Abstrakt
In this paper, I focus on Sturla Þórðarson's (1214-1284) social role as a poet and on its depiction in Sturlunga saga. Three major domains of Sturla's skaldic activity can be distinguished: using poetry to comment on his own political efforts, to strengthen his bonds with his mightier Icelandic allies, and to gain and maintain the friendship of the Norwegian monarch.
The former two aspects are marginal in Sturlunga saga, but once extracted from the fragmentary accounts, they throw new light on the social functions of poetry in 13th-century Iceland. The latter aspect, on the other hand, is overrated in the saga.
My suggestion is that the skaldic role, though it may have been of some significance, was not a dominant factor in Sturla's relations to the Norwegian king. It was nevertheless essential to the authors of the narratives about Sturla, and thus his story as presented in the saga is a part of the grand narrative of the 'myth' of the social power of poetry as it was constructed or re-constructed in 13th-century Iceland.