Konungs skuggsjá and the Interplay between the Universal and Particular

Abstract

In mid-thirteenth century, Norway emerged as the realm of a king with European ambitions. Hákon Hákonarson had become king at a young age with the earl Skúli Bárðarson as the real ruler, but by 1240 the earl was dead and Hákon ruled his kingdom alone. It is in this period and within the elite culture of the strong and stable kingdom that the work Konungs skuggsjá is thought to have been created.1 It was a work that would be of interest in elite milieus throughout the Middle Ages. In Iceland the interest is seen primarily from mid-fourteenth century and well into the post-Reformation period, and is attested by the large amount of manuscripts containing text witnesses of the work. In this article we present the work and its original context in the elite milieus of Norway in the second part of the thirteenth century, its relation to the European tradition, as well as its further dissemination in Norway and Iceland throughout the Middle Ages as it is reflected in the extant manuscripts. Finally we treat briefly the scholarship and later reception of Konungs skuggsjá in order to enhance the reading of the more detailed studies presented in this volume.