Sturlunga saga
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Sturlunga saga (often called simply Sturlunga) is a collection of Icelandic sagas by various authors from the 12th and 13th centuries; it was assembled ca. 1300. It mostly deals with the story of the Sturlungs, a powerful family clan during the Sturlungaöld period of the Icelandic Commonwealth.
Sturlunga saga begins with the legend of Geirmundr heljarskinn, a regional ruler in late 9th century Norway, who moves to Iceland to escape the growing power of King Harald Finehair. The more historical sagas commence in 1117 with Þorgils saga ok Hafliða. Other sagas included in the collection are Sturlu saga, Prestsaga Guðmundar Arasonar and Íslendinga saga, which constitutes almost half the Sturlunga saga and covers the period 1183–1264.
Sturlunga saga is the main source of Icelandic history during the 12th and 13th centuries and it was written by people who experienced the internal power struggle which ended in Iceland's loss of sovereignty and submission to Norway in 1262.
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[edit] External links
- Sturlunga Saga, including the Islendinga Saga of Lawman Sturla Thordson and Other Works Edited with prolegomena, appendices, tables, indices and maps by Dr. Gudbrand Vigfusson. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1878.
- Sturlúnga-Saga edr Íslendinga-Saga hin mikla: Volume 1. Volume 2, Part 1. Volume 2, Part 2 Edited with a preface in Icelandic and Danish by Bjarni Þorsteinsson. Published in Copenhagen by Þorsteinn Einarsson Rangel: 1817, 1818 and 1820 respectively.
- Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns (Old Norse text based on Gudbrand Vigfusson's edition) translated into English as The Tale of Geirmund Deathskin
