Snorri Sturluson and the Gods of the North

Medieval Christian writers aren’t remembered for looking kindly upon their polytheistic forbearers, let alone recording their ancestors’ mythology to ensure it wouldn’t be forgotten. But that’s exactly what Snorri Sturluson did. A highly intelligent man and talented poet, Snorri is best remembered for recording the mythology and lore of his Viking predecessors. To better understand this man and his impact on history, let’s dive into his life and times.

A Brief Biography of Snorri Sturluson

Born to a well-to-do family in Hvamm, Iceland, in either 1178 or 1179, Snorri lived during one of the most violent periods of Iceland’s history. By the time Snorri was born, Iceland had been Christian for almost two centuries, having converted in 1,000 CE. But that hadn’t stopped the internecine warfare that had been endemic to Nordic lands during the Viking Age. Through this violence, Snorri’s father, Sturla Thortharson, had risen to wealth and prominence. But Sturla’s power made Snorri a political pawn at a young age—a common fate for powerful men’s sons in the Middle Ages.

At the age of three, he was sent to live with Iceland’s most powerful chieftain, Jón Loptsson, in a village called Oddi. This was a fateful move for young Snorri, as Oddi was considered the cultural heart of Iceland at the time and housed clerics and young noblemen eager to learn history, law, Latin, and poetry. His education in Oddi, thus, seems to have been twofold: it instilled him with a passion for Iceland’s past and a deep understanding of political machinery.

Throughout his adult life, Snorri sought wealth and power. Unlike other Icelanders of his day, however, he wasn’t violent. The picture we get of him from contemporaries seems more like a cunning (if heartless) modern CEO, making deals and embroiling himself in feuds without getting his own hands dirty. Even though his backdoor dealing and avaricious qualities ultimately led him to a violent death, he died as the wealthiest and most powerful man in Iceland.

Sturluson’s Life Work

Kringla leaf (Kringlublaðið)

There’s no doubt that Snorri had quite an eventful life. Despite his slow ascension up Iceland’s political ladder, Snorri’s seminal works were literary. His masterpiece, the Prose Edda, records the Old Norse myths that had survived to Snorri’s day. Iceland was much later to Christianize than Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, meaning that the stories of their ancestors’ gods continued in public memory, even if no one believed in these deities any longer.

While recording the Norse myths would have been enough to land him in the record books, Snorri took the Prose Edda a step further; it was also an attempt to preserve skaldic poetry. A form of poetry originating in ninth-century Scandinavia, skaldic poetry emerged from the courts of Scandinavian nobility who paid poets (skalds) to create works of praise. Skaldic verse is distinct from other forms of poetry because of the way poets played with metaphor. In Skaldic poetry, there are two core key types of metaphor: heiti (poetic names) and kenningar (poetic circumscriptions). For example, when using a heiti to talk about Odin, the chief Norse god, poets could refer to him as “Hanged-Týr.” Since Odin hung himself to obtain knowledge in Norse myth, listeners would have understood. For a kenning, poets danced around the main word they were describing without using it. For example, using “corpse-sea” in place of “blood.”

It was this distinct poetic tradition, and the history and mythology it contained, that Snorri sought to protect through his work.

The Importance of the Prose Edda

Thanks to Snorri Sturluson, we have a much more vivid picture of Viking Age mythology and religious belief than we would otherwise. Though the Vikings had a runic writing system, known today as Younger Futhark, it was not used to record works of literature. During the Viking Age, skaldic poems were composed and passed down orally. It was not until the thirteenth-century Icelandic scholars like Snorri that Viking works of literature were written down and thus preserved for centuries to come.

In the Prose Edda, Snorri goes into detail about several Old Norse myths which continue to delight and fascinate readers. While it would take too long to list them all here, some of the most important stories of the gods that Snorri relates are how Thor fought the giant Hrungnir and the story of Loki (the trickster god) cutting the hair of Sif (an earth goddess). This latter one is especially important because, to make up for his prank, Loki had to work with dwarves to create a golden wig for Sif, as well as five other powerful objects for the gods: Mjolnir, Gungnir, Skíðblaðnir, Gullinbursti, and Draupnir.

During the Viking Age, these five objects would become some of the most powerful symbols of how the Norse approached their world.

• Skíðblaðnir was the ship of the god Freyr, which could be folded up and put in his pocket when it wasn’t in use. This was an especially potent symbol for the Norse, who were a highly maritime people.

• Mjolnir was the mighty hammer of Thor and, in time, would become a popular amulet to wear as a proclamation that one remained faithful to the old gods in the face of Christianity.

• Gungnir was the spear of Odin, which never missed its target. In Norse lore, Gungnir had magical runes inscribed on its shaft, and Viking warriors were known to imitate these runes on their weapons.

Without Snorri’s work, the meaning of these symbols would be far murkier, if not entirely lost to history.