_Snorre Sturlason_
During the reign of Haakon Haakonson lived the renowned author of
sagas, Snorre Sturlason. He was born in the year 1178 at Hvam (or
Kvam), in the western province of Iceland. His family traced their
lineage from the old Norse kings. In his third year Snorre was sent
to the rich and learned Jon Loftson to be fostered. Jon Loftson's
grandfather was Saemund Frode, the contemporary of Are, who first
committed the historical sagas to writing; Jon's mother, Thora, was
an illegitimate daughter of King Magnus Barefoot. In such a family,
says Mr. Laing, we may presume the literature of the country would be
cultivated, and the sagas of the historical events in Norway, and of
the transactions of her race of kings, would be studied with great
interest. Jon Loftson died when Snorre was nineteen years of age, but
he continued to live with his foster-brothers a couple of years after
that. He was quite poor, his mother having wasted his patrimony; but
marrying Herdis, the daughter of a wealthy priest, he obtained with
her a considerable fortune, which he afterward greatly increased. We
are told that he owned six large farms and had so many men under him
that he could appear at the Things with an armed body of six hundred
or eight hundred men. He fortified his main residence at Reykholt, and
also constructed there a bathing-house of cut stone, into which the
water was led from a neighboring geyser. This bath-house was called
Snorrelaug (Snorre's bath), and ruins of it are still to be seen.
Snorre Sturlason held some important offices in Iceland. On a visit
to Norway he won the friendship of Duke Skule and King Haakon, and
the latter even appointed him a king's chamberlain. He is said to
have promised the king to induce the people of Iceland to submit to
the supremacy of the king of Norway; but if this promise was given
he seems to have forgotten it. When afterward, during the conflict
between Duke Skule and King Haakon, Snorre was said to be a friend or
adherent of Duke Skule, the king declared him to be a traitor, and, in
a letter, requested Snorre's son-in-law and bitterest enemy, Gissur
Torvaldson, to bring Snorre to Norway, dead or alive. On this authority
Gissur, and other relatives of Snorre, who were his enemies on account
of differences about the division of property, came on the night of
September 22, 1241, with seventy armed men to Snorre's residence at
Reykholt and murdered him in the sixty-third year of his age. It was
the same party which, two years afterward, brought Iceland under
subjection to the crown of Norway.
Snorre Sturlason's famous work, the sagas (chronicles) of the kings
of Norway, reaches from the earliest times to the fall of Eystein
Meyla, in the battle at Ree, in 1177. The book is also called the
"Heimskringla"--the world's circle--from the first word of the
manuscript. It is written in the old Norse language. Snorre also wrote
a book called the "Edda,"[13] which treats of the old Norse mythology
and contains rules for the writing of poetry.
[13] The word _Edda_ means great-grandmother.
Snorre's nephew (his brother's son), Sturla Thordson, afterward wrote
the saga of King Haakon Haakonson.
During the reign of King Haakon, another remarkable book was written,
"The King's Mirror." In the form of a dialogue between a father and
his son, it contains information about the seas and the countries
that Norway had communication with, especially Ireland, Iceland and
Greenland. It also gives the rules of life and conduct for traders and
for men at the royal court.