Icelanders and the Kings of Norway: Mediaeval Sagas and Legal Texts: 17 (The Northern World, V. 17) - Tapa dura

The book uses sagas and legal texts to re-examine the relations between mediaeval Icelanders and the Norwegian kings. It demonstrates that the Icelanders - partly subjects of the king, and partly beyond his power - were ready to negotiate with him for their own benefit, and presents a methodological re-evaluation of authorial attributions of the sagas and their use as historical sources. Key to the book is a revisionary analysis of two laws made between the Icelanders and the kings of Norway: a law probably issued by King Olafr inn helgi of Norway (1015-1028), and the purported submission agreements with King Hakon Hakonarson (1217-1263), known as Gizurarsattmali or Gamli sattmali. It also analyses the sagas of the fourteenth-century manuscript Modruvallabok against the historical context extracted from this legal re-evaluation.

Patricia Pires Boulhosa has a Ph.D. (2003) in Mediaeval Icelandic Literature and History from the University of Cambridge, and degrees in Law and History from the Pontifical University, Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is her first book.