Hertug Skule og Olav den Hellige: genealogi og legitimitet på Øretinget i 1239

Sammendrag

In November 1239, Duke Skúli Bárðarson was acclaimed king at Eyraþing just outside Þrándheimr. During the assembly his men proclaimed that the duke was the kinsman of the Norwegian patron saint Óláfr helgi (d. 1030). It was the beginning of a rebellion against Skúli’s son-in-law Hákon Hákonarson (r. 1217-1263). The final phase of the Norwegian civil war is one of the most extensively discussed periods in Norwegian history, with several important contributions in the last 10 years. This article examines the context of Skúli’s attempt to appropriate Óláfr helgi as a factionally specific legitimising ancestor in support of his claim to the throne. How should this claim be understood? By examining an underused source, the substantial genealogical material on the duke and his family, this article will shed new light on the ideas of royal legitimacy in the period. While the duke himself seems to have provided much of the impetus for the composition of these genealogies, the extent to which they were used and considered significant are still open questions. But by matching the extant genealogies with descriptions of genealogical criteria during royal acclamations in 1204-1239 from Bǫglunga sǫgur and Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar it will be argued that the claim to descend from Óláfr was new as a factionally specific source of royal legitimacy. This innovation presumably happened through a collaboration between the Duke and his Icelandic ally Snorri Sturluson. It nonetheless built on ideas that had developed since the eleventh century, of a special relationship between the royal saint and the royal dynasty.