The Norwegian soccer star Erling Haaland has donated a rare 16th-century manuscript filled with canonical Viking sagas to his hometown municipality of Time, in the country’s southwest.

Together with his father, the former Norway international Alf-Inge Haaland, the Manchester City footballer purchased the first printed edition of Snorri Sturluson‘s chronicles written in Norwegian-Danish for 1.3 million ​Norwegian crowns ($134,000), a record for a book sale in Norway.

The book was purchased from Johan Fredrik Odfjell, the Norwegian businessman and major bibliophile, through SD Auction in late 2025, but the celebrity buyer was only announced by Time Municipality on March 24.

The first page of Mattis Størssøn’s version of Snorri’s sagas. Photo: courtesy Time municipality.

“I want the book to always lie open so that people can read about those who came from where I come from, Bryne and Jæren [Bryne is a town within the district of Jæren],” the striker said in a statement. “It’s easier to feel drawn to reading when you can recognise yourself in the people and places being written about.”

Under the conditions of the gift, the only surviving copy of the two-volume 1594 manuscript must be permanently displayed and made accessible to the public at the Bryne library.

Mattis Størssøn’s version of Snorri’s sagas. Photo: courtesy Time municipality.

Snorri Sturluson was a 13th-century Icelandic poet and politician whose writings on Norse mythology and Nordic history continue to inform and entertain Scandinavians today. The recently acquired book presents the translations of Mattis Størssøn, a 16th-century law official from the southwest of Norway who was one of the first people to turn Old Norse into the modern vernacular. In addition to Snorri’s sagas, which trace Norwegian history from creation myth to power struggles from the Vikings through Medieval kings, Størssøn included translations of Sverri’s saga and Hákon Hákonarson’s saga. The book was first printed in Denmark, 20 years after Størssøn’s death.

“We are extremely grateful for this incredibly generous gift,” the mayor of Time Municipality, Andreas Vollsund, said in a statement. “Erling and Alfie are giving us the opportunity to do one of the most important things we can do for our young people: give them the joy of reading.” As part of the gift, Time Municipality has launched a reading competition among middle and lower school classes for the coming year with the winner invited to watch the Norwegian national team at the Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo.

“I’ve been lucky enough to live out my dream through football, and I know not everyone gets that chance,” Haaland, who is set to represent Norway at the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the United States said. “Books give so many more people the chance to dream big, see new possibilities, and find their own path.”