Task: Question Answering
Input (English): Passage: The main sources for 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. Ágrip af Noregs konunga sögum also describes the civil war era, but has only been preserved up to the events of c. 1136. The period 1177 to 1240  is treated in detail in contemporaneous sagas: Sverris saga  the Bagler sagas  and Håkon Håkonsson's saga . 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 , 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 Erlingsson Jarlsson, dated 18 June 1194, has been preserved from a portal of the now dismantled Vinje stave church. 
Question: How many sources describe the period up to the year 1177? 
Answer type: Number 
Output (English): 3.