Morkinskinna is anOld Norsekings' saga, relating the history ofNorwegian kings from approximately 1025 to 1157. The saga was written inIceland around 1220, and has been preserved in a manuscript from around 1275.
The nameMorkinskinna means "mouldy parchment" and is originally the name of the manuscript book in which the saga has been preserved. The book itself, GKS[1] 1009 fol, is currently in theRoyal Danish Library inCopenhagen.[2] It was brought toDenmark from Iceland by Þormóður Torfason (Tormod Torfæus) in 1662.
The saga was published inEnglish in 2000 in a translation by Theodore M. Andersson and Kari Ellen Gade.[3]
The saga starts in 1025 or 1026 and in its received form, ends suddenly in 1157, after the death ofKing Sigurðr II. Originally, the work may have been longer, possibly continuing until 1177, when the narratives ofFagrskinna andHeimskringla, which useMorkinskinna as one of their sources, end.[4] Apart from giving the main saga, the text is lavishly interspersed with citations fromskaldic verse (about 270 stanzas)[5] and includes a number of short Icelandic tales known asþættir.[6] The following is an overview of the chapters inMorkinskinna, chronologically subdivided by the reigns of the kings of Norway:[7]
Ármann Jakobsson, "The Individual and the Ideal: The Representation of Royalty inMorkinskinna."Journal of English and Germanic Philology 99.1 (2000): 71-86.
Ármann Jakobsson, "Rundt om kongen. En genvurdering af Morkinskinna."Maal og Minne 1 (1999): 71-90.Available online.
Ármann Jakobsson, "King and Subject inMorkinskinna."Skandinavistik 28 (1998): 101-117.
Finnur Jónsson. (Ed.) (1932).Morkinskinna. Copenhagen: Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur. Available in pdf format atseptentrionalia.net.