ABSTRACT
The reference in the Skálholt annals might also serve as a good illustration of the challenge of studying Norwegian crusading activities: the paucity of the sources. Even the usually well-informed Norse sagas rarely give any insight into crusading. In fact, only one known Norwegian medieval text is entirely dedicated to crusading.4 References to crusading or pilgrimage, in connection with the Fifth Crusade, are only sporadically found in the two Old Norse sagas Bo˛glunga so˛gur and Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar. But, in addition, there are a few papal letters and references to the crusade in the Icelandic Annals. The rather elusive nature of our evidence is by no means a uniquely Norwegian problem, but rather a quite common problem in crusade studies. The challenge is to make a coherent narrative about the Norwegian involvement in the Fifth Crusade without stretching the evidence too far. However, my reading of the source material points in a direction that Norwegian historians have rarely emphasized.
