A statue of Snorri Sturluson by Norwegian sculptor
Gustav Vigeland was erected at
Reykholt in
1947.
Snorri Sturluson[1] (1178 – September 23, 1241) was an
Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He was the author of
the Prose Edda or Younger Edda, which consists of Gylfaginning ("the fooling of Gylfi"), a narrative of Norse
mythology, the Skáldskaparmál, a book of poetic language, and the
Háttatal, a list of verse forms. He was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in
Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of
Egils saga.
As a historian and mythographer, Snorri is remarkable for proposing the theory (in the
Prose Edda) that mythological gods begin as human war leaders and kings whose funeral sites develop cults (see euhemerism). As people call upon the dead war leader as they go to battle, or the dead king as they face
tribal hardship, they begin to venerate the figure. Eventually, the king or warrior is remembered only as a god. He also proposed
that as tribes defeat others, they explain their victory by proposing that their own gods were in battle with the gods of the
others.
Life
Early biography
Snorri Sturluson was born into the wealthy and powerful Sturlungar family of
the Icelandic Commonwealth, a sovereign nation, about 1178. His parents were
Sturla Þórðarson[2] of Hvamm and Guðný Böðvarsdóttir.[3] He
had two older brothers, Þórðr Sturluson (the oldest) and Sighvatr
Sturluson.
By a quirk of circumstance he was raised from the age of three (or two) by Jón Loftsson,
a relative of the Norwegian royal family, in Oddi, Iceland. As Sturla was trying to settle a
lawsuit with Father Páll Sölvason, the latter's wife lunged suddenly at him with a knife, intending, she said, to make him like
his hero Odin (one-eyed), but bystanders deflected the blow to the cheek. The resulting settlement
would have beggared Páll. Loftsson intervened in the Althing to mitigate the judgement and to compensate Sturla offered to raise
and educate Snorri.
Snorri therefore received education and made connections that he might not otherwise have made. He attended the school of
Sæmundr fróði, grandfather of Loftsson, at Oddi. He never returned to his parents' home.
His father died in 1183 and his mother as guardian soon wasted Snorri's share of the inheritance. Loftsson died in 1197. The two
families then arranged a marriage in 1199 between Snorri and his first wife, Herdís. From her father Bersi he inherited an estate
at Borg and a chieftainship. He soon acquired more property and chieftainships.
Snorri and Herdís were together for four years at Borg. They had a few children. The marriage succumbed to Snorri's
philandering, and in 1206 he settled in Reykholt as manager of an
estate there, but without Herdís. He made significant improvements to the estate, including a hot outdoor bath (Snorralaug). The bath and the buildings have been preserved to some extent. During the initial years at
Reykholt he had several more children by different women: Gudrun, Oddny and Thuridur.
National life
Snorri quickly became known as a poet, but was also a successful lawyer. In 1215 he became
lawspeaker of the Althing, perhaps the highest position an
individual could hold in the Icelandic government. In the summer of 1218, he left the lawspeaker
position and sailed to Norway, by royal invitation. There he became well-acquainted with the
teen-age King Hákon Hákonarson and his co-regent, Jarl Skúli. He spent the winter as house-guest of the jarl. They showered gifts upon him including the
ship in which he sailed and he in turn wrote poetry about them. In the summer of 1219 he met his
Swedish colleague, the lawspeaker Eskil Magnusson
and his wife Kristina Nilsdotter Blake in Skara. They were both
related to royalty and probably gave Snorri an insight into the history of Sweden.
Snorri was mainly interested in history and culture. The Norwegian regents, however, cultivated Snorri, making him a squire
and then the king's chamberlain, a position that required an oath of loyalty. It is
unclear that he understood the significance of these honors. The king hoped to incorporate Iceland into Norway, which he could do
by vote of the Althing, of which Snorri had been a key member.
