1067 – 1148

Ari Thorgilsson

Worth knowing

An Icelandic priest who wrote the Íslendingabók, the Book of the Icelanders, around 1125. It is the first history of Iceland written in Icelandic.
He tells how the Christian and heathen parties at the Althing in 999 or 1000 agreed to let one man decide the law, and the heathen lawspeaker Thorgeir chose baptism for the whole country.

In Scholar’s Dream, Ari Thorgilsson has one book

The Book of the IcelandersAri Thorgilsson, Íslendingabók — the Book of the IcelandersHistoryEcclesiology

Words Ari Thorgilsson’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“let us all have one law and one faith”
Þorgeirr the Lawspeaker at the Alþingi (999/1000), in Ari Þorgilsson, Íslendingabók, trans. Vigfusson & Powell, Origines Islandicae I (1905), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move One Law and One Faith

EcclesiologyArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameA pagan lawspeaker, facing a country about to split in two, ruled that everyone would be baptised. He argued from peace, not from truth, and that is how a whole nation came into the church.

Learned byThe Book of the Icelanders (Lv 1)

“Then it was made law that all men should be Christians, and they should take baptism that were yet unbaptized here in the land; but that as to the exposure of children the old laws should stand, and also as to the eating of horse-flesh.”
Ari Þorgilsson, Íslendingabók 7, trans. Vigfusson & Powell, Origines Islandicae I (1905), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Then It Was Made Law

HistoryArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameWhat the ruling actually allowed, which nobody remembers: private sacrifice, horseflesh, and the exposure of infants, all left standing. Ari records the concessions in the same breath as the baptism. All three were withdrawn within a few winters.

Learned byThe Book of the Icelanders (Lv 38)

“They pointed out that the whole world lived under Christian laws and that they could not by themselves withstand the whole world.”
The Polish envoys at Pyritz (1124), in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Robinson (1920), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Against the Whole World

HistoryArgument · power 74 · 95% accurate

In the gameThe argument from everyone else, made by envoys who had not come to debate. It is honest about the numbers, and it proves nothing about whether the thing is true.

Learned byThe Book of the Icelanders (Lv 43)

Who else was alive

Ari Thorgilsson against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window