Biskupasögur

Bishops' saga

Bishops' saga

Genre of saga

The bishops' saga (Old Norse and modern Icelandic biskupasaga, modern Icelandic plural biskupasögur, Old Norse plural biskupasǫgur) is a genre of medieval Icelandic sagas, mostly thirteenth- and earlier fourteenth-century prose histories dealing with bishops of Iceland's two medieval dioceses of Skálholt and Hólar.

Sagas about Skálholt bishops

Two þættir are also relevant: Ísleifs þáttr biskups and Jóns þáttr Halldórssonar.

Sagas about Hólar bishops

Several of the Hólar sagas are associated with the North Icelandic Benedictine School which flourished in the fourteenth century.

Editions

  • The principal modern edition of these sagas is Biskupa sögur, Íslenzk fornrit, 15-17 (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 2002–3).
  • Biskupa sögur. Vol. 1. Kaupmannahöfn [Copenhagen]: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag. 1858.
  • Biskupa sögur. Vol. 2. Kaupmannahöfn [Copenhagen]: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag. 1878.
  • A number of these sagas are edited and translated in Gudbrand Vigfusson; Powell, F. York (1905). Origines Islandicae: A collection of the more important sagas and other native writings relating to the settlement and early history of Iceland. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Sources

Ásdís Egilsdóttir (1993). "Biskupa sögur". In Pulsiano, Phillip; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia. New York: Garland. pp. 45–46. ISBN 0824047877.


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