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Snorri Sturluson (born 1179- died 22.9.1241) |
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Icelandic poet, historian, the best-known writer of the saga, author of the Prose Edda, which was written as a textbook for young poets who wished to praise kings, and Heimskringla, a history of the kings of Norway, the most important prose collection in Old Norse literature. Snorri expanded one of its sections into a separate Olaf's Saga. He was killed in 1241. The rough storm has robbed me Snorri Sturluson, who belonged to the powerful Sturlunga
family, was a descendant of the poet and hero from Egil's Saga,
Egill Skallgrímsson. He grew up in the home of the most influential
chieftain of Iceland, Jón Loptsson, and acquired a deep knowledge of
Icelandic tradition and history. It is possible that Snorri was able to read Latin. His father died in 1197. Two years later Snorri married Herdis, who came from a wealthy family. In the following years Snorri devoted himself to enlarging his estate, eventually gaining the position of one of the richest men in the country. In 1206 Snorri settled at Reykjaholt. His marriage was not
happy. Herdis lived at Borg until her death in 1233. In Reykjahold
Snorri wrote most of his works between 1223-1235. Between 1215-18 and
1222-32 he was the chairman of the Icelandic high court. From 1218-1220 Snorri was in Norway, invited by the young and inexperienced King Haakon IV, who ruled from 1217 to 1263. At that time the most powerful man was Haakon's half-brother Jarl Skule. During this period Snorri got deeply involved in political intrigues. He signed to Norway's supremacy over Iceland and perhaps he started to plan to write a saga about the ancient kings. In his homeland Snorri was called a traitor. After returning to Iceland, Snorri was involved in a number of
quarrels. In court Snorri lost most of his cases and acquired many
enemies. Several of them came from his own family. He had illegitimate
children and lived with a widow, whose land he had incorporated with
his own. Because he was not active enough in persuading his countrymen
to accept Norway's domination, Haakon's suspicions arose. However, he
carried out an agreement to protect Norwegian merchants in Iceland. In 1237 Snorri returned to Norway, and joined the opposition against the king. Although Haakon banned all Icelanders from leaving Norway, Snorri sailed in 1239 back to home, where his former son-in-law, Gizurr Thórvaldsson, was his most prominent enemy and ally of the king. Haakon demanded that Snorri should be brought to Norway or killed if he refused to obey him. On September 11, 1241, he was assassinated by Haakon´s order in Gut Reykjaholt. The killer was Árni Beiskur, who hit Snorri with an axe. "Don't strike," were Snorri's last words. He died unarmed in his own cellar. Snorri's fate has been compared to that of Cicero in ancient Rome – also Snorri has remained in history, but not as a great statesman or an orator, but as a great writer. "I've no doubt that if you join Harald's men, you'll prove yourself a match for them all, and as good a man as the bravest of them in every danger. Just take care not to be too ambitious. Never try to compensate with men greater than yourself, but never give way to them either." (Egil's grandfather Kveldulf in Egil's Saga) Heimskringla contains sixteen sagas of Norwegian
history and records the kings of Norway from the earliest times to
1177, as well as a collection of their sagas and poems. Its name comes
from its opening words, 'Kringla heimsins', the 'circle of the world.'
From the pagan god Odin, whom Snorri regards as a real person, to
Harald Fine-Hair, is listed twenty-eight kings. "Odin established
the same law in his land that had been in force in
Asaland. Thus he established by law that all dead men should be burned,
and their belongings laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be
cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, every one will
come to Valhalla with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he
would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth." (from Heimskringla) One of Snorri's sources was a lost work called Hryggjarstykki,
written by Eiríkr Oddson. The only historian Snorri mentions in his
foreword is Ari Thorgilsson, "the first man in this country to write in
the Norse tongue about lore both ancient and recent." Snorri might also have employed Honorius of Autun's Elucidarium, translated into Old Norse in the twelfth century, and other Latin sources, but he did not write in Latin. Prose Edda, also called the Snorra Edda
includes in the first part, Gylfaginning, an account of the
creation of the world and of pagan poetry, stories about the gods in
the second section, explanation of the special vocabulary used in
poetry, a poem about King Hákon and Earl Skúli Bárðarson, and technical
analysis of meters. The second, Skaldskaparmál, and the third
part, Háttatal, can be read as an introduction to the art of
writing poetry. Snorri's work preserved in three relatively complete
manuscripts: Codex Upsaliensis, perhaps a direct copy of
Snorri's own text, Codex Regius, dated palaeographically to
about 1270-1280, and Codex Wormianus, from the middle of the
fourteenth century. Most translations are based on the Codex Regius,
which is made from several collections of poems. The first translation
of Snorri's work, entitled Edda islandorum an Chr 1213 islandice
conscripta per Snorronem Sturlæ, nunc prinium islandice, danice, et
