''Knýtlinga saga'' (''The
Saga of
Cnut
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...
's Descendants'') is an Icelandic
kings' saga
Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were comp ...
written in the 1250s, which deals with the kings who ruled Denmark since the early 10th century.
[Ármann Jakobsson, "Royal biography", p. 397-8]
There are good reasons to assume that the author was
Óláfr Þórðarson
Óláfr Þórðarson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; -1259) was an Icelandic skald and scholar. He is usually called Óláfr hvítaskáld (O.N.: ; M.I.: ; "Olaf the white skald") in contrast to a contemporary skald called Óláfr svartaskáld ...
(d. 1259), nicknamed ''hvítaskáld'' "the White Poet", who was a nephew of
Snorri Sturluson.
Óláfr is also known for having written the ''
Third Grammatical Treatise
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (disambiguation)
* Third Avenue (disambiguation)
* Hig ...
''.
He stayed with the Danish ruler
Valdemar II of Denmark
Valdemar (28 June 1170 – 28 March 1241), later remembered as Valdemar the Victorious (), was the King of Denmark (being Valdemar II) from 1202 until his death in 1241.
Background
He was the second son of King Valdemar I of Denmark and Sophi ...
in 1240–1241, and Valdemar provided the saga's author with "a great deal of information" and "outstanding accounts".
[''Nationalencyklopedin'']
The work is modelled on the ''
Heimskringla
''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derive ...
'', Snorri's work on the Norwegian kings.
[Lönnroth, Ólason and Piltz, "Literature", in ''Cambridge History of Scandinavia'', vol 1, p. 503] Like Snorri, the author makes frequent use of
skaldic poetry
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditional ...
as documentary sources.
The saga covers the history of the Danish rulers from the early 10th century until the 13th century. In the first part of its history, the saga resembles the synoptics in giving summaries of the major historical events, but later chapters, from those dealing with the sons of
Svend Estridsen
Sweyn Estridsson Ulfsson ( on, Sveinn Ástríðarson, da, Svend Estridsen; – 28 April 1076) was King of Denmark (being Sweyn II) from 1047 until his death in 1076. He was the son of Ulf Thorgilsson and Estrid Svendsdatter, and the grandson o ...
(d. mid-1070s) onwards, devote greater attention to the kings themselves.
A central theme is the institution of kingship and all that it demanded of those who held royal office. The exemplary characters and behaviours of good kings such as
Knútr the Holy (d. 1086) and
Eiríkr the Good (d. 1103), are set off against those of incompetent or evil kings. Key benchmarks for good rulership include the promotion of peace and support of the church.
Notes
References
*''
Nationalencyklopedin
''Nationalencyklopedin'' (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swedish kronor in 1 ...
'' (1980)
*
*
Editions and translations
* ed.
* ed.
* tr. Extracts available from
De Re Militari'.
* Kari Ellen Gade 2009,
Anonymous, Lausavísa from ''Knýtlinga saga'' in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), ''Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300''. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 826–7.
Further reading
*
External links
Knut's Invasion of England in 1015-16, according to the Knytlinga SagaExtract in English translation
Jómsvíkíngasaga ok Knytlínga1828 edition of the Old Norse texts
Knýtlinga sagain Old Norse on the website ''heimskringla.no''
Knýtlinga saga in Danish translation by C.C.Rafnon ''heimskringla.no''
Kings' sagas
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