Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson, Sigurd Slembe

Kathy Rees (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.5: Norwegian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London), Anja Tröger (University of Edinburgh)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1862

Places

Norway (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

This trilogy of plays represents the violent period in twelfth century Norway when royal succession laws recognised the claims of illegitimate sons, resulting in many political factions and, ultimately, civil war. This is a play about allegiance and betrayal, about ambition and indifference. Among the chieftains, politicians and soldiers, plotting and counter-plotting is common; this sense of confusion and uncertainty is reinforced by Bjornson’s use of vigorous, fast-paced scenes.

The eponymous protagonist is based on Sigurd, son of Thora Saxesdatter, husband of Audhild Torleiv. In the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturlsson (1178/9-1241), Sigurd is described as having been

set to book-learning in his …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2890 words

Citation: Rees, Kathy. "Sigurd Slembe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 April 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35891, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Save this article