Heimskringla is a vast compilation of Old Icelandic
SAGAS concerning the kings of Norway, from their
beginnings in myth and legend and the advent of
King Harald Fairhair around 850 through the
death of King Eystein in 1177, some 50 years before
SNORRI STURLUSON began his work on the text.
Snorri, Iceland’s most important medieval writer,
was also the author of the PROSE EDDA (a kind of
handbook of Norse mythology and SKALDIC POETRY), and perhaps of EGIL’S SAGA (one of the most
admired of Icelandic family sagas concerning a
skaldic poet who may have been Snorri’s ancestor).
Snorri, a powerful chieftain and poet himself,
lawspeaker of the Icelandic Althing and the wealthiest man in Iceland during his prime, ends his history of the kings of Norway a generation before the
Norwegian king with whom he himself was acquainted—Hakon Hakonarson, who likely ordered Snorri’s murder in 1241.
The title Heimskringla is not Snorri’s but was
given to the text by an early editor, who simply derived it from the first two words of the manuscript,
kringla heims (“the circular world”). The collection
begins with Ynglinga Saga, which traces the descent of the Norwegian kings back to Odin himself. After this mythic beginning, Snorri includes
15 more sagas devoted to the Norwegian kings
Halfdan the Black; Harald Harfager (Harald
Fairhair); Hakon the Good; Harald Grafeld and
Earl Hakon, son of Sigurd (in a single saga); Olaf
Trygvason; Olaf Haraldson (St. Olaf); Magnus the
Good; Harald Hardrade; Olaf Kyrre; Magnus Barefoot; Sigurd the Crusader (and his brothers Eystein
and Olaf); Magnus the Blind and Harald Gille (in
a single saga); the sons of Harald (Sigurd, Inge, and
Eystein, in a single saga); Hakon Herdebreid
(Hakon the Broad-shouldered); and Magnus Erlingson. It is possible that Snorri’s compilation
owes something to previous histories of Norwegian and Danish kings—the relatively brief Latin
text Historia Norwegiæ and Saxonis Gesta Danorum—Saxo’s significant Latin history of the Danes.
Like Snorri, the authors of these texts traced the
ancestry of the Scandinavian monarchs to Norse
pagan gods. However, there is no evidence that
Snorri was aware of or had read these texts.
The sagas may be read as fascinating and sometimes romantic historical narratives. One of the
most entertaining is the Saga of Harald Hardrade,
who travels to Constantinople and dies in battle
against King Harold of England shortly before the
Norman Conquest. But more than simple tales of
adventure, the sagas of Heimskringla are composed
with certain common thematic concerns. Snorri’s
focus on the history of Norwegian kings was not
disinterested: As a major participant in the political turmoil that characterized his age (the
“Sturlung Age” in Iceland, known for its widespread lawlessness and civil unrest), Snorri was
aware of the impending annexation of Iceland by
the Norwegian crown, an act deemed necessary to
“pacify” the country and that indeed took place in
1262, bringing to an end four centuries of Icelandic independence. In his Heimskringla, Snorri
contemplates the positive and negative aspects of
Norwegian kingship. The political unity and national identity it brought to Norway are clear benefits of the monarchy. However, the thirst for
power and the suppression of personal liberties
were common destructive characteristics of the
kings, and were the forces that compelled Iceland’s
pioneer settlers to leave Norway in the first place.
Thus one of the most famous passages in the
Heimskringla is in the Saga of Saint Olaf, where, in a
speech before his fellow nobles, the petty chieftain
Hroerek warns them against offering the kingdom
to Olaf. Reviewing Norwegian history, he argues
that every king they have had (with the exception
of Hakon the Good) was so concerned with consolidating his own power that the Norwegians themselves suffered. Hroerek is later proven correct when
Olaf has him blinded and kills off some of the other
petty kings who object to his power. The tale seems
an illustration of Snorri’s basic theme.
Another impressive characteristic of Snorri’s text
is his scrupulous standard of historical veracity, so
unusual for his time. He tried to find trustworthy
eyewitness accounts, and depended a good deal on
the Íslendingabók (The Book of the Icelanders), the
first vernacular history of Iceland up to the year
1120, written by the exceptionally reliable Ari
Thorgilsson the Learned. Snorri also relied very
heavily on skaldic poems: The skalds were court
poets for the various kings, and wrote verse commemorating significant events of the kings’ reigns.
Skalds were often present at battles, and since excessive flattery was not characteristic of skaldic poetry (except as satire), the poems that survived, and
that he included in the texts of the sagas, were trustworthy sources for Snorri’s research.
The Saga of Saint Olaf was the first of Snorri’s
kings’ sagas, and ultimately forms the centerpiece
of Heimskringla. In the case of Olaf, Snorri had a
vast amount of legendary material to sift through
concerning the king’s biography. Previous treatments of Olaf’s life had been hagiographical—essentially SAINTS’ LIVES—that depicted the king as
saintly from his early days on. But Snorri knew that
Olaf was much more complex, and depicts him,
more accurately, as a vindictive and ambitious
monarch who used Christianity as a means to
achieve his goal of power. In Snorri’s tale, Olaf only
becomes saintly—ethically and spiritually—once he
has been defeated and lives in exile in Russia, and
particularly when he suffers his final defeat in battle.
Although scholars differ as to how accurate
Snorri’s narratives are, the sagas still provide one of
the most important sources for early Norse history.
Snorri’s text is remarkable for its objectivity, for
the psychological realism of its characters, and the
plausible cause-effect relationships of its events as
Snorri presents them.
Bibliography
Bagge, Sverre. Society and Politics in Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
———. “From Sagas to Society: The Case of Heimskringla.” In From Sagas to Society: Comparative
Approaches to Early Iceland, edited by Gisli Palsson, 61–75. Enfield Lock, U.K.: Hisarlik, 1992.
Bermann, Melissa A. “Egil’s Saga and Heimskringla,”
Scandinavian Studies 54 (1982): 21–50.
Carroll, Joseph. “The Prose Edda, the Heimskringla,
and Beowulf: Mythical, Legendary, and Historical
Dialogues,” Geardagum: Essays in Old and Middle
English Literature 18 (1997): 15–38.
Ciklamini, Marlene. “The Folktale in Heimskringla,”
Folklore 90 (1979): 204–216.
———. Snorri Sturluson. Boston: Twayne, 1978.
Kuhn, Hans. “Fabulous Childhoods, Adventures, Incidents: Folktale Patterns within the Saga Structure of Heimskringla,” Journal of Folktale Studies
41 (2000): 76–86.
Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla: History of the Kings
of Norway. Translated by Lee Hollander. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1964.