THE KING'S MIRROR 57 



Norwegian priesthood, though it is possible that he be- 

 longed to one of the minor orders. But at all events he 

 was a professional churchman.* 



There was an old belief in Norway that the work was 

 written at King Sverre's court, perhaps by the priest- 

 king himself ;f but this theory is wholly without foun- 

 dation. Professor Ludvig Daae, believing that only a 

 few Northmen possessed the necessary qualifications for 

 the authorship of such a work as the King's Mirror, con- 

 cluded that it must have been written by Master 

 William, one of the chaplains at the court of Hakon IV.J 

 Master William was evidently a man of some erudition; 

 he held a degree (magister) from a European university; 

 he must have traveled abroad and was no doubt a man 

 of experience; he lived and flourished in the period when 

 the work must have been composed. But there is no 

 shred of evidence that Master William actually wrote 

 the King's Mirror or that he was interested in the prob- 

 lems that are discussed in this work. 



More recently A. V. Heffermehl has made an attempt 

 to prove that the author so long sought for was Ivar 

 Bodde, a Norwegian priest, who seems to have played 

 an important part in the history of Norway in the first 

 half of the thirteenth century as an influential member 

 of the anti-clerical party. Much is not known of Ivar 



* Cf. Daae, "Studier angaaende Kongespeilet ": Aarbogerfor nordisk Oldkyn- 



dighed, 1896, 180-181. Daae holds that the author was a clergyman. 



t Ibid., 1896, 173. 



j Ibid., 1896, 192-196; see also pp. 179 ff. Daae believes that Master William 



must have held a position at court corresponding to the office of chancellor; 



he also conjectures that he was the tutor of the king's sons. Master William 



is mentioned in the Hdkonar Saga, cc. 210, 228. 



Historiske Skrifter tilegnede Ludvig Daae, 79-104 (" Presten Ivar Bodde "). 



Ivar is one of the characters in Ibsen's Pretenders. 



