Morkinskinna is an Old Norsekings' 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[1] 1009 fol, is currently in the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4] Apart from giving the main saga, the text is lavishly interspersed with citations from skaldic verse (about 270 stanzas)[5] and includes a number of short Icelandic tales known as þættir.[6] The following is an overview of the chapters in Morkinskinna, chronologically subdivided by the reigns of the kings of Norway:[7]
Magnús I (r. 1035-1047)
1. Here begins the saga of Magnús and Haraldr [his uncle]
2. Concerning Sveinn
3. Concerning King Magnús's feasts
4. Concerning King Magnús
5. Concerning the declaration of war against Magnús and concerning the Duke
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.
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.
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.
External links
Finnur Jónsson. (Ed.) (1932). Morkinskinna. Copenhagen: Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur. Available in pdf format at septentrionalia.net.
