# The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway/Volume 1

THE HElMSKRINGLA;
OR,
CHRONICLE
OF
THE KINGS OF NORWAY.
TRANSLATED
FROM THE ICELANDIC OF SNORRO STURLESON,
With a Preliminary Dissertation,
BY
SAMUEL LAING, ESQ.
AUTHOR OF "A RESIDENCE IN NORWAY," "A TOUR IN SWEDEN," "NOTES OF A TRAVELLER,” ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1844.
NOTICE.
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PREFACE.
It is of importance to English history to have, in the English language, the means of judging of the social and intellectual state—of the institutions and literature—of a people who during 300 years bore an important, and for a great portion of that time a predominant part, not merely in the wars, but in the legislation of England; who occupied a very large proportion of the country, and were settled in its best lands in such numbers as to be governed by their own, not by Anglo-Saxon laws; and who undoubtedly must be the forefathers of as large a proportion of the present English nation as the Anglo-Saxons themselves, and of a much larger proportion than the Normans. These Northmen have not merely been the forefathers of the people, but of the institutions and character of the nation, to an extent not sufficiently considered by our historians. Civilised or not in comparison with the Anglo-Saxons, the Northmen must have left the influences of their character, institutions, barbarism or culture, among their own posterity. They occupied one third of all England for many generations, under their own Danish laws; and for half a century nearly, immediately previous to the Norman conquerors, they ​held the supreme government of the country. It is doing good service in the fields of literature to place the English reader in a position to judge for himself of the influence which the social arrangements and spirit of these Northmen may have had on the national character, and free institutions which have grown up among us from elements planted by them, or by the Anglo-Saxons. This translation of Snorro Sturleson's Chronicle of the Kings of Norway will place the English reader in this position. He will see what sort of people these Northmen were who conquered and colonised the kingdoms of Northumberland, East Anglia, and other districts, equal to one third of all England at that time, and who lived under their own laws in that portion of England; and he will see what their institutions and social spirit were at home, whether these bear any analogy to what sprung up in England afterwards, and whether to them or to the Anglo-Saxon race we are most indebted for our national character and free constitution of government. The translator of Snorro Sturleson's Chronicle hopes, too, that his labour will be of good service in the fields of literature, by bringing before the English public a work of great literary merit,—one which the poet, or the reader for amusement, may place in his library, as well as the antiquary and reader of English history.
The translator can lay claim to no considerable knowledge of or great familiarity with the Icelandic. To get at the meaning and spirit of the text in any way was his main object; and where he met difficulties, which generally lay only in his own ignorance, he ​spared no labour in collating the passages he was in doubt about with the Swedish translation in Peringskiold's edition of the work,—with the Danish translation in the edition begun 1777 by Schöning under the auspices of the Danish government, and finished in 1826 by Thorlacius and Werlaug, in 6 vols. folio,—and with the excellent translation of it into Norse by M. Jacob Aal, published in quarto, in 1838, at Christiania. His notes and explanations are derived mostly from these sources, and principally from M. Jacob Aal's work: and where from his imperfect acquaintance with the Icelandic he found difficulties in the text, especially in the Scaldic poetry, which is often very obscure, he had recourse to M. Jacob Aal's translation as the best guide to the meaning and spirit of the original. That gentleman, as the last effort of a long life spent in commercial and literary pursuits, has translated Snorro Sturleson's Chronicle, and the Sagas of the succeeding times down to the end of Hakon Hakonsson's reign in 1263, for the use of the Norwegian peasantry. He remembered in his youth that these histories, although in the old and almost obsolete language of Peter Clausson's translation of 1599, were a housebook read at the fireside of almost every peasant in Norway; and at a great expense he has published a new translation of them into Norse, and has placed the book, at a merely nominal price considering its magnificence, again within reach of his countrymen. In the present translation the object has been to make it, like M. Jacob Aal's, not merely a work for the antiquary, but for the ordinary reader of history,—for the common man.
​The translator believes, also, that it opens up a new and rich field of character and incident, in which the reader who seeks amusement only will find much to interest him. The adventures, manners, mode of living, characters, and conversations of these sea-kings, are highly dramatic, in Snorro's work at least; and are told with a racy simplicity and truthfulness of language which the translator cannot flatter himself with having attained or preserved. All he can say for his work is, that any translation is better than none; and others may be stimulated by it to enter into the same course of study, who may do more justice to a branch of literature scarcely known among us.
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION.
* Page
* Chapter I.
* Of the Literature and Intellectual Condition of the Northmen................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................1
* Chapter II.
* Of the Religion of the Northmen................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................69
* Chapter III.
* Of the Social Condition of the Northmen................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................95
* Chapter IV.
* State of the Useful Arts among the Northmen................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................130
* Chapter V.
* Of the Discovery of Greenland and America by the Northmen................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................141
* Memoir of Snorro Sturleson................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................188
THE HEIMSKRINGLA.
* Preface of Snorro Sturleson................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................211
* SAGA I.
* Ynglinga Saga, or the Story of the Yngling Family from Odin to Halfdan the Black................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................216
* SAGA II.
* Halfdan the Black's Saga................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................262
* SAGA III.
* Harald Haarfager's Saga................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................271
* SAGA IV.
* Hakon the Good's Saga................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................314
* SAGA V.
* Saga of King Harald Greyskin, and of Earl Hakon son of Sigurd................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................349
* SAGA VI.
* King Olaf Tryggvesson's Saga................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................367
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