Gunnlaugr Leifsson

Gunnlaugr Leifsson (died 1218 or 1219) was an Icelandic scholar, author and poet.

Benedictine monk at the Þingeyraklaustur monastery (Icelandic Þingeyrarklaustur) in the north of Iceland.^[2]

Many sources (including Þorvalds þáttur víðförla) refer to him simply as Gunnlaugr munkr or Gunnlaugr the Monk.

Biography

Little is known about Gunnlaugr's family or life, but a miracle in Jóns saga helga hin elsta describes how Gunnlaugr the Monk's "disciple and relative" Leifr recovers from a dangerous illness after drinking holy water touched by the relics of Bishop

Jón Ögmundarson of Hólar.^[3] The miracle is dated to the episcopy of Guðmundur Arason

of Hólar (between 1203 and 1237).

Gunnlaugr composed a Latin biography of King

Óláfr Tryggvason (see Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar). This work is now lost but it is believed to have been an expansion of the Latin Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar written by his monastic brother, Oddr Snorrason. Snorri Sturluson made use of Gunnlaugr's work when composing his Heimskringla and sections of Gunnlaugr's work were incorporated into Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta.^[4]

Gunnlaugr also wrote a Latin vita of Bishop Jón Ögmundarson. This work is also lost but

Þorlákr helgi's miracles. According to several medieval sources, Gunnlaugr composed a work on Saint Ambrose. One study hypothesizes that the extant Old Norse translation of Vita sancti Ambrosii, Ambrósíus saga, may be Gunnlaugr's work,^[5] although Gunnlaugr's nova historia sancti Ambrosii is generally identified as a Latin office of St Ambrose, Ambrósíustíðir.^[6]

Gunnlaugr is likewise credited with the poem

fornyrðislag

stanzas.

References

^ His name is sometimes anglicized as Gunnlaug Leifsson.
^ "Þingeyrarklaustur (Historical Places in Northwest Iceland)". Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
^ Biskupa sögur. Copenhagen: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag. 1858–1878. p. 193.
^ Simpson 2004:166.
^ Katrín Axelsdóttir 2005:349.
^ Gottskálk Jensson 2012:136.