Ari Þorgilsson (1067/1068 – 9 November 1148;

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ;

Modern Icelandic Icelandic ( ; , ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Since it is a West Scandinavian language, it ...

: ; also anglicized Ari Thorgilsson) was

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

's most prominent medieval chronicler. He was the author of ''

Íslendingabók (, , ; ) is a historical work dealing with early history of Iceland, Icelandic history. The author was an Icelandic priest, Ari Þorgilsson, working in the early 12th century. The work originally existed in two different versions but only the y ...

'', which details the histories of the various families who settled Iceland. He is typically referred to as Ari the Wise (), and according to

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

was the first to write history in

. Ari was a part of the Haukdælir family clan and studied in the school in Haukadalur as a student of Teitur Ísleifsson (the son of Ísleifur Gissurarson, first bishop of Iceland). There he became acquainted with Classical education. His writings clearly indicate that he was familiar with

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

chronicler traditions, but at the same time he is widely regarded as excelling in the Icelandic oral storytelling tradition. It is believed that Ari later became a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

priest in Staður by Ölduhryggur, now known as Staðastaður, but otherwise little is known about his life, despite the fact that he is one of the very few medieval writers who wrote down his family history. ''Íslendingabók'' is the only work that with evidence for his authorship,But see Lukas Rösli's questioning of this evidence, providing a paratextual analysis of the steps that led to this authorial attribution. Rösli, Lukas.
From Schedæ Ara Prests Fróða to Íslendingabók – When an Intradiegetic Text Becomes Reality
. ''The Meaning of Media: Texts and Materiality in Medieval Scandinavia'', edited by Anna Catharina Horn and Karl G. Johansson, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021, pp. 173-214. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110695366-009 but he is accredited with numerous articles of knowledge and is believed to have had a major part in the writing of ''

Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and ov ...

'', which chronicles the settlement of Iceland. Ari was early on regarded as an important author. In Iceland's

First Grammatical Treatise The First Grammatical Treatise (, roughly: "first language studies writ act") is a 12th-century work on the phonology of the Old Norse or Old Icelandic language. It was given this name because it is the first of four grammatical works bound in the ...

, written around 1160 AD, he is referred to with respect as an exceptional man, since the tradition of writing was not firmly established at the time.

References

* 1060s births 1148 deaths Icelandic historians 12th-century historians 11th-century Icelandic people 12th-century Icelandic people {{Iceland-writer-stub

See also

References