Sutrlunga - Tilurð og Markmið

Abstract

The author questions the received wisdom that Sturlunga saga was originally compiled by Þórður Narfason (d. 1308), suggesting instead that the project was undertaken by Þorsteinn böllóttur Snorrason (d. 1353?). It was the nineteenthcentury philologist Guðbrandur Vigfússon who first cast Þórður in the role of compiler, but the evidence is far from conclusive. Indeed the notion of Þórður (or any of the Narfasynir) as compiler sits uneasily, for example, with the compiler’s evident preference for Melabók over Sturlubók when drawing on material from Landnámabók. Nor does Sturlunga’s manuscript transmission allow us to conclude that the compilation must have taken shape as early as 1308 or earlier, as tradition has it: the oldest preserved redaction is the late fourteenth-century Króksfjarðarbók, which may reflect an original text from c. 1330 or later. Assigning the work to a different compiler and a later date prompts us to reevaluate its original purpose. Rather than seeking to associate the text principally with moralizing criticism of social disruption and warfare, the present author argues for its role in shaping local aristocratic identity, not least through its emphasis on genealogy and its favourable presentation of royal overlordship. The pro-royal focus (regimen regale) of Króksfjarðarbók is then contrasted with the more sceptical and reactionary stance towards centralized kingship (regimen politicum) discernible in Reykjarfjarðarbók, Sturlunga saga’s somewhat younger main redaction.