Gunnlaugr Leifsson

This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Gunnlaugr .

Gunnlaugr Leifsson[1] (d. 1218 or 1219) was an Icelandic scholar, writer and poet. He was a Benedictine monk at the Þingeyrar monastery (Þingeyrarklaustur) in the north of Iceland.[2]

Biography

Gunnlaugr composed a Latin biography of King Óláfr Tryggvason. This work is now lost but it is believed to have been an expansion of the Latin Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar written by his monastic brother, Oddr Snorrason. Snorri Sturluson made use of Gunnlaugr's work when composing his Heimskringla and sections of Gunnlaugr's work were incorporated into Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta.[3]

Gunnlaugr also wrote a Latin biography of Bishop Jón Ögmundarson. This work is also lost but Old Norse biographies of Jón are still extant. Gunnlaugr also composed the original Latin version of Þorvalds þáttr víðförla but it is only preserved in an Old Norse translation. Gunnlaugr was also involved in the collection of Þorlákr helgi's miracles. According to several medieval sources, Gunnlaugr composed a work on Saint Ambrose. One study indicated that the extant Old Norse translation of Vita sancti Ambrosii, Ambrósíus saga, may be Gunnlaugr's work,[4] although Gunnlaugr's nova historia sancti Ambrosii is generally identified as a Latin office of St Ambrose, Ambrósíustíðir.[5]

Gunnlaugr wrote the poem Merlínússpá, a Norse translation of Prophetiae Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth. The imagery in Gunnlaugr's translation testifies to his extensive knowledge of skaldic poetry. The poem is preserved in Hauksbók and consists of a total of 171 fornyrðislag stanzas.

References

  1. ↑ Sometimes Anglicized Gunnlaug Leifsson.
  2. ↑ Þingeyrarklaustur (Historical Places in Northwest Iceland)
  3. ↑ Simpson 2004:166.
  4. ↑ Katrín Axelsdóttir 2005:349.
  5. ↑ Gottskálk Jensson 2012:136.

Other sources

External links