1107–1110: Snorri Sturluson‘s Depiction of Sigurd I’s “Voyage to Jerusalem”

Abstract

In a three-year campaign, the Norwegian king Sigurd I led 3,000 men to the Holy Land, where he conquered the city of Sidon with King Baldwin I of Jerusalem. His military campaign has been interpreted early on as a crusade, although he and his retinue spent the larger part of their journey attacking coastal cities and islands in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean—regardless of whether they were ruled by Muslims or Christians. Taking contemporary Arabic, Latin, and Old Nordic sources into account, the article examines the king’s saga dedicated to Sigurd as written by the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson (d. 1241). Snorri describes an extended campaign displaying all characteristics of a typical Viking Age voyage. This raises the question whether Sigurd’s journey to Jerusalem can really count as a crusade.