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Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (1178/79–1241) c. 1230. The name Heimskringla was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts.
Olaf II Haraldsson, later known as Saint Olaf, was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised at Nidaros (Trondheim) by Bishop Grimkell, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. His remains were enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral, built over his burial site. His sainthood encouraged the widespread adoption of Christianity by Scandinavia's Vikings/Norsemen.
In Icelandic literature, a ríma is an epic poem written in any of the so-called rímnahættir. They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza. The plural, rímur, is either used as an ordinary plural, denoting any two or more rímur, but is also used for more expansive works, containing more than one ríma as a whole. Thus Ólafs ríma Haraldssonar denotes an epic about Ólafr Haraldsson in one ríma, while Núma rímur are a multi-part epic on Numa Pompilius.
A mansǫngr is a form of Norse poetry. In scholarly usage the term has often been applied to medieval skaldic love-poetry; and it is used of lyric openings to rímur throughout the Icelandic literary tradition.
Ólafur is a common name in Iceland, derived from the Old Norse Óláfr[ˈoːˌlɑːvz̠], meaning "ancestor's relic".
Óláfr Þórðarson was an Icelandic skald and scholar. He is usually called Óláfr hvítaskáld in contrast to a contemporary skald called Óláfr svartaskáld. Óláfr was the paternal nephew of Snorri Sturluson and spent his youth in Snorri's home where he had an important part of his scholarly education. Particular important is his Grammatical Treatise. His father was Þórður Sturluson, his mother was Þóra “Yngri” Bjarnadóttir and he was the brother of Guttormur Thordarson, Böðvar Þórðarson, Halla Þórðardóttir, Thordur Thordarson, Valgerdur Thordardottir (1210-?), Gudrun Thordardottir (1210-?), Sturla Thordarson and Ogmundur Thordurson.
Kings' sagas are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were composed during the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries, primarily in Iceland, but with some written in Norway.
Hallfreðr Óttarsson or Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld was an Icelandic skald. He is the protagonist of Hallfreðar saga according to which he was the court poet first of Hákon Sigurðarson, then of Óláfr Tryggvason and finally of Eiríkr Hákonarson. A significant amount of poetry by Hallfreðr has been preserved, primarily in Hallfreðar saga and the kings' sagas but a few fragments are also quoted in Skáldskaparmál.
Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar is the name of several kings' sagas on the life of Óláfr Tryggvason, a 10th-century Norwegian king.
Gunnlaugr Leifsson was an Icelandic scholar, author and poet. He was a Benedictine monk at the Þingeyraklaustur monastery in the north of Iceland. Many sources refer to him simply as Gunnlaugr munkr or Gunnlaugr the Monk.
Óláfsdrápa Tryggvasonar is an Icelandic skaldic poem from ca. 1200. It relates the life story of the 10th century King Óláfr Tryggvason from his upbringing in Russia to his death at Svöldr. The poem is only preserved in Bergsbók and the text there is defective. After 16 dróttkvætt verses, there is a lacuna of an estimated 40 verses followed by 12 preserved final verses. The manuscript attributes the poem to Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld, Óláfr's court poet, but this attribution is rejected by modern scholars. The poem has many similarities with Rekstefja, a poem from the same time on the same subject and preserved in the same manuscript.
Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta or The Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason is generically a hybrid of different types of sagas and compiled from various sources in the fourteenth century, but is most akin to one of the kings' sagas. It is an extended biography of King Óláfr Tryggvason and relates in detail the conversion to Christianity of Óláfr Tryggvason and Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld. Composed around 1300 it takes Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla as its base but expands the narrative greatly with content from the previous biographies of the king by Oddr Snorrason and Gunnlaugr Leifsson as well as less directly related material.
Olaf the White was a viking sea-king who lived in the latter half of the 9th century.
Thorstein the Red or Thorstein Olafsson was a viking chieftain who flourished in late ninth-century Scotland.
Úlfr Uggason was an Icelandic skald who lived in the last part of the tenth century.
Vetrliði Sumarliðason was a 10th-century Icelandic skald.
Þangbrandr was a missionary sent to Iceland by king of Norway Óláfr Tryggvason to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. Snorri Sturluson described him as follows:
Melkorka is the name given in Landnámabók and Laxdæla saga for the Irish mother of the Icelandic goði Ólafr Höskuldsson. It is possible that her name represents the Early Irish Mael Curcaig.
Einarr Gilsson was an Icelandic poet and official. He was the lögmaður of northern and western Iceland from 1367 to 1369. He is mentioned already in letters dating from 1339 and 1340 but his years of birth and death are unknown. He appears to have lived in Skagafjörður.
Ferskeytt is an Icelandic stanzaic poetic form. It is a kind of quatrain, and probably first attested in fourteenth-century rímur such as Ólafs ríma Haraldssonar. It remains one of the dominant metrical forms in Icelandic versifying to this day.
References
- Poole, Russell G. (1991). Viking Poems on War and Peace . University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-6789-1