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SNORRI STURLASON (1179-1241)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 295 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SNORRI STURLASON (1179-1241) , the celebrated Icelandic historian, the youngest son of a See also:

chief in the VestfirOir (western fiords), was brought up by a powerful chief, Jon Loptsson, in Odda, who seems first to have awakened in him an See also:interest for See also:history and See also:poetry.. His career begins with his See also:marriage, which made him a wealthy See also:man; in 1206 he settled at Reykjaholt, where he constructed magnificent buildings and a See also:bath of hewn stones, preserved to the See also:present See also:day, to which See also:water was See also:con-ducted from a neighbouring hot See also:spring. He See also:early made himself known as a poet, especially by glorifying the exploits of the contemporary Norse See also:kings and earls; at the same See also:time he was a learned lawyer, and from 1215 became the logsogumabr, or See also:president of the legislative See also:assembly and supreme See also:court of See also:Iceland. The prominent features of his See also:character seem to have been cunning, ambition and avarice, combined with want of courage and aversion from effort. By royal invitation he went in 1218 to See also:Norway, where he remained a See also:long time with the See also:young See also:king See also:Haakon and his See also:tutor See also:Earl Skuli. When, owing to disputes between Icelandic and See also:Norwegian merchants, Skuli thought of a military expedition to Iceland, Snorri promised to make the inhabitants submit to Haakon of their own See also:free will. Snorri himself became the lendrmabr, See also:vassal or See also:baron, of the king of Norway, and held his lands as a See also:fief under him. On his return See also:home Snorri sent his son to the king as a See also:hostage, and made See also:peace between Norway and Iceland, but his See also:power and See also:influence were used more for his own enrichment and aggrandizement—he was logsogumabr again from 1222 to 1232—than for the See also:advantage of the king. Haakon, therefore, stirred up strife between Snorri's kinsman Sturla and Snorri, who had to See also:fly from Reykjaholt in 1236; and in 1237 he See also:left the See also:country and went back to Norway. Here he joined the party of Skuli, who was meditating a revolt. Learning that his See also:cousin Sturla in Iceland had fallen in See also:battle against Gissur, Snorri's son-in-See also:law, Snorri, although expressly forbidden by his See also:liege See also:lord, returned to Iceland in 1239 and once more took See also:possession of his See also:property. Meanwhile Haakon, who had vanquished See also:Skull in 1240, sent orders to Gissur to punish Snorri for his disobedience either by capturing him and sending him back to Norway or by putting him to See also:death.

Gissur took the latter course, attacked Snorri at his See also:

residence, Reykjaholt, and slew him on the 22nd of See also:September 1241. Snorri is the author of the See also:great See also:prose See also:Edda (see EDDA), and of the Ileimskringla or Sagas of the Norwegian Kings, a connected See also:series of See also:biographies of the kings of Norway down to Sverri in 1177. The later See also:work opens with the Ynglinga See also:Saga, a brief history of the pre-tended See also:immigration into See also:Sweden of the Aesir, of their successors in that country, the kings of See also:Upsala, and of the See also:oldest Norwegian kings, plicatus, with broad leaves folded like a See also:fan and G. Elwesii, a their descendants. Next come the biographies of the succeeding ( native of the See also:Levant, with large See also:flowers, the three inner segments Norwegian kings, the most detailed being those of the two missionary I of which have a much larger and more conspicuous See also:green blotch kings See also:Olaf Tryggvason and St Olaf. Snorri's See also:sources were partly succinct histories of the See also:realm, as the See also:chronological See also:sketch of See also:Art; ( than the commoner kinds. All the See also:species thrive in almost partly more voluminous early collections of traditions, as the Noregs Konungatal (Fagrskinna) and the Jarlasaga; partly legendary biographies of the two Olafs; and, in addition to these, studies and collections which he himself made during his journeys in Norway. His See also:critical principles are explained in the See also:preface, where he dwells on the See also:necessity of starting as much as possible from trustworthy contemporary sources, or at least from those nearest to antiquity—the touchstone by which verbal traditions can be tested being con-temporary poems. He inclines to See also:rationalism, rejecting the marvellous and recasting legends containing it in a more See also:historical spirit; but he makes an exception in the accounts of the introduction of See also:Christianity into .Norway and of the See also:national See also:saint St Olaf. Snorri strives everywhere to impart See also:life and vigour to his narrative, and he gives the dialogues in the individual character of each See also:person. Especially in this last he shows a tendency to See also:epigram and often uses humorous and pathetic expressions. Besides his See also:principal work, he elaborated in a See also:separate See also:form its better and larger See also:part, the History of St Olaf (the great Olaf's Saga).

In the preface to this he gives a brief See also:

extract of the earlier history, and, as an appendix, a See also:short See also:account of St Olaf's miracles after his death; here, too, he employs critical art, as appears from a comparison with his source, the Latin See also:legend. See further ICELAND, Literature, and EDDA.

End of Article: SNORRI STURLASON (1179-1241)

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