In 1220 Snorri returned to Iceland and by 1222 was back as
lawspeaker of the Althing, which he held this time until 1232. The basis of his election was
entirely his fame as a poet. Politically he was the kings's spokesman, supporting union with Norway, a platform that acquired
major enemies for him among the chiefs. Personally in 1224 he took up residence with Hallveig
Ormsdottir, a granddaughter of Loftsson, now a widow of great means, and formed a common-law relationship that lasted the rest of
his life. She was a much younger woman. Although they were fond of each other they had no children together, concentrating
instead on raising the children they had had with others. Five of Snorri's children survived to adulthood.
Failure in Iceland
As chief and statesman Snorri behaved exactly the opposite of the resolute and often heroic characters of the sagas, to such a
degree that his authorship of them sometimes is questioned. [citation needed]
Many of the other chiefs found his position as royal office-holder in one state while serving in the governing body of another
despicable, especially the other Sturlungar. Snorri's strategy was to consolidate
power over them, at which point he could offer Iceland to the king. His first moves were civic. On the death in 1222 of Saemund,
son of Jón Loftsson, he became a suitor for the hand of his daughter, Solveig. Herdís' silent vote did nothing for his suit. His
nephew, Sturla Sigvatson, Snorri's political opponent, stepped in to marry her in 1223, the year
before Snorri met Hallveig.
A period of clan feuding followed. Snorri perceived that only resolute, saga-type actions were going to achieve his objective,
but he proved unwilling or incapable of carrying them out. He raised an armed party under another nephew, Bodvar Tordson, and
another under his son, Urökja, with the intent of executing a first strike against his brother Sigvat and Sturla Sigvatson. On
the eve of battle he dismissed those forces and offered terms to his brother.
Sigvat and Sturla with a force of 1000 men drove Snorri into the countryside, where he sought refuge among the other chiefs.
Urökja undertook guerilla operations in the fjords of west Iceland and the war was on.
Haakon IV made an effort to intervene from afar, inviting all the chiefs of Iceland to a peace conference in Norway. This
maneuver was transparent to Sigvat, who understood, as apparently Snorri did not, what could happen to the chiefs in Norway.
Instead of killing his opponents he began to insist that they take the king up on his offer.
This was Urökja's fate, who was captured by Sturla during the pretext of a peace negotiation at Reykjaholt, and also of
Torleiv Tordson, a cousin of Snorri's, who came to his assistance with 800 men and was deserted by Snorri on the battlefield in a
flare-up over the chain of command. In 1237 Snorri thought it best to join the king.
The end of Snorri and the commonwealth
The reign of Haakon IV (Hákon Hákonarson), King of Norway, was troubled by civil war relating to questions of succession and was at
various times divided into quasi-independent regions under contenders. There were always plots against the king and questions of
loyalty; nevertheless, he managed to build up the Norwegian state from what it had been.
When Snorri arrived in Norway for the second time it was clear to the king that he was no longer a reliable agent. The
conflict between Haakon and Skúli was beginning to escalate into civil war. Snorri stayed with the jarl and his son and the jarl
made him a jarl hoping to command his allegiance. In August, 1238, Sigvat and three of his sons,
including Sturla, were killed at the Battle of Örlygstadir in Iceland against Gissur Þorvaldsson and Kolbein the Young, chiefs whom they had provoked. Snorri, Urökja and Torleiv
requested permission to return home. As the king now could not predict Snorri's behavior, permission was denied. He was
explicitly ordered to remain in Norway on the basis of his honorary rank. Skúli on the other hand gave permission and helped them
book passage.
Iceland was an independent nation. The king's orders had no international validity and Snorri chose to disobey them, returning
in 1239. The king was distracted by the necessity to confront Skúli, whom he defeated militarily in 1240 and had hunted down and
killed in the spring of 1241. Meanwhile Snorri resumed his chieftainship and made a bid to crush Gissur by pursuing him in court
for the deaths of Sigvat and Sturla. A meeting of the Althing was arranged for the summer of 1241 but Gissur and Kolbein arrived
with several hundred men. Snorri and 120 men formed around a church. Gissur chose to pay fines rather than to attack.
