, to be the\ncustom of the Swedes and Northmen. Iceland was occupied in the\ntime that Harald Harfager was the King of Norway. There were\nskalds in Harald's court whose poems the people know by heart\neven at the present day, together with all the songs about the\nkings who have ruled in Norway since his time; and we rest the\nfoundations of our story principally upon the songs which were\nsung in the presence of the chiefs themselves or of their sons,\nand take all to be true that is found in such poems about their\nfeats and battles: for although it be the fashion with skalds to\npraise most those in whose presence they are standing, yet no one\nwould dare to relete to a chief what he, and all those who heard\nit, knew to be a false and imaginary, not a true account of his\ndeeds; because that would be mockery, not praise.\nOF THE PRIEST ARE FRODE\nThe priest Are Frode (the learned), a son of Thorgils the son of\nGeller, was the first man in this country who wrote down in the\nNorse language narratives of events both old and new. In the\nbeginning of his book he wrote principally about the first\nsettlements in Iceland, the laws and government, and next of the\nlagmen, and how long each had administered the law; and he\nreckoned the years at first, until the time when Christianity was\nintroduced into Iceland, and afterwards reckoned from that to his\nown times. To this he added many other subjects, such as the\nlives and times of kings of Norway and Denmark, and also of\nEngland; beside accounts of great events which have taken place\nin this country itself. His narratives are considered by many\nmen of knowledge to be the most remarkable of all; because he was\na man of good understanding, and so old that his birth was as far\nback as the year after Harald Sigurdson's fall. He wrote, as he\nhimself says, the lives and times of the kings of Norway from the\nreport of Od Kolson, a grandson of Hal of Sida. Od again took\nhis information from Thorgeir Afradskol, who was an intelligent\nman, and so old that when Earl Hakon the Great was killed he was\ndwelling at Nidarnes -- the same place at which King Olaf\nTrygvason afterwards laid the foundation of the merchant town of\nNidaros (i.e., Throndhjem) which is now there. The priest Are\ncame, when seven years old, to Haukadal to Hal Thorarinson, and\nwas there fourteen years. Hal was a man of great knowledge and\nof excellent memory; and he could even remember being baptized,\nwhen he was three years old, by the priest Thanghrand, the year\nbefore Christianity was established by law in Iceland. Are was\ntwelve years of age when Bishop Isleif died, and at his death\neighty years had elapsed since the fall of Olaf Trygvason. Hal\ndied nine years later than Bishop Isleif, and had attained nearly\nthe age of ninety-four years. Hal had traded between the two\ncountries, and had enjoyed intercourse with King Olaf the Saint,\nby which he had gained greatly in reputation, and he had become\nwell acquainted with the kingdom of Norway. He had fixed his\nresidence in Haukadal when he was thirty years of age, and he had\ndwelt there sixty-four years, as Are tells us. Teit, a son of\nBishop Isleif, was fostered in the house of Hal at Haukadal, and\nafterwards dwelt there himself. He taught Are the priest, and\ngave him information about many circumstances which Are\nafterwards wrote down. Are also got many a piece of information\nfrom Thurid, a daughter of the gode Snorre. She was wise and\nintelligent, and remembered her father Snorre, who was nearly\nthirty-five years of age when Christianity was introduced into\nIceland, and died a year after King Olaf the Saint's fall. So it\nis not wonderful that Are the priest had good information about\nancient events both here in Iceland, and abroad, being a man\nanxious for information, intelligent and of excellent memory, and\nhaving besides learned much from old intelligent persons. But\nthe songs seem to me most reliable if they are sung correctly,\nand judiciously interpreted.","title":"Heimskringla Introduction","type":"page"}