Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar


Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar or Hákonar saga gamla is an Old Norse Kings' Saga, telling the story of the life and reign of King Haakon Haakonarson of Norway.

Content and style

The circumstances of the saga's composition are exceptionally well understood, as they are recorded in some detail in Sturlunga saga : the saga was written in the 1260s by the Icelandic historian and chieftain Sturla Þórðarson. Sturla Þórðarson was at the court of Haakon's son Magnus Lagabøte when Magnus learned of his father's death in Kirkwall in Orkney. Magnus is said to have immediately commissioned Sturla to write his father's saga. This was awkward for Sturla: 'King Hákon had instigated the death of Sturla's uncle, Snorri Sturluson, in 1241.
Sturla rightly regarded Hákon as his most dangerous enemy, for he had steadfastly resisted the king's subjugation of Iceland to Norway, which was accomplished in 1262–1264. Skúli Bárðarson, Hákon's most dangerous rival for royal power, was the maternal grandfather of Magnús, who supervised the composition of his father's biography, much as King Sverrir is said to have "sat over" Karl Jónsson as the Icelandic abbot wrote Sverrir's biography'. Sturla makes extensive use of written evidence in this text, in a manner that has been argued to correspond with contemporary European practices.

Manuscripts and transmission

The saga survives in three main redactions, preserved primarily in the manuscripts Eirspennill, Codex Frisianus, and Flateyjarbók. However, there is not yet a satisfactory stemma of the saga, as the relationships between its manuscripts are complex.
According to Kari Ellen Gade's edition of the verse in the saga in the Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages edition, the key manuscripts of the saga are:
  • Eirspennill, AM 47 fol, 139v-194v.
  • Jöfraskinna, preserved in NRA 55 A.
  • Fríssbók, Codex Frisianus, AM 45 fol., 84ra-124rb.
  • Gullinskinna, preserved in AM 325 VIII 5 c 4°.
  • AM 42 folx, copy of G, 82r-177v.
  • AM 80 folx, also a copy of G, by Ásgeir Jónsson
  • Skálholtsbók yngsta, AM 81 a fol, 64va-120vb.
  • Holm perg 8 fol, 32v-81v, with AM 325 VIII 5 a 4°
  • AM 304 4°x.
  • AM 325 VIII 5 b 4°. Two leaves.
  • AM 325 X 4°, 11ra-12vb.
  • Flateyjarbók, GKS 1005 fol.
  • NRA 55 B, a one-leaf fragment

Editions and translations

Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, Bǫglunga saga, Magnúss saga lagabœtis, ed. by Sverrir Jakobsson, Þorleifur Hauksson, and Tor Ulset, Íslenzk fornrit, 31–32, 2 vols Poetry from the Kings' Sagas 2, ed. by Kari Ellen Gade, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, 2 Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, etter Sth. 8 fol., AM 325 VIII 4to og AM 304 4to, ed. by Marina Mundt, Norsk historisk kjeldeskrift-institutt: Norrøne tekster, 2 ; supplement: James E. Knirk, Rettelser til Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar etter Sth. 8 hi, AM 325 VIII 4° og AM 304 4°, Norrøne tekster, 2 Icelandic Sagas and Other Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on the British Isles, ed. by Gudbrand Vigfusson, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, 88, 4 vols, https://archive.org/details/icelandicsagasot01stur, https://archive.org/details/icelandicsagasot02stur, https://archive.org/details/icelandicsagasot04stur