latine ex antiquis codicibus in lucem prodit opera p. J. Resinii,
was published in 1665 in Copenhagen. G.W. Dasent's incomplete English
version of Snorra Edda was published in Stockholm in 1842. Like most sagas, Egil's Saga is anonymous, but it is thought to have been written by Snorri Sturluson in about 1230, although no medieval source attributes the saga to Snorri. Its greatest poem is 'Lament for My Sons,' in which Egil honors his dead sons in verse. Egil's
Saga starts with King Harald Fine-Hair's
establishment of
Norwegian unity at the cost of tyranny and war, and closes in Iceland,
honoring the achievement of the founding fathers of the Icelandic
nation. The saga embraces five generations, from Egil's grandfather
Kveldulf to his grandson Skuli. Egil is a poet, drunkard, lawyer and
farmer, he performs his first murder at the age of six and is the most
individual character in the Icelandic Sagas. Odin has given Egil the
power of words but taken away his two sons. Thorgerd, his daughter,
manipulates her father back to the acceptance of life and writing about
his suffering. It has been suggested that the saga may have been
composed to entertain the guests at the wedding of Tumi Sighvatsson to
his own sister-in-law, Þuríður Ormsdóttir. It took place in Reykholt,
Snorri's residence. Gofumk íþrótt Snorri gives a detailed description of Egill's physical appearance: "He
had a broad forehead and large brows, a nose that was not long but
enormously thick, and lips that, seen through his beard, were both wide
and long. He had a remarkably broad chin, and this largeness continued
throughout the jawbone. He was thick-necked and broad-shouldered and,
more so than other men, he was hard-looking and fierce when angry." A skull thought to be that of Egill was unearthed in Mosfell about 150 years after Egil's death. The skull was described as "ridged all over like a scallop shell." It has been suggested that Egill suffered from Paget's disease of bone or from Van Buchem's disease. Dr Darris Wills, a linguist and historian, has argued that this and other descriptions of physical features in sagas "served as 'mugshots' of likely offenders and a warning to wider Viking society." The word "saga" is Norse for "tale". Most sagas are adventure
tales, essentially retellings of Scandinavian history and folktales in
narrative form. If the attribution is correct, Egil's saga is
the only one whose author is known, or was quite close to Snorri. Original sagas were Nordic and
Icelandic, written in the 11-14th centuries. The genre covers a wide
range of material distinguished primarily by subject matter. The family
sagas deal with historical events that occurred in Icelandic and Norway
during the period of settlement, from about 870 to 1050. Primarily
biographical are Egil's Saga, Grettir's Saga, (11th
century, translated in verse by William Morris),
and Gisli's saga, from the early 13th century. The poems of the
Elder Edda are very old and pagan – poems derived from the
Eddas drew heavily on myths and legends. Early Christian poets,
among them Einarr Skúlason, used sagas and ancient tales of the gods to
illustrate Christian concepts and ideas. One of Snorri's nephews was
accused of being a devotee of the god Odin, but Snorri composed his works from a Christian perspective. Famous sagas: Burnt Njál Saga (11th century), Volsunga Saga (final form 13th century), Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla. Science fiction writer Poul Anderson has retold Hrolf Kragi's Saga in 1973. Several Scandinavian writers have imitated the devices of the saga in historical fiction. Of these, Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdotter trilogy (1920-22), including Kranse (The Garland), Husfrue (The Mistress of Husaby), and Korset (The Cross) is best known. In the United States O.E. Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth and its sequels make use of multigenerational motivation. For further reading: A History of Icelandic Literature by Stefán Einarsson (1957); The Icelandic Saga by Peter Hallberg (1962); Snorri Sturluson by Marlene Ciklamini (1978); The Mediaval Saga by Carol j. Clover (1982); Snorri Sturluson: Edda by Anthony Faulkes (1987); Skáldskaparmál: Snorri Sturluson's Ars Poetica and Medieval Theories of Languge by Margaret Clunies Ross (1987); Society and Politics in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla by Sverre Bagge (1991); Snorri Sturluson, ed. by Von Hans Fix (1998); 'Kings, cowpies, and creation: Intertextual traffic between "history" and "myth" in the writings of Snorri Sturluson' by Bruce Lincoln, in Old Norse Religion in Long-term Perspectives: Origins, Changes, and Interactions, edited by Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert and Catharina Raudvere (2006); Snorri Sturluson and the Edda: The Conversion of Cultural Capital in Medieval Scandinavia by Kevin J. Wanner (2008); Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of the Norse Myths by Nancy Marie Brown (2012); 'Physiology and Behaviour in the Sagas' by Darris Wills, in Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, Vol. 8 (2012); Snorre och sagorna: De isländska källorna till vår äldre kulturhistoria by Mikael Males (2017); Snorri Sturluson and Reykholt: The Author and Magnate, his Life, Works and Environment at Reykholt in Iceland, edited by Guðrún Sveinbjarnardóttir and Helgi Þorláksson (2018); Snorri Sturluson: Edda by Marco Battaglia (2021) Selected works:
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