Sources To The Civil War Era
Our main sources to the events of the civil war era are the kings' sagas. Heimskringla, Fagrskinna and Morkinskinna all describe the period up to the year 1177, although the parts of Morkinskinna that are preserved only extend to 1157. These three sagas were written c. 1220-1230, and in using them as historical sources, it has to be remembered that they were thus written a fair amount of time after the events they describe. However, they are likely to have been based on earlier works, in particular the saga Hryggjarstykki, written c. 1150, which is lost to us, but was available to the authors of the three aforementioned sagas. The brief Ágrip also describes the civil war era, but has only been preserved up to the events of c. 1136. The period 1177 to 1240 (and beyond) is treated in detail in contemporaneous sagas: Sverris saga (from 1177 to 1202) the Bagler sagas (1202 to 1217) and Håkon Håkonsson's saga (1217 to 1263). These sagas were written very shortly after the events they describe. However, as they don't overlap, we are given only one version of events (with the partial exception of the Bagler Sagas, which exist in two versions for the period 1202 to 1209), and this version tends to be from the viewpoint of the main character of the saga. From the later part of the period, fragments of documentation start to appear. The oldest Norwegian royal letter which is preserved was made out by Philippus the bagler king. Also, a couple of runic inscriptions written by central figures survive: A rune letter, probably written by King Sverre's son, Sigurd Lavard c. 1200 has been found during excavations in Bergen, and an inscription by Magnus Erlingsson's brother, Sigurd jarlsson, dated 18 June 1194, has been preserved from a portal of the now dismantled Vinje stave church.
Read more about this topic: Civil War Era In Norway
Famous quotes containing the words sources, civil, war and/or era:
“The American grips himself, at the very sources of his consciousness, in a grip of care: and then, to so much of the rest of life, is indifferent. Whereas, the European hasn’t got so much care in him, so he cares much more for life and living.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The essence of the modern state is that the universal be bound up with the complete freedom of its particular members and with private well-being, that thus the interests of family and civil society must concentrate themselves on the state.... It is only when both these moments subsist in their strength that the state can be regarded as articulated and genuinely organized.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Since the war nothing is so really frightening not the dark not alone in a room or anything on a road or a dog or a moon but two things, yes, indigestion and high places they are frightening.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“I call her old. She has one family
Whose claim is good to being settled here
Before the era of colonization,
And before that of exploration even.
John Smith remarked them as he coasted by....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)