Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/77

Rh stykki," by the Icelander, treats of his contemporary kings Harald Gille, Magnus the Blind, and Sigurd the Severe. The book is not now extant, but was in its time consulted by later authors. Probably it is also preserved in the so-called "Morkinskinna" (Rottenskin), which describes the period from Magnus the Good (1035) to 1157, and which, although in its present form coming from a later hand, is apparently originally the work of Snorre. Among documents, which served as Snorre's sources, must also be mentioned the so-called legendary saga of St. Olaf, which tells especially of Olaf's miracles and is in this respect based on older miracle books and collections of legends relating to this king.

The continuation of the Heimskringla, which various authors have contributed, embraces in addition to Swerre's saga the history of the later kings down to Magnus Lagabæter (Law-mender). Of the saga of this king, which, like that of Hakon Hakonson, was written by one of Snorre's relatives,, we now possess only a fragment, which forms the last link in the long chain of historical works produced by Icelanders and Norwegians in the middle ages. Worthy of mention are also the so-called great or historical saga of St. Olaf and the great, which was written in the fourteenth century and is a compilation of all earlier sources into a history of this king.