Heimskringla

(The Disk of the World)

   by Snorri Sturluson

(ca. 1235)

   Heimskringla is a vast compilation of Old Icelandic SAGAS concerning the kings of Norway, from their beginnings in myth and legend and the advent of King Harald Fairhair around 850 through the death of King Eystein in 1177, some 50 years before SNORRI STURLUSON began his work on the text. Snorri, Iceland’s most important medieval writer, was also the author of the PROSE EDDA (a kind of handbook of Norse mythology and SKALDIC POETRY), and perhaps of EGIL’S SAGA (one of the most admired of Icelandic family sagas concerning a skaldic poet who may have been Snorri’s ancestor). Snorri, a powerful chieftain and poet himself, lawspeaker of the Icelandic Althing and the wealthiest man in Iceland during his prime, ends his history of the kings of Norway a generation before the Norwegian king with whom he himself was acquainted— Hakon Hakonarson, who likely ordered Snorri’s murder in 1241.

   The title Heimskringla is not Snorri’s but was given to the text by an early editor, who simply derived it from the first two words of the manuscript, kringla heims (“the circular world”). The collection begins with Ynglinga Saga, which traces the descent of the Norwegian kings back to Odin himself. After this mythic beginning, Snorri includes 15 more sagas devoted to the Norwegian kings Halfdan the Black; Harald Harfager (Harald Fairhair); Hakon the Good; Harald Grafeld and Earl Hakon, son of Sigurd (in a single saga); Olaf Trygvason; Olaf Haraldson (St. Olaf); Magnus the Good;Harald Hardrade;Olaf Kyrre;Magnus Barefoot; Sigurd the Crusader (and his brothers Eystein and Olaf); Magnus the Blind and Harald Gille (in a single saga); the sons of Harald (Sigurd, Inge, and Eystein, in a single saga); Hakon Herdebreid (Hakon the Broad-shouldered); and Magnus Erlingson. It is possible that Snorri’s compilation owes something to previous histories of Norwegian and Danish kings—the relatively brief Latin text Historia Norwegiæ and Saxonis Gesta Danorum— Saxo’s significant Latin history of the Danes. Like Snorri, the authors of these texts traced the ancestry of the Scandinavian monarchs to Norse pagan gods. However, there is no evidence that Snorri was aware of or had read these texts. The sagas may be read as fascinating and sometimes romantic historical narratives. One of the most entertaining is the Saga of Harald Hardrade, who travels to Constantinople and dies in battle against King Harold of England shortly before the Norman Conquest. But more than simple tales of adventure, the sagas of Heimskringla are composed with certain common thematic concerns. Snorri’s focus on the history of Norwegian kings was not disinterested: As a major participant in the political turmoil that characterized his age (the “Sturlung Age” in Iceland, known for its widespread lawlessness and civil unrest), Snorri was aware of the impending annexation of Iceland by the Norwegian crown, an act deemed necessary to “pacify” the country and that indeed took place in 1262, bringing to an end four centuries of Icelandic independence. In his Heimskringla, Snorri contemplates the positive and negative aspects of Norwegian kingship. The political unity and national identity it brought to Norway are clear benefits of the monarchy. However, the thirst for power and the suppression of personal liberties were common destructive characteristics of the kings, and were the forces that compelled Iceland’s pioneer settlers to leave Norway in the first place. Thus one of the most famous passages in the Heimskringla is in the Saga of Saint Olaf, where, in a speech before his fellow nobles, the petty chieftain Hroerek warns them against offering the kingdom to Olaf. Reviewing Norwegian history, he argues that every king they have had (with the exception of Hakon the Good) was so concerned with consolidating his own power that the Norwegians themselves suffered. Hroerek is later proven correct when Olaf has him blinded and kills off some of the other petty kings who object to his power. The tale seems an illustration of Snorri’s basic theme. Another impressive characteristic of Snorri’s text is his scrupulous standard of historical veracity, so unusual for his time. He tried to find trustworthy eyewitness accounts, and depended a good deal on the Íslendingabók (The Book of the Icelanders), the first vernacular history of Iceland up to the year 1120, written by the exceptionally reliable Ari Thorgilsson the Learned. Snorri also relied very heavily on skaldic poems: The skalds were court poets for the various kings, and wrote verse commemorating significant events of the kings’ reigns. Skalds were often present at battles, and since excessive flattery was not characteristic of skaldic poetry (except as satire), the poems that survived, and that he included in the texts of the sagas,were trustworthy sources for Snorri’s research.

   The Saga of Saint Olaf was the first of Snorri’s kings’ sagas, and ultimately forms the centerpiece of Heimskringla. In the case of Olaf, Snorri had a vast amount of legendary material to sift through concerning the king’s biography. Previous treatments of Olaf ’s life had been hagiographical—essentially SAINTS’ LIVES—that depicted the king as saintly from his early days on. But Snorri knew that Olaf was much more complex, and depicts him, more accurately, as a vindictive and ambitious monarch who used Christianity as a means to achieve his goal of power. In Snorri’s tale, Olaf only becomes saintly—ethically and spiritually—once he has been defeated and lives in exile in Russia, and particularly when he suffers his final defeat in battle. Although scholars differ as to how accurate Snorri’s narratives are, the sagas still provide one of the most important sources for early Norse history. Snorri’s text is remarkable for its objectivity, for the psychological realism of its characters, and the plausible cause-effect relationships of its events as Snorri presents them.

   Bibliography

   ■ Bagge, Sverre. Society and Politics in Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

   ■ ———.“From Sagas to Society: The Case of Heimskringla.” In From Sagas to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland, edited by Gisli Palsson, 61–75. Enfield Lock, U.K.: Hisarlik, 1992.

   ■ Bermann, Melissa A. “Egil’s Saga and Heimskringla,” Scandinavian Studies 54 (1982): 21–50.

   ■ Carroll, Joseph. “The Prose Edda, the Heimskringla, and Beowulf: Mythical, Legendary, and Historical Dialogues,” Geardagum: Essays in Old and Middle English Literature 18 (1997): 15–38.

   ■ Ciklamini, Marlene. “The Folktale in Heimskringla,” Folklore 90 (1979): 204–216.

   ■ ———.Snorri Sturluson. Boston: Twayne, 1978.

   ■ Kuhn, Hans. “Fabulous Childhoods, Adventures, Incidents: Folktale Patterns within the Saga Structure of Heimskringla,” Journal of Folktale Studies 41 (2000): 76–86.

   ■ Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. Translated by Lee Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964.