|
SNORRI STURLASON (1179-1241) , the celebrated Icelandic historian, the youngest son of a 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 anSee 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 spring
.
He 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 president of the legislative See also: assembly and supreme See also: court of See also: Iceland
.
The prominent features of his 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 long time with the See also: young See also: king
See also: Haakon and his 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, vassal or baron, of the king of Norway, and held his lands as a See also: fief under him
.
On his return home Snorri sent his son to the king as a hostage, and made See also: peace between Norway and Iceland, but his power and 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 fly from Reykjaholt in 1236; and in 1237 he See also: left the 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 liege See also: lord, returned to Iceland in 1239 and once more took 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 residence, Reykjaholt, and slew him on the 22nd ofSee 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 series of See also: biographies of the kings of Norway down to Sverri in 1177
.
The later See also: work opens with the Ynglinga Saga, a brief history of the pre-tended immigration into 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 Olaf Tryggvason and St Olaf
.
Snorri's See also: sources were partly
succinct histories of the See also: realm, as the See also: chronological 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 critical principles are explained in the 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 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 extract of the earlier history, and, as an appendix, aSee also: short 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
.
|
|
|
[back] COUNT CARL JOHAN GUSTAF SNOILSKY (1841-1903) |
[next] SNOW (in O. Eng. sndw; a common Indo-European word;... |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.