Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- General Editor's Preface
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Propaganda and legend: Accounts of the invasions and conquest of England
- 2 Hindsight: Features explaining the invasions and conquest
- 3 Swein Forkbeard's first invasion
- 4 Swein Forkbeard's second invasion
- 5 The invasion in 1006
- 6 Swein Forkbeard's third invasion
- 7 Thorkell the Tall and the English succession
- Conclusion
- 1 Heimskringla
- 2 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A reconstruction of the annal for the year 1008
- Bibliography
- Index
- Warfare in History
1 - Heimskringla
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- General Editor's Preface
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Propaganda and legend: Accounts of the invasions and conquest of England
- 2 Hindsight: Features explaining the invasions and conquest
- 3 Swein Forkbeard's first invasion
- 4 Swein Forkbeard's second invasion
- 5 The invasion in 1006
- 6 Swein Forkbeard's third invasion
- 7 Thorkell the Tall and the English succession
- Conclusion
- 1 Heimskringla
- 2 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A reconstruction of the annal for the year 1008
- Bibliography
- Index
- Warfare in History
Summary
Snorri Sturluson's History of the Kings of Norway, usually known as Heimskringla, is an important source of information about events in Scandinavia during the period covered by this book. It is also valuable for an understanding of some events in England. Its value to students of English history has been diminished by a difficulty in aligning some events, associated with the Heimskringla hero, St Olaf, with the chronology of events recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC). This difficulty has led some historians to interpret the Heimskringla sources in a manner that the present writer questions.
Professor Campbell was a very influential critic who agreed that Snorri's interpretation of his skaldic verse evidence, concerning St Olaf's exploits in England, should be amended. Although Campbell was not the instigator of some of the revised interpretations of the evidence in Heimskringla, he explains them in appendix III of his edition and translation of the Encomium Emmae Reginae. It is convenient, therefore, to address the question, of whether Snorri's interpretation of events needed revision, by specific reference to Campbell's work. The chronological problem is best introduced in Campbell's own words:
It is one of the most fixed elements in the northern chronology that Óláfr reigned fifteen years, but there is some doubt as to the point from which these were reckoned. If they are reckoned from his arrival in Norway, this must be placed in 1015, but if the first winter, before the defeat of Earl Sveinn, or the period after his flight to Russia in 1028, in which he was a king without power, be excluded from his reign, his arrival most be put in 1014.
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- Information
- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2003