Durham E-Theses The King is dead': The thanatology of kings in the Old Norse synoptic histories of Norway, 1035-1161 Salvucci, Giovanna How to cite: Salvucci, Giovanna (2005) The King is dead': The thanatology of kings in the Old Norse synoptic histories of Norway, 1035-1161, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2204/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 'THE KING IS DEAD': THE THANATOLOGY OF KINGS IN THE OLD NORSE SYNOPTIC HISTORIES OF NORWAY, 1035-1161. Giovanna Salvucci The copyright ot this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from It, or Information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Studies University of Durham March 2005 Q 5 MAY 2006 This dissertation is my own work and contains nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration with others, except as specified in the text and acknowledgements. This dissertation is under 80,000 words in length Giovanna Salvucci ABSTRACT The Old Norse Synoptic Histories of Norway can make a valuable contribution to thanatology (the study of attitudes towards death) and the history of medieval thought. This piece of research is an attempt to analyse how the new blend of Christian faith with ancient heroic ideals is reflected in accounts of the deaths of eleventh- and twelfth century Norwegian kings, as described in those Old Norse sagas that deal with the stories of medieval Scandinavian royalty. The period covered in this study runs from 1035, the date of the accession to the Norwegian throne of Magnus gooi, the son of St. Olafr, to the death of Ingi Haraldsson in 1161. This period seems to have seen very important changes and to have been full of clashing ideas and attitudes, most of which were due to the conversion of Norway to Christianity in the immediately preceding period. The major texts covered are Theodoricus's Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium, Agrip af Noregskonungasogum, Morkinskinna, Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla and Fagrskinna. A comparison between these five major sources shows how their authors often convey their political judgements on kings by the ways in which they describe their deaths, and how they were involved in the cultural and religious environment of medieval Europe, in which the discussion about Purgatory was being developed and changes in burial customs were taking place. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 1 Abbreviations 2 Ch. 1. Introduction: 4 1. Old Norse Literature and Thanatology 4 2. Objectives and Aims 9 3. The sources 14 4. The Synoptic Histories and Contemporary European Culture 22 Ch. 2. Magnus godi Olafsson helga (1035-1047) 30 Ch. 3. Haraldr harSradi (1046-1066) 53 Ch. 4. Magnus (1066-1069) and Olafr kyrri (1066-1093), sons of Haraldr Hardradi. Hakon Magniisson (1093- 1094) 86 Ch. 5. Magnus berfoettr (1093-1103) 96 Ch. 6. Olafr (1103-1115), Eysteinn (1103-1122) and Sigurdr Jorsalafari (1103-1130), sons of Magnus berfcettr 113 Ch. 7. Haraldr gilli (1130-1136) and Magnus blindi (1130- 1139) 131 Ch. 8. Sigur6r (1136-1155), Eysteinn (1142-1157) and Ingi (1136-1161), sons of Haraldr gilli 161 Conclusions 185 Appendix: Chronology of the Norwegian kings (1035-1161) 192 Bibliography 193 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My greatest debt of gratitude is owed to my supervisor, John McKinnell, whose interest in this work together with his generous and competent teaching was a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. I am also immensely grateful to Simonetta Battista for her scholarly and human support. I am also indebted to Christopher Sanders and Helle Degnbol for their comments, advice and help, but above all for their charming friendship, which has also embraced my whole family. I would also like to thank the opponents Armann Jakobsson and Diana Whaley for their comments and constructive criticism, and the staff of the Arnamagnasan Institute and Dictionary in Copenhagen, who have always been welcoming and helpful to me. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Massimiliano, without whose support I would have never have completed this project, and my two children, Antonio and Laura, who have patiently followed their mum in her peculiar voyages round the northern world. This study is dedicated to my parents, Benedetto and Lorenza, who inspired me with a love of history and reading. Abbreviations - p. 2 ABBREVIATIONS Agrip Agrip af Noregskonunga Sogum. A twelfth-century synoptic history of the Kings of Norway. Ed. and Trans. M. J. Driscoll, Viking Society for Northern research, Text Series, University College London, 1995; Agrip af Noregskonunga Sogum, ed. Bjarni Einarsson in Islenzk fornrit XXLX, Reykjavik: Hi6 islenzka fornritafelag, 1985. 1-54. ASC Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. Ed. John Earle and Charles Plummer, revised ed. by Dorothy Whitelock, 2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon 1952. trans Dorothy Whitelock in English Historical Documents I, c. 500 - 1042, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1955. 135-235; G.N. Garmonsway. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. London: Dent, 1953. rpt. 1992. Flat Flateyjarbok: En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortcellinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Ed. GuSbrandur Vigfusson and C. R. Unger. Christiania [Oslo]: P. T. Mailings forlagsboghandel, 1860-1868. For Formdli. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjamarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVI, 1941. V-VII. Fsk Fagrskinna. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. Reykjavik: Hi5 islenzka Fornritafelag, XXIX, 1985. 55-373; trans. Alison Finlay, as Fagrskinna, a Catalogue of the Kings of Norway, Leiden: Brill, 2004. Hdkherd Hdkonar saga herdibreids. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVIII, 1951. 347-372. Hhard Haralds saga Sigurdarsonar. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVIII, 1951. 68-202. Homlsl The Icelandic Homily Book: Perg. 15 4° in the Royal Library, Stockholm. Ed. and ed. facs. Andrea de Leeuw van Weenen. Reykjavik: Stofnun Arna Magnussonar, 1993. Hsk Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. 3 vols. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVI-XXVIII, 1941 -51. Abbreviations - p. 3 Hsona = Haraldssona -saga \n—Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVIII, 1951. 303-346. Mberf = Magnuss saga berfoettr. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVIII, 1951. 210-237. MblHg = Magnuss saga blinda ok Haralds gilla. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni A5albjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVIII, 1951. 278-302. Mgod = Magnuss saga goda. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hi6 islenzka fornritafelag, XXVIII, 1951. 3-67. Msk = Morkinskinna. Ed. Finnur Jonsson. Kebenhavn: Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur, 53, 1932; trans. Theodore M. Andersson and Kari Ellen Gade as Morkinskinna. The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157), Islandica LI, Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2000. Msona = Magnussona saga. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjami Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVIII, 1951. 238-277. Olhelg = Oldfs saga helga. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVII, 1945. Olkyrr = Oldfs saga kyrra. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVIII, 1951. 203-209. Theod. = Theodrici Monachi Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium. In Monumenta Historica Norvegice: Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen. Ed. Gustav Storm. Kristiania, 1880. 1-68; trans. David and Ian McDougall as Theodoricus Monachus. Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagensium, An Account of the Ancient History of the Norwegian Kings. London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1998. Yngl = Ynglingasaga. In Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Adalbjarnarson. Reykjavik: Hid islenzka fornritafelag, XXVI. 1941, 9-83. Chapter 1: Introduction - p. 4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Old Norse Literature and Thanatology Thanatos is the Greek word for 'death1, and thanatology, which was originally a branch of philosophy but gradually extended into the fields of historiography and anthropology around 1960, is the study of death, human attitudes towards it, mortuary rites and customs, and beliefs about the afterlife. The underlying motivation which stimulated historiographers to study death was the search for a unifying factor, a particular vantage-point from which to analyse the history of thought. Death is the final test of life, a transition in the light of which the events in the history of one's life appear most highly concentrated