Snorri Sturluson: his life and work
Snorri Sturluson is the first major writer of Old Icelandic prose from whom
we have a large body of extant writing, including some poetry, and whoselife is, in outline, well documented. Unlike most earlier writers of prose, hewas not a cleric, but an aristocratic layman, and nearly all he wrote is on
secular topics. The main sources for his life besides annals are the nearly
contemporary Íslendinga saga and the saga of Hákon Hákonarson (king ofNorway 1217–1263), both by Snorri’s nephew Sturla Þórðarson; and thesagas of Guðmundr Arason (bishop at Hólar in northern Iceland 1203–1237).
Snorri was born in western Iceland in 1178 or 1179, son of the powerfulchieftain Hvamms-Sturla whose family gave their name to the turbulent
period of Icelandic history leading up to the loss of political independence in1262–1264, the Age of the Sturlungs, which was also the great age ofIcelandic saga-writing. When he was three (his father died in 1183) Snorri
was sent to be fostered (i.e. educated) at Oddi in southern Iceland, with thechieftain Jón Loptsson (died 1197), grandson of the historian (writing inLatin) and priest Sæmundr fróði (the Learned). Jón himself was a deacon,
but was prominent in the resistance of secular leaders to the extension of
Church power in the later twelfth century.
Many have thought that there must have been some sort of school at Oddi,
but at that period in Iceland as elsewhere in Europe, most formal education
took place in monasteries and cathedrals, and was based on training in Latin
and preparation of pupils for ordination as priests. There is no trace inSnorri’s writings of any knowledge of Latin; he almost never uses Latinwords and never quotes Latin works. Where he shows knowledge of Latin
concepts or theological ideas that were not already available in Icelandictranslations, it is mostly of a fairly general nature and could easily have been
derived from listening to vernacular preaching in churches or fromconversation with clerical friends such as the priest and historian Styrmir
Kárason (died 1245). But there would undoubtedly have been books at Oddi,
and they may have included secular writings in the vernacular such as Eddicpoems and historical records about Icelandic and Norwegian history. Snorri
was a learned writer, but his learning was mostly in native lore rather thancontinental European writings in Latin.
At the age of twenty, Snorri married Herdís, daughter of Bersi
Vermundarson ‘the Wealthy’ of Borg in western Iceland, formerly the homeof the Viking poet Egill Skallagrímsson, and Snorri went to live at Borg in
1202 on the death of his father-in-law. He went on to acquire, byinheritance, bargaining, purchase, or just plain intimidation, many
chieftaincies (goðorð), or a share in them, in the Borgarfjörður area and evenin part of one in northern Iceland. After about four years at Borg, he moved
to Reykholt, about 50 km further inland, and took over the church property
there, and probably the Reykholt chieftaincy at the same time, and thereafteralso gained possession of several other churches. There is a document listing
the property of and gifts to the church at Reykholt which has a short entry
thought by some to be in Snorri’s own hand — if so, it is the only autographby him extant. Herdís, who seems to have remained on what had been her
family property at Borg (their two children were both born before 1206),
died in 1233. Snorri also had several children by other women.
Thus, Snorri became a very wealthy and powerful man. Thisaccumulation of chieftaincies and properties in the hands of one man ischaracteristic of the social and economic changes in thirteenth-century
Iceland, and led to most of the chieftancies and much of the property coming
into the possession of a small number of very powerful families, who thenfought it out among themselves, hoping to make one individual or family
predominant — or even king. In the end it did no one in Iceland much good,
and the king of Norway eventually gained control of the whole country,
though he did not live to enjoy it.
Snorri began soon to make use of his powerful position, and already in1202 had a violent dispute with some merchants from Orkney, whom heseems to have treated very badly. In the following years he was involved inseveral disputes, sometimes legal ones, some more warlike, but seems often
to have worked for reconciliation. He served two periods as president(lawspeaker) of the General Assembly (Alþingi), 1215–1218 and 1222–1231. One attractive feature of his character is that he gave his booth at theGeneral Assembly the mythological name Valhöll; the association of thename with warfare was occasionally justified in practice.
At the same time, Snorri was making himself a name as a poet. He sent apoem to Earl Hákon galinn (died 1216) and received gifts in return, and also
composed about the earl’s wife Kristín, King Sverrir (died 1202) and KingIngi Bárðarson (died 1217). These poems are all lost. He composed twopoems about Earl Skúli Bárðarson, probably during his first visit to Norway(1218–1220); three lines of a refrain of one of them only survives. Háttatal,
the only substantial poem of his that survives, was composed in honour ofEarl Skúli and King Hákon, probably soon after his return to Iceland. Twolines survive of a poem addressed to a bishop, perhaps Guðmundr Arason,and six and a half stanzas of occasional poetry.

While he was in Norway, Snorri became known to the young King Hákon(still only 14), and first received the honorary title of ‘cupbearer’(skutilsveinn), then ‘landed man’ (lendr maðr). It was understood that hewas to work to make Iceland subject to the king of Norway, and was to send
his son Jón to Norway as a guarantee. But he came to be on much closer
terms with Earl Skúli, the king’s father-in-law and regent for the time being;
Snorri managed to persuade Skúli to abandon a projected invasion of Icelandand stayed with him for his two winters in Norway.
