SNORRI STURLUSON, sniirW stM.5r1oTi st)n (1179-1241). An Icelandic historian and statesman, remembered as the author of the Heimskringla or annals of early Norwegian Kings, and of the Younger or Prose Edda. Snorri, youngest son of a local chieftain, was reared in the train of the great chief Jon Lopts son. Snorri gained distinction as a poet and lawyer. and in 1215 was made head of the legisla tive assembly and the highest conrt, a position which he held at various times. King Hankon invited him to Norway in 1218, and later be negotiated a peace between Norway and Iceland, rather to the dissatisfaction of both parties. He returned to Iceland, where he used his power to his own advantage, and in 1239 political and domestic intrigue compelled his flight lo Nor way. He returned in 1240 and was, by King Haakon's orders, killed by Gissur, Snorri's son in-law. at his home in Reykjaholt, September 22. 1241. The Prose Edda, finished in 1222, comprises the mythological Gylfaginning, the Sk4itdskapormdl, a sort of sirs Poet ice, and the Thittatal, a commentary in 102 strophes on poems in honor of the author's Norwegian patrons. King Haakon and his tutor Skulls
The Sagas extend from the mythological kings to 1177, and are based on chronicles, tradition, and legend, all digested and fused with much critical and literary ability on principles ex pounded in his preface. The most important part of the Ileimskringhf, the Olaf Saga, he also elaborated separately. Snorri's Works have been edited by Peringskjilld (3 vols.. Stockholm, 1697) : Schiining and Saint Thorlacius (3 vole., Copenhagen. 1777-83) ; Unger (Christiania, 18(i8) ; and best by Finnur .Tdnson (Copenhagen 1893 et seq.). There are translations into Danish by Grundtvig (Copenhagen. 1818-221 : Norwegian by Pall (Christiania, 1838-39) ; Swedish by Richert (Stockholm. 1816-29) and by H. Hilde brand (Oreboro, 1869-711 ; and German by Wach ter , (incomplete. Leipzig, and into English by Laing (London, 1844 and 1889), also by AL Morris (ib.. 1895).