Íslendingabók – Landnámabók

Íslenzk fornrit #1

by Ari fróði Þorgilsson, Sigurður Jakob Benediktsson (Editor)

Description below is in Icelandic & English.

Íslendingabók: „Ari hinn fróði Þorgilsson Gellissonar ritaði fyrstur manna hér á landi að norrænu máli fræði bæði forna og nýja,“ segir Snorri Sturluson í Heimskringlu. „Þykir mér hans frásögn öll merkilegust.“ Í formála kveðst Ari fyrst hafa gert Íslendingabók að frumkvæði biskupanna Þorláks Runólfssonar og Ketils Þorsteinssonar og einnig sýnt hana Sæmundi presti hinum fróða. Hafi hann síðan endurskrifað bókina, en sleppt úr henni „áttartölu og konungaævi“, þ. e. íslenskum ættartölum og ævisögum Noregskonunga. Fyrri gerð bókarinnar er glötuð, en Snorri hefur hagnýtt „konungaævina“ í Heimskringlu. En yngri gerðin hefur varðveist vel. Hún er samin um 1130 og geymir sögu Íslands frá landnámi fram til dauða Gissurar biskups Ísleifssonar 1118. Þetta er stutt en frábærlega traust heimildarrit. Ari styðst við frásagnir manna sem hann vissi að voru spakir og „langt mundu fram“. Hann kann að telja alla lögsögumenn frá Hrafni Hængssyni sem tók lögsögu 1030 og skorðar tímatal atburða við embættisár þeirra. En mesta áherslu leggur hann á kristnitökuna árið 1000 og sögu fyrstu biskupanna í Skálholti, Ísleifs Gissurarsonar og Gissurar sonar hans.

Landnámabók telur helstu landnámsmenn Íslands, segir hvar þeir námu land og greinir nokkuð frá uppruna þeirra og afkomendum. Bókin var sett saman á fyrra hluta 12. aldar, og mun Ari fróði hafa verið riðinn við hina fyrstu gerð, en hún er nú löngu glötuð. Elstu varðveittar gerðir Landnámu eru frá síðara hluta 13. aldar og frá 14. öld, en þær eru mjög auknar með nýjum ættartölum og frásögnum af ýmsu tagi. Elst er Sturlubók, sett saman af Sturlu Þórðarsyni lögmanni (d. 1284). Næst er Hauksbók, gerð af Hauki lögmanni Erlendssyni (d. 1334). Kveðst Haukur hafa ritað sína Landnámabók „eftir þeirri bók sem ritað hafði herra Sturla lögmaður [...] og eftir þeirri bók annarri er ritað hafði Styrmir hinn fróði“. Styrmir lést 1245, en Landnámabók hans er glötuð. Þriðja forna gerðin, Melabók, er aðeins varðveitt í brotum, og er það mikið mein því að hún hefur að mörgu leyti staðið næst frumtextanum. – Sumt af viðaukum Sturlubókar (og Hauksbókar) er sótt í kunnar heimildir, til að mynda Íslendingasögur (Egils sögu, Eyrbyggju, Vatnsdælu o. fl.). En hin upprunalega Landnáma hefur verið gagnorð og traust heimild í líkingu við Íslendingabók. Sagt hefur verið, að þótt frumtextinn sé víða óvís eða glataður með öllu, séu þær gerðir Landnámabókar sem enn eru til merkustu heimildir sem nokkur þjóð á um uppruna sinn.

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Íslendingabók: ‘Ari the Wise, son of Þorkell Gellisson, was the first man here in the country to write history both ancient and modern in the Nordic language,’ says Snorri Sturluson in Heimskringla. ‘All his account seems to me most noteworthy.’ In his Introduction Ari claims to have written Íslendingabók at the instigation of two bishops, Þorlákr Runólfsson and Ketill Þorsteinsson, and to have shown it also to the priest Sæmundr the Wise. He then rewrote the work, omitting the ‘genealogies and lives of the kings’, by which he meant Icelandic genealogies and the lives of the kings of Norway. Though the first version of the book is no longer extant, Snorri made use of the ‘lives of the kings’ in his Heimskringla. The surviving younger version of Íslendingabók, a short but trustworthy source, was composed around 1130 and provides an account of the history of Iceland from the settlement period up to the death of Bishop Gizurr Ísleifsson in 1118. Ari’s narrative draws on the accounts of people whom he knew to be both knowledgeable and blessed with long memories. He could list all the law-speakers from Hrafn Hœngsson in 1030, and signposts the events described in his narrative with reference to their periods of office. His account places particular emphasis on the conversion of Iceland in 1000, and on the history of the first bishops of Skálholt, Ísleifr Gizurarson and his son Gizurr.

Landnámabók: This work lists Iceland’s most important settlers, identifies their places of settlement, and provides some account of their origins and descendants. It was compiled at the beginning of the twelfth century, and Ari the Wise may have been involved in the preparation of the first (now lost) version. The extant versions of Landnámabók, which date from the later thirteenth century or from the fourteenth, are much augmented with new genealogies and a variety of narrative materials. The oldest version is Sturlubók, composed by the lawman Sturla Þórðarson (d. 1284). The next oldest is Hauksbók, the work of Haukr Erlendsson the lawman (d. 1334), who claims to have based his text on ‘that book which Sturla the lawman had written [...] and the other one which Styrmir the Wise had written.’ Styrmir Kárason died in 1245, and his Landnámabók version is no longer extant. Only fragments remain of a third early version, Melabók, which is particularly regrettable as in many respects it represents the version closest to the original. Some of the additio...

679 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Ari Þorgilsson (Ari Thorgilsson) (1067–1148 AD) was Iceland's most prominent medieval chronicler. He is the author of Íslendingabók, which details the histories of the various families who settled Iceland. He is typically referred to as Ari the Wise (Ari hinn fróði), and according to Snorri Sturluson was the first to write history in Old Norse.

Ari was a part of the Haukdælir family clan and studied in the school in Haukadalur as a student of Teitur Ísleifsson (the son of Ísleifur Gissurarson, first bishop of Iceland). There he became acquainted with Classical education. His writings clearly indicate that he was familiar with Latin chronicler traditions, but at the same time he is widely regarded as excelling in the Icelandic oral storytelling tradition.

It is believed that Ari later became a Christian priest in Staður by Ölduhryggur, now known as Staðastaður, but otherwise little is known about his life, despite the fact that he is one of the very few medieval writers who wrote down his family history.
Íslendingabók is the only work that is absolutely proven to have been written by him, but he is accredited with numerous articles of knowledge and is believed to have had a major part in the writing of Landnámabók, which chronicles the settlement of Iceland.

Ari was early on regarded as an important author. In Iceland's First Grammatical Treatise, written around 1160 AD, he is referred to with respect as an exceptional man, since the tradition of writing was not firmly established at the time.