Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241). Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature

Snorri Sturluson was Iceland’s best-known medieval
writer. He was a historian, a poet, and perhaps
a saga writer as well. He wrote HEIMSKRINGLA
(a history of the kings of Norway), the PROSE EDDA
(a handbook of Norse mythology and SKALDIC POETRY),
and is thought to be the author of EGIL’S
SAGA (one of the finest of the Old Icelandic family
SAGAS). Embroiled in the politics of his day in Norway,
Snorri fell afoul of the Norwegian king, and
was murdered in what was probably a political assassination
in 1241.
Snorri was born in Hvamm in the western part
of Iceland in 1179. He was from the powerful
Sturlung family, which attained unprecedented influence
in the period 1200–64, and after whom this
turbulent period of the 13th century is named. The
Sturlung Age was known for its lawlessness and violence
that became so tumultuous that the Norwegian
king stepped in to govern and by 1264,
Iceland had lost its independence.
Snorri grew up as the foster son of Iceland’s
most powerful chieftain, Jón Loftsson, and was
educated at Oddi, Iceland’s premier center for
learning, located at Jón Loftsson’s farmstead.Here
he learned law and history, as well as the arts of
poetry and saga writing. Snorri was ambitious,
grew to be a powerful man of the time, and accumulated
a great deal of wealth, becoming chieftain
of several judicial districts. He was made
lawspeaker of the Althing (the Icelandic parliament)
in 1215–18 and again in 1222–31. As
lawspeaker, he recited the whole body of Icelandic
law at the beginning of the session, and acted as
arbiter in legal disputes.
He also visited Norway twice. After his first
visit (1218–20), he left with great honor, having
ingratiated himself with both King Hakon
Hakonarson and his regent, Jarl Skúli. Snorri returned
to Iceland at the height of his power, and
by the mid-1220s was the richest man in Iceland.
But violent squabbles with rival members of his
Sturlung family and their allies reduced his influence
by 1235, and in 1237 he left Iceland again for
Norway. There he became involved in the political
battle surrounding the Norwegian throne.
King Hakon Hakonarson was being challenged by
Jarl Skúli. Snorri supported Skúli’s rebellion, and
when Skúli was killed in 1240, Snorri was ordered
by Hakon not to return to Iceland. Against the
king’s wishes, Snorri sailed home. In 1241, Snorri
was murdered at his home in Skalholt by his former
son-in-law, Gizurr Thorwaldsson, on
Hakon’s orders.
But it is for his literary achievements that Snorri
is remembered. And this is unusual: Prose texts in
Iceland were almost always anonymous, prose
being seen as simply the retelling of traditional stories.
Snorri is the chief exception to this rule.
Known in his own day as a respected skaldic poet,
it is Snorri’s prose works that have made his
posthumous reputation. His prose voice is witty,
intelligent, and objective, perhaps in contrast with
the sometimes ruthlessly ambiguous figure that
appears in his biography. His Heimskringla (The
disk of the world, ca. 1235) is a collection of sagas
on the kings of Norway, beginning with the Ynglinga
saga, an account of the legendary ancestors
of the Norwegian kings, dating back to Odin himself,
the chief Norse god. Snorri then tells of King
Harald Fairhair about 850, and includes sagas of
the various kings from Harald’s time to his own
age. Snorri’s Edda (called the Prose Edda, or the
Younger Edda, to distinguish it from the POETIC
EDDA, mistakenly thought to be older) is something
of a textbook describing the various meters
and types of KENNINGS found in skaldic verse. This
poetic guide is linked to a handbook of Norse
mythology. As for Egil’s Saga, if Snorri did in fact
write it, as the style suggests, it is a brilliant picture
of a complex poet-chieftain who was, in fact, one
of Snorri’s own ancestors.
The tale of Snorri’s stormy life is told in the
Islendinga Saga, composed by Sturla Thordarson
(1214–84), Snorri’s own nephew and apparently
the heir of his literary talent, though the saga mentions
little of Snorri’s cultural achievements. To appreciate
those, we need to read Snorri himself.
Bibliography
Bagge, Sverre. Society and Politics in Snorri Sturluson’s
Heimskringla. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1991.
Ciklamini, Marlene. Snorri Sturluson. Boston:
Twayne, 1978.
Egil’s Saga. Translated with an introduction by Hermann
Palsson and Paul Edwards.Harmondsworth,
U.K.: Penguin, 1976.
Sturlunga Saga. Translated by Julia H.McGrew.With
an introduction by R. George Thomas. 2 vols.New
York: Twayne, 1970–1974.
Sturluson, Snorri. Edda. Edited and translated by Anthony
Faulkes. London: Dent, 1987.
———.Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway.
Translated with an introduction by Lee M. Hollander.
Austin: Published for the American-
Scandinavian Foundation by the University of
Texas Press, 1964.

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