Magnúss saga lagabœtis
Encyclopedia
Magnúss saga lagabœtis is an Old Norse kings' saga
Kings' sagas
The kings' sagas are Norse sagas which tell of the lives of Scandinavian kings. They were composed in the 12th to 14th centuries in Iceland and Norway....

, concerning the life and reign of King Magnus VI the Lawmender
Magnus VI of Norway
Magnus VI Lagabøte or Magnus Håkonsson , was king of Norway from 1263 until 1280.-Early life:...

 of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. Only fragments of it survive today.

The saga was written by the Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

ic historian and chieftain Sturla Þórðarson
Sturla Þórðarson
Sturla Þórðarson was an Icelandic politician/chieftain and writer of sagas and contemporary history during the 13th century.Sturla was the son of Þórður Sturluson and his mistress Þóra. He was a nephew and pupil of the famous saga-writer Snorri Sturluson...

. Sturla was in Norway in 1278, and it is assumed that he started work on the saga then, on request of King Magnus himself. He had earlier commissioned Sturla to write the saga of his father, Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar
Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar
Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar is an Old Norse kings' saga, telling the story of the life and reign of King Haakon Haakonarson of Norway. The saga was written by the Icelandic historian and chieftain Sturla Þórðarson, in the 1260s...

 (Håkon Håkonsson's saga). There are indications that the saga's narrative continued until the death of King Magnus, which would have to mean that Sturla finished it in Iceland some time between King Magnus' death in 1280 and Sturla's death in 1284.

Only one leaf of parchment, from a 14th century manuscript, survives of the saga today. In addition, some passages were copied into Icelandic annals
Annals
Annals are a concise form of historical representation which record events chronologically, year by year. The Oxford English Dictionary defines annals as "a narrative of events written year by year"...

, and have thus been passed down to us today. The small fragments we have show us glimpses of a realistic narrative style, written in strict chronological order, reminiscent of Sturla's work in Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar. It is not known whether the narrative started with Magnus' accession to the throne upon his father's death, thus continuing the narrative of Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, or whether it started with Magnus' birth, as the beginning of the saga is not preserved.

Magnúss saga lagabœtis was one of the last kings' sagas to be written, and King Magnus was the last of the Norwegian kings to have his saga written.

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