THE KING'S MIRROR 65 



1243, in which year Norwegian clericalism reasserted it- 

 self, but some time before 1247, the year of Hakon's cor- 

 onation and final reconciliation with the church. 



In the centuries following its composition the King's 

 Mirror appears to have had wide currency in the North. 

 When the editors of the Sorb* edition began to search for 

 manuscripts, they found a considerable number, though 

 chiefly fragments, in Norway and Iceland; and traces of 

 the work were also found in Sweden.* Thus far twenty- 

 five manuscripts have come to light; " some of them 

 are extensive, but many are fragments of only a few 

 leaves. "f Copies of the work were made as late as the 

 reformation period and even later. 



The first mention of the Speculum Regale in any 

 printed work is in Peder Claussb'n's " Description of 

 Nor way, "J the manuscript of which dates from the 

 earlier years of the seventeenth century. But more than 

 one hundred years were still to pass before this impor- 

 tant work was brought to the attention of the literary 

 world. Early in the eighteenth century, however, great 

 interest began to be shown in the records of the Old 

 Northern past. The great Icelandic scholar and antiqua- 

 rian, Arne Magnussen, had begun to collect manuscripts 

 and was laying the foundation of the Arnamagnean col- 

 lection, which is one of the treasures of the Danish cap- 



* See the Soro edition, pp. xxix-xxxvii. 



f Konungs Skuggsjd (ed. G. T. Fiona), p. i. Among the fragments is a part of 

 a Latin paraphrase made in Sweden in the first hah* of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury. The translator was a cleric in the service of the Duchess Ingeborg, a 

 daughter of the Norwegian King Hakon V. Ingeborg was married to the 

 Swedish Duke Erik. Arkivfor nordisk Fttologi, I, 110-112. 

 t Norrigis Bescriffuelse. See Aarboger for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1896, 172 

 (Daae). 