Meanwhile, in 1240, after the jarl's defeat, but before his removal from the scene, Haakon sent two agents to Gissur bearing a
secret letter with kill or capture orders concerning Snorri. Gissur was being invited now to join the unionist movement, which he
could accept or refuse, just as he pleased. His initial bid to take Snorri at the Althing failed.
Hallveig died of natural causes. When the family bickered over the inheritance, Hallveig's sons, Klaeing and Orm, asked
assistance from their uncle Gissur. Holding a meeting with them and Kolbein the Younger, Gissur brought out the letter. Orm
refused. Shortly after, Snorri received a letter in cipher runes warning him of the plot,
but he could not understand them.[4]
Gissur led seventy men on a daring commando raid to his house, achieving complete surprise. Snorri Sturluson was assassinated
in his house at Reykholt in autumn of 1241. It is not clear that
he was ever given a chance to avail himself of the "capture" option. He fled to the basement. There Símon knútur asked Arni the Bitter to strike him. Then Snorri said:
Eigi skal höggva! — "You shall not strike!" Símon answered: "Högg þú!" — "You strike then!" Snorri repeated: Eigi skal
höggva! and these were his last words.[5]
The crime was not popular in either Iceland or Norway. To diminish the odium the king insisted that if Snorri had submitted he
would have been spared. The fact that he could make such an argument reveals how far his influence in Iceland had come. Haakon
went on suborning the chiefs of Iceland. In 1262 the Althing ratified union with Norway and ceased to be a sovereign body. Each
member swore an oath of personal loyalty to Haakon IV. The end of his reign arrived in 1263, but Iceland was retained by the
Scandinavian kings and did not become an independent republic again until 1944.
References
- Bagge, Sverre (1991). Society and politics in Snorri Sturluson's
Heimskringla. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06887-4.
- Snorri Sturluson, "Kringla leaf" (c. 1260), part of Heimskringla treasure 1 National
Library of Iceland displayed via The European Library
-
Monsen, Erling (1990), "Introduction to the Translation of Snorre's History of the Norse Kings",
Heimskringla or the Lives of the Norse Kings: Edited with notes by Erling Monsen and translated into English with the
assistance of A.H. Smith, Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., ISBN 0-486-26366-5. A reprint of the
1932 Cambridge edition by W. Heffer.
- Enoksen, Lars Magnar. (1998). Runor : historia, tydning, tolkning. Historiska Media, Falun. ISBN
91-88930-32-7
Notes
- ^ The Old Norse/Icelandic spelling of the name is Snorri Sturluson. Snorre Sturlason is the modern
Norwegian and Snorre Sturlasson the modern Swedish spelling. For the construction of the name (a patronymic),
see Icelandic naming conventions. English no longer features this type of name, except as
a foreign word. Anglicization of Scandinavian names is not standard and varies a great deal. Encyclopedias and dictionaries
nearly all list Snorri under his Icelandic name. Books and articles may use Snorre Sturleson, Snorri Sturlusson, Snorre Sturlson,
Snorri Sturlson, Snorri Sturlusson, in addition to his Norwegian and Swedish names.
- ^ Often Anglicised to Sturla Tordson for English speakers.
- ^ One Anglicization is Gudny daughter of Bodvar.
- ^ Enoksen 1998:88
- ^ Monsen page xi. All accounts of Snorri's life are based on information
given mainly in the Sturlunga saga.
External links
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| Persondata |
| NAME |
Snorri Sturluson |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Snorri; Snorre Sturlason (Norwegian); Snorre Sturlasson (Swedish) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Author of the Prose Edda |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
1178 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Iceland |
| DATE OF DEATH |
September 23, 1241 |
| PLACE OF DEATH |
Reykholt, Iceland |
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