Morkinskinna is an Old Norse kings' saga, relating the history of Norwegian kings from approximately 1025 to 1157. The saga was written in Iceland around 1220, and has been preserved in a manuscript from around 1275.
The name Morkinskinna means "mouldy parchment" and is originally the name of the manuscript book in which the saga has been preserved. The book itself, GKS[1] 1009 fol, is currently in the Royal Danish LibraryinCopenhagen.[2] It was brought to Denmark from Iceland by Þormóður Torfason (Tormod Torfæus) in 1662.
The saga was published in English in 2000 in a translation by Theodore M. Andersson and Kari Ellen Gade.[3]
The saga starts in 1025 or 1026 and in its received form, ends suddenly in 1157, after the death of King Sigurðr II. Originally, the work may have been longer, possibly continuing until 1177, when the narratives of Fagrskinna and Heimskringla, which use Morkinskinna as one of their sources, end.[4] Apart from giving the main saga, the text is lavishly interspersed with citations from skaldic verse (about 270 stanzas)[5] and includes a number of short Icelandic tales known as þættir.[6] The following is an overview of the chapters in Morkinskinna, chronologically subdivided by the reigns of the kings of Norway:[7]
