Editing Eric Bloodaxe (section)

==Sources==
Historians have reconstructed a narrative of Eric's life and career from the scant available historical data. There is a distinction between contemporary or near contemporary sources for Eric's period as ruler of [[Northumbria]] and the entirely saga-based sources that detail the life of Eric of Norway, a chieftain who ruled the [[Western Norway|Norwegian Westland]] in the 930s.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', p. 187</ref> Norse sources have identified the two as the same since the late 12th century, and while the subject is controversial, most historians have identified the two figures as the same since [[W. G. Collingwood]]'s article in 1901.<ref>W. G. Collingwood, "King Eirík", pp. 313–27; Downham, ''Viking Kings'', p. 116, n 48, for details of previous debate; Downham, "Erik Bloodaxe – Axed?", p. 73; Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', p. 187</ref> This identification was rejected early in the 21st century by the historian [[Clare Downham]], who has argued that later Norse writers synthesized the two Erics, possibly using English sources.<ref>Downham, "Erik Bloodaxed – Axed?", pp. 51—77; Downham, ''Viking Kings'', pp</ref> This argument, though respected by other historians in the area, has not produced consensus.<ref>Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 187—8</ref>

Contemporary or near-contemporary sources include different [[recension]]s of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', Eric's coinage, the ''Life ''of [[St Cathróe]], and possibly [[skaldic poetry]].<ref name="ftn2">In two or three centuries of oral transmission, such poems and individual verses could have been adapted and rearranged to suit other needs. Roberta Frank's verdict is that "[h]istory may help us to understand Norse court poetry, but skaldic verse can tell us little about history that we did not already know." "Skaldic Poetry." In ''Old Norse-Icelandic Literature'', ed. Carol J. Clover and John Lindow. Ithaca and London, 1985. pp. 157–96: 174.</ref> Such sources reproduce only a hazy image of Eric's activities in [[Anglo-Saxon England]].

Strikingly, Eric's historical obscurity stands in sharp contrast to the wealth of legendary depictions in the kings' sagas, in which he takes part in the sagas of his father [[Harald Fairhair]] and his younger half-brother [[Haakon the Good]]. These include the late 12th-century Norwegian synoptics&nbsp;– ''[[Historia Norwegiæ]] ''(perhaps ''c''. 1170), [[Theodoricus monachus]]' ''Historia de antiquitate regum Norwagiensium'' (''c''. 1180), and ''[[Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum]]'' (''c''. 1190) – and the later Icelandic [[kings' sagas]] ''[[Orkneyinga saga]]'' (''c''. 1200), ''[[Fagrskinna]]'' (''c''. 1225), the ''[[Heimskringla]]'' ascribed to [[Snorri Sturluson]] (''c''. 1230), ''[[Egils saga]]'' (1220–1240), and ''[[Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta]]'' (''c''. 1300). Exactly in what sense the Eric of the sagas may have been based on the historical Eric of Northumbria, and conversely, to what extent later evidence might be called upon to shed light on the historical figure, are matters which have inspired a variety of approaches and suggestions among generations of historians. Current opinion veers towards a more critical attitude towards the use of sagas as historical sources for the period before the 11th century, but conclusive answers cannot be offered.<ref>For a discussion of sagas as historical sources, see Cormack, "Fact and Fiction in the Icelandic Sagas," History Compass 4 (2006).</ref>