THE KING'S MIRROR 59 



literary skill. There seems to be no reason why Ivar 

 Bodde could not have written the King's Mirror, and he 

 may also have had a hand in the preparation of Sverre's 

 Address; but that he actually did write either or both 

 of these important works has not yet been proved ; there 

 may have been other priests in Norway in the thirteenth 

 century who stood for the divine right of Norwegian 

 kingship. 



From certain geographical allusions it is quite clear 

 that the work was written in Norway and in some part 

 of the country that would be counted far to the north. 

 The author mentions two localities in the Lofoten region 

 and he shows considerable knowledge of conditions else- 

 where in Halogaland; * but it is evident that he did not 

 reside in that part of the kingdom when he was at work 

 on his great treatise. It is generally agreed that the 

 home of the Speculum Regale is Namdalen, a region 

 which lies northeast of the city of Trondhjem and 

 which touches the border of Halogaland on the north. f 

 This conclusion is based on certain astronomical obser- 

 vations on the part of the author, namely the length of 

 the shortest day, the daily increase in the length of the 

 day, and the relationship between the length of the 

 sun's path and the sun's altitude at noon of the longest 

 and the shortest day.J The Norwegian astronomer Hans 

 Geelmuyden has determined that if the author's state- 

 ments on these points are to be regarded as scientific 

 computations, they indicate a latitude of 65, 64 42', 

 and 64 52' respectively. All these points lie within the 



C.vii. 



f See the Sorb" edition, pp. lix-lx; the Christiaua edition, p. v. 



J Cc. vi, vii. 



