Image is Everything: The Morkinskinna Account of King Sigurðr of Norway’s Journey to the Holy Land

This study concerns the longest account of the Norwegian King Sigurðr’s journey to the Holy Land (1108–11) and its presentation in the narrative of Morkinskinna as a spectacle: a social drama wherein the key performer, using his and his entourage’s deliberate behaviour, strives to manipulate both how he and his kingdom are perceived by an audience of his choosing, specifically several of the other crowned heads of Europe. Furthermore, their reaction determines the identity not only of the king himself but also of Norwegians on the whole, and the audience of those narratives that bear witness to the performance.