Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/45

 celebrity. The celibacy of the clergy appears not to have been regarded in the northern countries in the 11th or 12th centuries. We read of the wives and sons of priests down to a late period; and Bishop Isleif was not singular in having sons.

Sæmund, also designated as hinn Frode, was a contemporary of Are. He was born in 1056, and after travelling and studying in Germany and France returned to Iceland, and settled as priest of the parish of Odda, in the south of Iceland, and commenced the Annals, which were continued by his successors in the clerical charge of Odda, and are hence called "Annales Oddenses" by the northern antiquaries. The older Edda, of which the Edda of Snorro Sturleson is but an epitome for explaining the mythological language and allusions of the poetical saga, is attributed to him; but unfortunately it is almost entirely lost, so that we know little of the doctrines or establishments of the ancient Odin-worship. Odd the Monk, who lived in the following century, refers to an historical work of Sæmund, which is also lost. Sæmund died in 1133. His contemporary Are survived him, and died in 1148.

Kolskegg, also hinn Frode, was another contemporary of Are, whose name is known as a compiler, or scribe, but his works are not extant.

Brand, bishop of the diocese of Holen in Iceland, ordained 1164, and who died 1201, was also a diligent transcriber of sagas from the memory to parchment. He was a contemporary of Saxo Grammaticus, the Danish historian. Saxo himself, in the preface to his work, gives the strongest testimony to the diligence and importance of the historical researches and traditional records of the Icelanders. "Nor is the industry of the Tylenses (by which name Saxo designates the people of Tyle, Thule, or Iceland) to be passed over in silence, who, from the sterility of their native soil,