- Source: Morkinskinna
Morkinskinna is an Old Norse kings' saga, relating the history of Norwegian kings from approximately 1025 to 1157. The saga was written in Iceland around 1220, and has been preserved in a manuscript from around 1275.
The name Morkinskinna means "mouldy parchment" and is originally the name of the manuscript book in which the saga has been preserved. The book itself, GKS 1009 fol, is currently in the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. It was brought to Denmark from Iceland by Þormóður Torfason (Tormod Torfæus) in 1662.
The saga was published in English in 2000 in a translation by Theodore M. Andersson and Kari Ellen Gade.
Contents
The saga starts in 1025 or 1026 and in its received form, ends suddenly in 1157, after the death of King Sigurðr II. Originally, the work may have been longer, possibly continuing until 1177, when the narratives of Fagrskinna and Heimskringla, which use Morkinskinna as one of their sources, end. Apart from giving the main saga, the text is lavishly interspersed with citations from skaldic verse (about 270 stanzas) and includes a number of short Icelandic tales known as þættir. The following is an overview of the chapters in Morkinskinna, chronologically subdivided by the reigns of the kings of Norway:
= Magnús I (r. 1035-1047)
== Haraldr III (r. 1047-1066)
== Óláfr III (r. 1067-1093)
=53. The saga of King Óláfr kyrri "the Quiet"
54. Concerning King Óláfr and the Kráku-karl (Crow Man)
= Magnús III (r. 1093-1103)
== Sigurðr I, Óláfr and Eysteinn I (r. 1103-1130)
== Haraldr IV (r. 1130-6) and Magnús IV (r. 1130-5, 1137-9)
== Sigurðr II (1136-1155)
=Notes
Primary sources
Finnur Jónsson (ed.). Morkinskinna. Copenhagen: Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur, 1932. Available online from Septentrionalia.
Ármann Jakobsson and Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson (eds.). Morkinskinna I-II. Íslenzk fornrit 23–24. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 2011.
Andersson, Theodore Murdock and Kari Ellen Gade (trs.). Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. With introduction. ISBN 0-8014-3694-X
Further reading
Ármann Jakobsson, "Den kluntede afskriver: Finnur Jónsson og Morkinskinna." Opuscula 11 (2003): 289–306.
Ármann Jakobsson, Staður í nýjum heimi. Konungasagan Morkinskinna. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2002.
Ármann Jakobsson, "The Amplified Saga: Structural Disunity in Morkinskinna." Medium Ævum 70.1 (2001): 29-46.
Ármann Jakobsson, "The Individual and the Ideal: The Representation of Royalty in Morkinskinna." Journal of English and Germanic Philology 99.1 (2000): 71-86.
Ármann Jakobsson, "Rundt om kongen. En genvurdering af Morkinskinna." Maal og Minne 1 (1999): 71-90. Available online.
Ármann Jakobsson, "King and Subject in Morkinskinna." Skandinavistik 28 (1998): 101-117.
Ármann Jakobsson, A Sense of Belonging: Morkinskinna and the Icelandic Identity c. 1220. Transl. Fredrik J. Heineman. Odense 2014. (The Viking Collection 22).
Indrebø, Gustav, "Harald haardraade in Morkinskinna." In Festskrift til Finnur Jónsson, ed. Johs. Brøndum-Nielsen et al. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 192. 173-80.
Kalinke, Marianne, "Sigurðar saga jórsalafara: The Fictionalization of Fact in Morkinskinna." Scandinavian Studies 56.2 (1984): 152-67.
Morcom, Thomas. "Inclusive Masculinity in Morkinskinna and the Defusal of Kingly Aggression". Masculinities in Old Norse Literature, edited by Gareth Lloyd Evans and Jessica Clare Hancock. Boydell and Brewer, 2020, pp. 127-146.
Sandaaker, Odd, "Ágrip og Morkinskinna. Teksthistoriske randnotar." Maal og Minne (1996). 31-56.
Thunberg, Carl L. Särkland och dess källmaterial [Serkland and its Source Material]. Göteborgs universitet. CLTS (2011): 59-67.
Tirosh, Yoav. "Scolding the Skald: The Construction of Cultural Memory in Morkinskinna’s Sneglu-Halla þáttr." European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 47.1 (2017): 3.
External links
Finnur Jónsson. (Ed.) (1932). Morkinskinna. Copenhagen: Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur. Available in pdf format at septentrionalia.net.
Comprehensive list of skaldic poetry cited in Morkinskinna, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.
Proverbs and proverbial materials in Morkinskinna