The books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings (known in the Middle Ages as the four books of Kings or ‘Kingdoms’) are grouped together in the Hebrew Bible as the ‘Former Prophets’. They chronicle the history of Israel and Judah from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian Exile in 560 bce. Their history of composition is complex: while Noth argued in 1943 that Deuteronomy–2 Kings was the work of a single redactor writing shortly after 560 bce, it is now generally agreed that there are multiple layers to this redaction, and that each book can be thought of as having its own distinct identity. At the same time, it is clear that the historical books do cohere by means of a ‘narrative arc’ that runs from the settlement in Canaan to the establishment of the monarchy and ends with its dissolution and the destruction of Jerusalem. The book of Ruth, which is among the ‘Writings’ in the Hebrew Bible, was placed between Judges and 1 Samuel in the LXX, where it belongs chronologically, as it is set in the time of the Judges. However, it was probably written later than the other books, and is different in genre, best described as ‘a finely crafted short story’ or even ‘a narrative text in poetic form’. Within this larger unit – sometimes known as the Deuteronomistic History – is ‘the David story’, which runs from 1 Samuel to 1 Kings 2 and is one of the most masterful narratives in the Hebrew Bible: von Rad considered it the beginning of ‘genuine historical writing’ in Israel, while Alter describes it as a reimagining of history of Shakespearean stature and breadth. Most notable is its close focus on human concerns and individuals: Nelson lists the main themes as ‘political tensions, family dysfunction, the relationship between the sexes, and the use and preservation of power’. There is much here to interest medieval Icelandic readers, who themselves had an ambivalent relationship to the institution of kingship and whose own storytelling tradition shares many of the same themes and the same ‘secular’ or ‘history-like’ style.

This pre-existing resemblance may explain why a mid-thirteenth century Icelander chose to translate into Old Norse-Icelandic the books from Joshua to 2 Kings (including Ruth) which are now known as Stjórn III.