Icelanders and the Kings of Norway: Mediaeval Sagas and Legal Texts (Northern World) - Hardcover

Boulhosa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004145168 ISBN 13: 9789004145160

Publisher: Brill, 2005

Synopsis

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: a law probably issued by King Óláfr inn helgi of Norway (1015-1028), and the purported submission agreements with King Hákon Hákonarson (1217-1263), known as Gizurarsáttmáli or Gamli sáttmáli. It also analyses the sagas of the fourteenth-century manuscript Möđruvallabók against the historical context extracted from this legal re-evaluation.

About this title

About the Author:

Patricia Pires Boulhosa has a Ph.D. (2003) in Mediaeval Icelandic Literature and History from the University of Cambridge, and degrees in Law and History from the Pontifical University, Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is her first book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 9004145168
• ISBN 13: 9789004145160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256