Description:
King
Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri
(c. 920–961) the third king of Norway, giving his name to the
son of Sigurðr
jarl by
sprinkling the child with water. This illustration is from
Chapter 11 in Håkon den godes
Saga, the third saga in Kongesagaer, in Gustav
Storm's Norwegian translation
of Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla. The text does not state whether the
ceremony was a Christian baptism or the pagan ceremony known as
ausa
vatni, but the latter is more likely (See Cleasby
Vigfusson p. 35). There are at least two revisions for this
scene to be found in various copies of the second
edition.
Source: Kongesagaer
Folio or Page: 99
Medium: pen and ink drawing printed by means of
zincography
Date: 1900
Dimensions (mm): 59 x 50
Provenance:
This copy of Kongesagaer does
not bear any indication as to its previous owners.
P.A. Baer photographed this copy of Kongesagaer at Snorrastofa in Reykholt, Iceland in
2007.
Rights:
Illustrations from the 1900 edition of Kongesagaer are in the Public Domain.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Sturluson,
Snorri.
Kongesagaer.
Translated by
Gustav
Storm,
Kristiania: J. M.
Stenersen, 1899.
Secondary Sources
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Sturluson,
Snorri. The
Heimskringla: Or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway.
Translated by
Samuel
Laing,
London: Longman, Brown, Green, and
Longmans, 1844.
―. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway.
Translated by
Lee M.
Hollander,
Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1964.
Historical Persons, i.e. from Heimskringla, Saxo, sagas etc.
Hákon
Aðalsteinsfóstri (non.)
Hakon
the Good (en.)
A king in Ynglinga Saga, the fourth saga in
Heimskringla, who was
fostered by King Athelstan of England and raised as a Christian. He
tried to christianize Norway when he became king but was unsucessful,
and his subjects gave him a pagan burial when he died.
Sigurðr
jarl (non.)
Earl
Sigurd
Hákonarson (en.)
An earl in Hakon den godes saga, the third saga in Heimskringla. He was an advisor to
Hákon the Good.
Mythological Events
ausa vatnisprinkling of water (en.)
The entry for ausa vatni in Cleasby Vigfusson states that it "is a
standing phrase for a sort of baptism used in the last centuries, at
least, of the heathen age. The child when born was sprinkled with water
and named, yet without the intervention of a priest; this rite is
mentioned as early as in the Hávamál, one of the very oldest
mythological didactic poems on record, where it is attributed even to
Odin."
Source Materials:
Heimskringla (is.)
History of the Kings of Norway (en.)
This account of the history of the kings of Norway and is generally
believed to have been written by Snorri Sturluson in Iceland in 1230. It
begins with the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, who were the
subject matter of the skaldic poem Ynglingtal, and ends with the reign
of the Norwegian king, Magnus Erlingson (died 1184).
Hákonar saga goða (is.)
Hakon den godes saga (non.)
Saga of Hakon the Good (en.)
This is the fourth saga in Heimskringla.
Kongesagaer (1900 ed.) (no.)
The second edition of Gustaf Storm's Norwegian translation of Heimskringla.
Source Persons
Krohg,
Christian (no.)
b. 1849
d. 1929
Nationality: Norwegian
Occupation: Artist and writer
Krohg was a prominent Norwegian artist who was one of the illustrators
for Gustav Storm's editions of Kongesagaer in
1899 and 1900.
Snorri
Sturluson (is.)
b. 1179
d. 1241
Nationality: Icelandic
Snorri was an Icelandic statesman, scholar, and author who is credited
with writing Heimskringla, The
Prose Edda, and possibly Egil's
Saga.
