Konungs skuggsjá and the Earliest Fragments - A Key to New Insights into Norwegian Literate Culture

Abstract

The main manuscript of Konungs skuggsjá, AM 243 b α fol, dated to the last quarter of the thirteenth century has generally been regarded in earlier scholarship as a royal manuscript, perhaps produced in direct relation to the royal court of Eiríkr Magnússon (see e.g. Holm-Olsen 1947: 5; 1983: xi). It is not obvious, however, that this assumption is correct or that it contextualises the manuscript in any useful way. If a number of fragments of contemporary manuscripts of Konungs skuggsjá are taken into account our understanding of the dissemination, intended audience and reception of the work may indeed be challenged, and this could lead us to further and new insights into the literate culture of thirteenth-century Norway.1 In this article I treat five manuscripts, that is, the main manuscript and the four fragments, as equal representations of this manuscript culture in order to question the often all too superficial understanding we have of this lively and flourishing period of Norwegian history. [...]