On his return, Snorri met considerable hostility from other Icelandic
chieftains, and was even lampooned in verse, but this seems gradually tohave subsided, and moreover he did nothing towards fulfilling his promise toKing Hákon and Earl Skúli. In 1224 he entered into partnership with
Hallveig Ormsdóttir (it is not said that they ever married). Hallveig was said
to be the richest woman in Iceland, and Snorri himself now became therichest, and probably the most powerful, man. In 1224 he married hisdaughter Ingibjörg to Gizurr Þorvaldsson.
During his second period of presidency of the Alþingi and on until hissecond visit to Norway in 1237, Snorri was involved in various violent
disputes with other Icelandic chieftains, including his brother Sighvatr andSighvatr’s son Sturla, not always getting the best of it.
In Norway this time, Snorri had even less to do with King Hákon, butspent much time with Earl Skúli or the latter’s son Pétr in Trondheim. Snorri
returned to Iceland in 1239, in defiance of the king’s express ban, but wasrumoured to have been made a ‘secret earl’ (fólgsnarjarl) by Earl Skúli. In1240 Skúli, hoping himself to become king of Norway, rebelled against theking and was killed, while in Iceland Gizurr Þorvaldsson was becoming
dominant over all other chieftains and became King Hákon’s chief agent inIceland. Gizurr received a commission from the king to force Snorri toreturn to Norway or else to kill him, on the grounds that he had become atraitor to the king. Gizurr, with a great following, surprised Snorri at
Reykholt on the night of 23 September 1241. Snorri took refuge in his cellar,
but Gizurr’s men found him there and killed him.
Scholars have come to very different conclusions about Snorri’s character
and attitudes from a study of his works. There are four main sections of hisEdda, a treatise on poetry. The final section, Háttatal, offering patterns ofnearly a hundred verse-forms and metres for Icelandic poets. is remarkablefor its technical ingenuity, in which the author shows some pride, but few
readers are very impressed by the content or the style. But it has animpressive commentary, and Skáldskaparmál, an analysis of poetic languagewith examples from the work of more than seventy earlier poets, wasexpressly designed as an aid to young poets. Gylfaginning may have been
added later, as a collection of mythological narratives to show thebackground and origin of skaldic kennings. The Prologue gives a narrative
account of the origin of the heathen religion of the author’s ancestors. It isclear that Snorri was fully Christian; but he shows no polemic tendency
towards heathendom, and many of his stories are told with irony andhumour.
His separate Óláfs saga helga is based on earlier lives of the saint, but isremarkable for its secular attitudes and the enhanced realism of his portrayalof the king. Although the miracles are not all suppressed, Snorri often gives
a rationalistic explanation of them, and does not emphasise the king’s
saintliness. Heimskringla, a more mature work than his Edda, and thought tobe an expansion of his Ólafs saga, begins the history of Norway inlegendary times and continues down to 1177. The earliest attribution of thework to Snorri is from the seventeenth century, but it is now accepted.
Though much is said in Heimskringla about relations between Norway andIceland, the author’s political views do not come out clearly. It is obviousthat Snorri had nothing against kingship, and admired some Norwegiankings immensely, and enjoyed being a courtier; on the other hand, the oftquoted speech of Einarr Þveræingr in defence of Iceland’s independence(Íslenzk fornrit XXVII: 216) suggests that Snorri realised the dangers ofIceland coming under the power of Norway. Recent writers have stressedthat Snorri and others who entered a feudal relationship with the king ofNorway were not at the time seen as traitors to Iceland.
There is little real doubt that he was the author, or at any rate compiler, ofthese three works. They must have been compiled between his two visits toNorway (according to Sturlunga saga, in the summer of 1230, Snorri’s
nephew Sturla Sighvatsson spent much time in Reykholt having Snorri’s
histories copied). Many have thought it possible that he also wrote Egils
saga, one of the earliest of the Sagas of Icelanders, which gives anarchetypal picture of the heathen Viking which perhaps in some respects
reflects Snorri’s own character — or perhaps the character he would have
liked to have been.
The best books about Snorri are Nordal (1920) and Snorri: átta aldaminning (1979).

Bibliography:
Egils saga, in Íslenzk fornrit II, 1933Íslenzk fornrit, Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1933– .
Nordal, Sigurður, Snorri Sturluson, Reykjavík: Þór. B. Þorláksson, 1920.
Snorri: átta alda minning, Reykjavík: Sögufélag, 1979.
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla I–III, in Íslenzk fornrit XXVI–XXVIII,1941–51.
Snorri Sturluson, Edda I–IV, ed. Anthony Faulkes, London: Viking Society
for Northern Research, 1998–2005. Trans. Anthony Faulkes, London:Dent (Everyman’s Library), 1987.
Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ed. Guðbrandur Vigfússon,trans. G. W. Dasent, Icelandic Sagas II and IV, London: Rolls Series,1887–1894.
Sturla Þórðarson, Íslendinga saga, in Sturlunga saga I–II, ed. Jón
Jóhannesson et al., Reykjavík: Sturlunguútgáfan, 1946.