Historia Norwegie PDF
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Historia Norwegie Edited by Inger Ekrem † and Lars Boje Mortensen Translated by Peter Fisher Museum Tusculanum Press University of Copenhagen [e-book 2006] Histoia Norwegie e-book © Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006 ISBN 87-635-0612-2 Unchanged reproduction in the pdf-fomat of the book: © The authors and Museum Tusculanum Press, 2003 Composed by Lars Boje Mortensen (Adobe Garamond) Maps and cover design by Veronique van der Neut Printed by Special-Trykkeriet Viborg on Book Design Smooth ISBN 87-7289-813-5 The cover illustration is based on the Physiologus manuscript (c. 1200), Det Arnamagnæanske Institut (Copenhagen), AM 673a, 40 Published with grants from Norges Forskningsråd Nordea Danmark Fonden Museum Tusculanum Press Njalsgade 92 DK-2300 København S wwwmtpdk Contents Preface (LBM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction (LBM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contents and Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Date and Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Style and Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Manuscripts (Michael Chesnutt LBM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Transmission of the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editorial Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Latin Text (IE, LBM) English translation (PF) . . . . . Commentary (IE, LBM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Essay on Date and Purpose (IE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bibliography Index nominum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HN1 4-5 31.10.02, 21:47 Preface The foundations of the present critical edition of the twelfth-century Historia Norwegie — the first to appear since Gustav Storm’s in — were laid by Inger Ekrem. When she died in early , she left behind a manuscript which in some parts was near completion. She had produced a preliminary text, and the English translator, Peter Fisher, had had the opportunity to discuss a number of points with her. A long introduction and rich materials for a commentary were also at hand, together with drafts for a bibliography and index. When I took up the work of finishing the edition in late , I realized, however, that not only were some updatings and adjustments called for as a result of other research going on simul- taneously, but also that a rearrangement of her material would benefit the reader. Most importantly, her long introduction — which was a slightly edited English version of her book in Norwegian, Nytt lys over Historia Norwegie. Mot en løsning i debatten om dens alder? (“New Light on Historia Norwegie. Towards a Resolution in the Debate Concerning its Age?”) — focused almost entirely on describing a possible political context for the work in connection with the estab- lishment of the Norwegian archdiocese at Trondheim in /. Though her theory certainly merits serious attention, she was herself well aware of its some- what speculative nature. What her introduction offered by way of information neutral to any theory of date and place was difficult to find; some points needed further elaboration while others were lacking. On the other hand, her wealth of material and line of argument should definitely not be broken up; her introduc- tory text also has great value as a supplement to our commentary which often refers to paragraphs in that text. What I decided to do, then, was to write a new introduction and to print Inger Ekrem’s old one as an Essay on Date and Purpose and place it as a postscript. This seemed the better solution because it would give an opportunity to present the text in a broader framework, including discussions of transmission, literary style and other matters on which she had barely touched. I now contacted Michael Chesnutt of the Arnamagnæan Institute at the University of Copenhagen, who was the only scholar to have scrutinized the privately-owned Dalhousie manu- script (the single witness to most of the text) since Storm in and had pub- lished a fundamental study of its contents and historical context in . He directed my attention to the better photographs kept at the Institute and kindly agreed to write a summary description of the manuscript for the present volume. By another stroke of good luck and kind service Brian Smith of the Shetland Archives and Virginia Russell of the Scottish National Archives informed me in autumn that the Earl of Dalhousie had recently deposited the manuscript in Edinburgh, thus making it possible for me to consult it in a public collection. Through the swift action of our administrative officer, Ane Landøy, and a gener- ous grant from my own Institute (IKRR, Bergen) I managed to go there in time and look through a number of points in the Historia Norwegie text that were left undescribed by Storm or were hard to assess from his reporting and from the pho- tographs. I am most grateful to all of the above. Preface For various advice, information and inspiration I am also indebted to Monika Asztalos, Sverre Bagge, Gunilla Björkvall, Barbara Crawford, Karsten Friis-Jensen, Tomas Hägg, Odd Einar Haugen, Christian Høgel, Patrick Kragelund, Else Mun- dal, Birger Munk Olsen, Carl Phelpstead, Håkan Rydving, Inge Skovgaard-Peter- sen and Peter Zeeberg. On behalf of Inger Ekrem I would also like to thank Lars Ivar Hansen, Jon Gunnar Jørgensen, Bjørg Tosterud and Trygve Skomedal for their good advice. Peter Fisher and Michael Chesnutt both offered welcome emendations of my English in various parts of the book; both have been very supportive in matters of content as well: it was always a pleasure to receive the precise notes and sugges- tions of the former and the philological and historical advice of the latter. I owe a very special debt of gratitude to my two partners in editing medieval Latin Norwegian texts, my wife Karen Skovgaard-Petersen (Royal Library, Copen- hagen) and Egil Kraggerud (University of Oslo), who read through the manu- script in various stages and not only saved me from more mistakes in text and commentary than are left now, but whose interest and support throughout have been crucial. Finally my sincere thanks go to the present Earl of Dalhousie who put the manuscript in his possession in a public collection and allowed me to benefit from consulting it directly and to reproduce some pages from it here, and to Norges Forskningsråd which not only gave Inger Ekrem a grant for working with HN but also supported the publication and was patient with my prolongation of the proc- ess. Lars Boje Mortensen Bergen / Copenhagen Introduction Contents and Structure In its transmitted form the anonymous Historia Norwegie (HN) from the second half of the twelfth century offers us little unique information on its professed subject: the series and deeds of Norwegian rulers. Little more than half the text (ch.s IX‒XVIII) gives us an overview of the royal lin- eage, beginning with the mythical Yngling kings and breaking off sud- denly in the middle of Olav Haraldsson’s rise to power (). The narra- tive opens up in the later of these chapters (XII‒XVIII), dealing mostly with the second half of the tenth century and casting Queen Gunnhild (and her sons) and Håkon Jarl (and his sons) as villains against the just and Christian heroes, Olav Tryggvason (‒) and Olav Haraldsson (‒). Either we are simply sceptical of any stories of events pur- porting to have taken place before the turn of the millennium and trans- mitted centuries later, or, if we want to believe them or at least study their traditions, we usually turn to the scarce, but important, evidence of Adam of Bremen (c. ) or the fuller sources in Old Norse, written down mainly in the thirteenth century in Iceland or Norway. But together with Theodoricus Monachus’s similar brief Latin History of the Norwegian Kings (c. ) the HN constitutes a primary source for our knowledge of the beginnings of Norwegian historiography and gives us a valuable, if some- what elusive, glimpse of the rise of literate culture in Norway. In HN we are offered an early and unique geographical description of Norway and the North Sea realm (ch.s I‒VIII) as well as some ethnographic details, the highlight of which is the detailed account of a shamanistic séance among the Sami. Furthermore the author draws on natural philosophy of the twelfth-century Renaissance when presenting the mirabilia of the North. Owing to these qualities the HN becomes important in terms of literary history, and it stands as a respectable pioneering effort from a European periphery in the process of identifying itself in relation to the centre — in the literary medium of the centre: a narrative in schooled Latin, draw- ing on foreign and ancient learning. If the majority of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars, including the present two editors, are right in assuming an early date of composition (c. ‒), HN enjoys the fur- The original title, if there was one, is more likely to have been Ystoria Norwagensium (see commentary to the chapter heading of I). We have kept Storm’s suggestion for reasons of tradition and bibliography.
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