Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum: A Twelfth-Century Synoptic History of the Kings of Norway

154 Pages·2008·6.69 MB·English

by  Matthew James Driscoll

VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH
TEXT SERIES
GENERAL EDITORS
Anthony Faulkes and Richard Perkins
VOLUME X
ÁGRIP AF NÓREGSKONUNGAS¯GUM

ÁGRIP AF
NÓREGSKONUNGAS¯GUM
A TWELFTH-CENTURY SYNOPTIC
HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF NORWAY
EDITED AND TRANSLATED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
M. J. DRISCOLL
SECOND EDITION
VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
2008
Bók flessi er tileinku› vinum mínum á Árnastofnun
© Matthew James Driscoll 1995
Second edition with corrections and additions 2008
ISBN: 978 0 903521 75 8
The cover illustration is based on a figure attached to the shrine
of St Manchan, Boher, County Offaly, which was probably made in
Ireland in the twelfth century. It is thought to represent St Óláfr.
The maps are based on those in Íslenzk fornrit XXIX by permission
of Hi› íslenzka fornritafélag
Printed by
Short Run Press Limited, Exeter
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments............................................................ vi
Preface to second edition ............................................... vii
Introduction....................................................................... ix
(i) Manuscript and provenance ..............................................ix
(ii) Ágrip’s sources................................................................xiii
(iii) Style and language........................................................xviii
Editorial principles.......................................................................xx
(i) Orthography and morphology..........................................xx
(ii) Punctuation, chapter division etc.................................xxiii
(iii) Previous editions and translations...............................xxiv
A note on the translation.......................................................... xxv
Text and translation ...........................................................1
Notes to the translation................................................... 82
Bibliography and abbreviations................................... 109
Index of personal names............................................... 116
Index of place-names.................................................... 120
Index of other names.................................................... 126
Illustrations
Facsimile of folio 5v of the manuscript.......................viii
Map of Denmark ........................................................... 121
Map of Central and South Norway ....................... 122–23
Map of Sweden and the Baltic .................................... 124
Acknowledgments
The present work began life as a BA dissertation, or ‘Semester 8
project’, in English Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland,
completed in the spring of 1979. The Viking Society agreed to publish
it fairly quickly thereafter, but one thing or another has prevented its
publication until now. Owing to the work’s long gestation period,
there are a great many people to whom I owe my thanks. Ursula
Dronke first suggested the idea of a translation with commentary
of Ágrip and Michael Alexander, now Professor of English at St
Andrews, supervised the original project. I edited the text from photo-
graphs of the manuscript at Stofnun Árna Magnússonar in Reykjavík,
checking my text subsequently against the manuscript itself at Det
Arnamagnæanske Institut in Copenhagen; to the staffs of both these
institutions I owe my gratitude, in particular to Ólafur Halldórsson
and Stefán Karlsson in Reykjavík and to Jonna Louis-Jensen in Copen-
hagen. I should also like to acknowledge the help of Christopher
Sanders of Den arnamagnæanske kommissions ordbog. Others who
have helped in one way or another in the preparation of this volume
include Bjarni Einarsson, who very kindly read over my introduction
and notes at an early stage and made available to me the text of his
edition while it was still in proof, Bjarni Gu›nason, who read over the
first draft of my text, and Carolyne Larrington, who also read over the
notes and made a number of valuable comments and suggestions.
Anthony Faulkes and Richard Perkins have both read over the entire
work, the former probably more times than he would care to remem-
ber, and to both of them I owe a debt of gratitude. Finally, I should like
to thank my wife Ragnhei›ur, without whose help and encouragement
I should probably never have completed this—or indeed any other—
project. It is a sobering thought that at no time during our married life
have I not, in theory at least, been working on Ágrip.
M. J. Driscoll
Reykjavík
September 1994
Preface to second edition
For this reprint I have taken the opportunity to correct some errors and
infelicities in the first printing, among them several brought to my
attention in reviews of the book, in particular those by Jan Ragnar Hagland
(Maal og Minne 2 (1996), 215–16) and Kari Ellen Gade (Alvíssmál 7
(1997), 112–15). Hallgrímur J. Ámundason’s MA thesis from 2001, an
edition of Ágrip with detailed palaeographic and linguistic commentary,
has also prompted me to revise a number of readings in my own edition.
I have not, however, made substantial revisions to the introduction
(except in section (i)) or notes, nor have I updated the bibliography.
M. J. Driscoll
Copenhagen
May 2007
AM 325 II 4to, folio 5v (see pp. 16 and 18)
Photo: Suzanne Reitz, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, Copenhagen