The Separate Saga of St. Olaf (Olav den helliges saga) is one of the kings' sagas

Kings' sagas

The kings' sagas are Norse sagas which tell of the lives of Scandinavian kings. They were composed in the 12th to 14th centuries in Iceland and Norway....

. It was written about King Olaf II of Norway

Olaf II of Norway

Olaf II Haraldsson was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised in Nidaros by Bishop Grimkell, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. Enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral...

 (Olaf Haraldsson), later Saint Olaf (Olav den Hellige), patron saint of Norway.

History

It was written in c. 1225 by Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...

, who made use of the saga by the priest Styrmir Kárason, now largely lost except for some fragments in Flateyjarbók

Flateyjarbók

The Flatey Book, is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name Codex Flateyensis.- Description :...

. A revised version of the Separate Saga was later incorporated into the Heimskringla

Heimskringla

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 ca. 1230...

(c. 1230), often ascribed to Snorri Sturluson.

Like many other kings' sagas, the work cites skaldic poems for historical verification or literary embroidery. The work is also valuable for being preceded by two prologues. The principal witness of the text is MS nr. 2 4° in the National Library of Sweden (Kungliga biblioteket), Stockholm.

In the longer prologue, Snorri Sturluson expounds on the historical value of skaldic poetry:

En þó þykki mér þat merkiligast til sannenda, er berum orðum er sagt í kvæðum eða öðrum kveðskap, þeim er svá var ort um konunga eða aðra höfðingja, at þeir sjálfir heyrðu, eða í erfikvæðum þeim, er skáldin fœrðu sonum þeira. Þau orð, er í kveðskap standa, eru in sömu sem í fyrstu váru, ef rétt er kveðit, þótt at hverr maðr

Man (word)

The term man and words derived from it can designate any or even all of the human race regardless of their sex or age...

 hafi síðan numit af öðrum, ok má þvi ekki breyta.

"And yet I find that most important for veracity, which is said straightforwardly in poems or other poetry that was composed about kings or other chieftains so that they themselves heard it, or in those commemmorative poems which the skalds brought to their sons. Those words which stand in poetry are the same as they were in the beginning, if the recitation is correct, although each person has since learned it from another and for that reason nothing can be distorted."

Editions

• Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (ed.). Heimskringla. 3 vols.: vol. 2. Íslenzk fornrit 26–8. Reykjavík: Hið ís lenzka fornritafélag, 1941–51. Appendix: Ór Óláfs sögu ins Helga inni Sérstöku. Critical edition.
• Johnsen, Oscar Albert and Jón Helgason (eds.). Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga. Den store saga om Olav den hellige, eftir Pergamenthåndskrift i Kungliga Biblioteket i Stockholm nr. 2 4to med varianter fra andre håndskrifter. 2 vols. Oslo: Jacob Dybwad, 1930-33. Diplomatic edition of the text found in MS Stockholm nr. 2 4to.
• Munch and Unger, Saga Olafs konungs ens Helga. Christiania, 1853.

Other sources

• Finlay, Alison. Fagrskinna, a Catalogue of the Kings of Norway (Leiden: Brill, 2004)
• Gade, Kari Ellen. "Poetry and its changing importance in medieval Icelandic culture." In Old Icelandic Literature and Society, ed. Margaret Clunies Ross
  Margaret Clunies Ross
  Margaret Clunies Ross is the McCaughey Professor of English Language and Early English Literature and Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Sydney. Her main research areas are Old Norse-Icelandic Studies and the history of their study. Since 1997 she has led the project...
  
  . Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 42. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)

External links

• Index of the skaldic poems in the saga (external link)