Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/73

Rh We have frequently alluded to the fact that Icelandic traditions began in an early day to be concerned with the history of Norway. Are Thorgilsson made Norwegian history one of his chief studies, the results of which he put in writing, and after him others carried the work in this direction forward on a grand scale. The results are embodied in various sagas of Norwegian kings, some giving an account of only one, others of several kings. Olaf Trygvason and St. Olaf being the most prominent characters among the rulers of Norway, receive special attention from the saga-writers, but there is no lack of works giving the history of other Norwegian kings, and efforts were soon made to present continuous sketches of the lives of several kings as the preparation for a genuine history of Norway. By far the greater number of these sagas were produced in Iceland, though, as a matter of course, the materials on which they are based came mostly from Norway, or in other words were communicated by Norwegians. It is also known that Norwegians took part in the composition of sagas, though it cannot be determined how much of the work was done by them.

Among the first efforts to treat the history of Norway connectedly, excepting, of course, the above-mentioned work