Sæmundr fróði

Sæmundur Sigfússon ( inn Fróði ) (* Oddi in 1056, † May 22 1133 ), usually referred to simply as " Sæmundur Fróði " ( = German Sæmundur, the scholar ), was a priest and scholar in Iceland.

Family and origin

He was the son of the priest Sigfús Loðmundarsson in Oddi and his wife THOREY Eyjolfsdottir. These descended from Guðmundr the rich ( hinn riki ) and Hall Þorsteinsson, the most powerful Goden the country who were allegedly also related to the kings of Norway. His two brothers were Valgarðr and Rúnólfr, both of which occur in the Njal saga. Rúnólfr was an opponent of Christianity. He was married to the daughter of Andres Brunsson and his wife Solveig from Kongehelle in Bohuslän. Her sons were Pål Flip, Gunnar Fis and Lopt. He also had an illegitimate son, Åsmund.

Sæmundur to have been married to a Guðrún, which is said to have written after his death, most of the myths about him, especially that he had the "black art" dominated, like the Icelandic bishop legends tell.

Study Abroad and relationships abroad

Sæmundur Fróði supposedly one of the first Icelanders who traveled abroad to study. Ari inn Fróði writes that he had come from the South of France home. The bishop Saga " Jón saga helga " indicates that the Holy Jón Ögmundsson have brought him back from abroad, without specifying where. The younger source Oddaannálar above Oddverjaannáll claims he had come back from Paris. There is also the suspicion that he had been in the border area between Germany and France, others suspect him in the cathedral school of Notre Dame and at other locations.

His son Lopt married Thora Magnus Datter, the illegitimate daughter of King Magnus Berrføtt. He had. End of his life good connections to Archbishop Asker Lund and King Sigurd Jorsalfare This is also the fact that his son, grandson Sæmundur fróðis Jón Loptsson in Kongehelle in Bohuslän in Gothenburg, so close to the king, grew up.

Likely works

Sæmundur Fróði soon became famous for his learning and especially for his knowledge of history.

But from him nothing in writing is received. On the other hand, there is consensus that he has written a history of the Norwegian kings. He probably wrote his writings like most other scholars of the time in Latin; because Ari inn Fróði claims that he himself had written a story for the first time on Norrøn. In the first verses of " Noregs konunga valley ", in which the Norwegian kings are listed Sæmundur until Magnus referred to as guarantor for the king Halfdan the Black series of the good. The details of the " Noregs konunga tal " are very scarce, but from the saga of Olaf's Oddr Snorrason which also mentions the Sæmundur, it can be seen that this had much more written on the individual kings.

He is also rumored that he had participated in the Íslendingabók and in the formulation of the Christian law of 1033 and the tithe laws of 1096.

In scholarly writings of the 17th century his other texts were attributed to that can not be proven by him, such as the Sæmundar Edda. Probably this theory came about the authorship of the Edda by the scholar Jón Guðmundsson lærði († 1648). According to him, they have adopted many scholars.

Folk tales form

There are many folk tales about Sæmundur that are supposed to go back in part to the 13th century.

Soon after his death, he was considered a "troll knowledgeable " man and has been associated with occult practices. He was supposed to fly through the air, and there are some fist - motifs in the myths about it. The most famous is that Sæmundur on the way home with the devil a deal closes, that this dry from France bring him to surrender his soul to Iceland. The devil will change to a large seal, riding on the Sæmundur. Shortly before the Icelandic banks, he pulls out a Bible and thus proposes that the seal - devil on the head so that it goes down. This outwitted Sæmundur the devil and saves his soul.

This saga has presented with a sculpture in front of the University of Reykjavík Ásmundur Sveinsson.