Icelanders and the Kings of Norway - Medieval Sagas and Legal Texts
The book uses sagas and legal texts to re-examine the relations between mediaeval Icelanders and the Norwegian kings. It demonstrates that the Icelanders - partly subjects of the king, and partly beyond his power - were ready to negotiate with him for their own benefit, and presents a methodological re-evaluation of authorial attributions of the sagas and their use as historical sources. Key to the book is a revisionary analysis of two laws made between the Icelanders and the kings of Norway...
Heiðarvíga saga or The Story of the Heath-Slayings is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It is badly preserved; 12 leaves of the only surviving manuscript were destroyed along with their only copy in the fire of Copenhagen in 1728. The content of that part is only known through a summary written from memory by Jón Grunnvíkingur who had made the lost copy. The saga is written in a quaint and clumsy style, which some scholars have taken as indication that it is among the oldest Icelanders' sagas.
The Eyrbyggja saga is one of the Icelanders' sagas. The name means the saga of the inhabitants of Eyrr, which is a farm on Snæfellsnes on Iceland. The name is slightly misleading as it deals also with the clans of Þórsnes and Alptafjörðr. The central character who should have given his name to the saga is Snorri Þorgrímsson or Snorri goði, as he is better known.
