Haki Antonsson

Of all the biographical Old Norse sagas, Árna saga biskups is unique in ending abruptly not with, or after, but before its hero's death. The saga terminates in 1290, eight years before the demise of its subject, Bishop Árni Þorláksson of Skálholt (1269-1298). 1 Although it survives in some forty manuscript witnesses, there is no certainty about its conclusion. Except for two fragments, all the surviving witnesses derive from the late fourteenthcentury Reykjarfjarðarbók. This manuscript originally had around a hundred and forty leaves, but only about thirty of them still exist today, while the rest are known from later transcripts. In this way, Árna saga's abrupt ending may reflect a loss of leaves from the manuscript at an early stage of its copying. Alternatively, Reykjarfjarðarbók may never have included a different ending for this saga in the first place. 2 What is certain, however, is that Árna saga biskups was produced after the death of its protagonist. Both the latest editors of Árna saga biskups agree on a date of composition during the episcopacy of Árni Helgason of Skálholt (1304-1320), either by the bishop himself or someone within his circle of authority. 3

This article explores the portrayal of Knútr inn ríki (Cnut the Great), king of Denmark and England (1016/19–1035), in the Scandinavian historical narrative from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. More specifically, it offers a broad survey of how Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic writers chose to present this most powerful of medieval Scandinavian kings. The article identifies three principal strands of writings on Knútr. One includes Danish works, including the Roskilde Chronicle and the works of Sven Aggesen and Saxo Grammaticus. The second consists of the early Norse sagas about Óláfr Haraldsson and the so-called ‘Norwegian synoptics’ of the late twelfth century. The third comprises the thirteenth-century kings’ saga compilations Fagrskinna, Heimskringla and Knýtlinga saga. The article both highlights how these strands differ in their take on Knútr’s persona and career, and places their portrayal within the relevant literary and historical contexts.

This article focuses on works attributed to Oddr Snorrason and Gunnlaugr Leifsson who were monks at Þingeyrar around the turn of the twelfth century. More specifically, the study examines their learned and creative use of biblical typology and symbolism in relation to King Ólafr Tryggvason and the Swedish Viking Yngvarr viðforli. These figures become especially prominent when the theme of salvation is touched on; this, it is argued, was of considerable importance to the Icelandic aristocratic and intellectual elite in the second half of the twelfth century. This, in turn, may shed light on the active participation of the chieftains Gizurr Hallsson and Jón Loptsson in this early phase of saga writing in Iceland.

Boydell & Brewer: https://boydellandbrewer.com/damnation-and-salvation-in-old-norse-literature-hb.html

A full survey of the "Last Things" as treated in a wide range of Old Norse literature. The hope of salvation and the fear of damnation were fundamental in the Middle Ages. Surprisingly, however, this topic has received limited attention in the study of Old Norse literature. This book addresses this lacuna in the scholarship, from two major perspectives. Firstly, it examines how the twin themes of damnation and salvation interact with other more familiar and better explored topoi, such as the life-cycle, the moment of death, and the material world. Secondly, it looks at how issues relating to damnation and salvation influence the structure of texts, with regard both to individual scenes and poems and sagas as a whole. The author argues that comparable features and patterns reoccur throughout the corpus, albeit with individual variations contingent on the relevant historical and literary context.

116/1117 in an inter-dynastic dispute. More specifically, it looks at the emergence of the Magnús’ cult in the twelfth century and the hagiographical corpus that was composed in his honour by Icelandic and English men of letters. These aspects of the Orcadian cult are not, however, examined in isolation but are rather placed within broader Scandinavian and European contexts. Moreover, they provide points of departure for the examination of important topics relating to religious life and literature in early Christian Scandinavia, such as the earliest cults of native saints and the perception of martyrdom.

his volume examines the cult of the saints and their associated literature in two peripheral regions of Christendom which were converted to Christianity around the turn of the first millennium, namely, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

This volume examines the cult of the saints and their associated literature in two peripheral regions of Christendom which were converted to Christianity around the turn of the first millennium, namely, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The fifteen authors focus on how cultures of sanctity were transmitted across the two regions and on the role that neighbouring Christian countries like England, Germany, and Byzantium played in that process. The authors also ask to what extent the division between Latin Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy affected the early development of the cult of saints on the two peripheries. The first part of the book offers for the first time a comprehensive overview of the veneration of local and universal saints in Scandinavia and northern Rus’ from c.1000 to c.1200, with a particular emphasis on saints that were venerated in both regions. The second part presents examples of how some early hagiographic works produced on the northern and eastern peripheries borrowed, adapted and transformed — i.e. contextualized — literary traditions from the Latin West and Byzantium.

Table of Contents


CONTENTS

Introduction: The Veneration of Saints in Early Christian Scandinavia and Eastern Europe
HAKI ANTONSSON AND ILDAR H. GARIPZANOV
Part One. Localizing Saints on the Periphery

The Early Cult of Saints in Scandinavia and the Conversion: A Comparative Perspective
HAKI ANTONSSON
Saints and Cathedral Culture in Scandinavia c. 1000–c. 1200
ANNA MINARA CIARDI
The Cults of Saints in Norway before 1200
ÅSLAUG OMMUNDSEN

Byzantine Saints in Rus’ and the Cult of Boris and Gleb
MONICA WHITE
Novgorod and the Veneration of Saints in Eleventh-Century Rus’: A Comparative View
ILDAR H. GARIPZANOV
The Cult of St Olaf and Early Novgorod
TATJANA N. JACKSON
Part Two. Contextualizing Hagiography on the Periphery

Anskar’s Imagined Communities
JAMES PALMER
Ælnoth of Canterbury and Early Mythopoiesis in Denmark
AIDAN CONTI
Writing and Speaking of St Olaf: National and Social Integration
LARS BOJE MORTENSEN
Textual Evidence for the Transmission of the Passio Olavi Prior to 1200 and its Later Literary Transformations
LENKA JIROUŠKOVÁ
The Attraction of the Earliest Old Norse Vernacular Hagiography
JONAS WELLENDORF
The Formation of the Cult of Boris and Gleb and the Problem of External Influences
MARINA PARAMONOVA
Conclusion: North and East European Cults of Saints in Comparison with East-Central Europe
GÁBOR KLANICZAY
Index

Review
"The volume offers valuable case-studies on Scandinavian and Rus' saints, and suggests analytical frameworks for the understanding of the significance of saints' cults in newly Christianized areas." (Nora Berend, in The Medieval Review 11.08.04)

"It amply demonstrates the continuing vitality of scholarship in the study of medieval saints in Northern and Eastern Europe, which Haki Antonsson has done much to stimulate." (Jonathan Grove, in: Saga-Book, Vol. XXXVI, 2012)