According to the Vinland Saga, Snorri is also the name of the first European child born in America.

ISLAND SNORRE 1

”Island”. The Saga  of the land is about 20 million years old. At that time the land shot up out of the sea – created by fire. A land in which the family mattered (and still matters) more to self-esteem-or lack of it- than elsewhere in Europe.  

BARNDOM SNORRE 2

Snorri II.  – Childhood

Snorri’s mother, Gudney, was at the age of 20 years married to his father Sturla a rising star on the chieftain horizon to the west. Sturla was a Godi of Hvammur, a widower with nine children, seven of them outside of marriage.  

THINGVELLIR SNORRE 3

Snorri III.  – Thingvellir I –

At the Allting in the summer of 1179 it was decided to bring a dispute about an inheritance before an assembly of conciliation. Then something happened: Thorbjørg was the name of Palls’ wife.  She was more hottempered than other people. Suddenly she rushed forward with a knife in her hand and stabbed at Sturla, aiming at his eyes and cried: “Why shouldn’t I turn you into the one you would most like to resemble – Odin!” 

THINGVELLIR SNORRE 4

Snorri IV. - Thingvellir II –

It was then that Jon Loftsson revealed his wisdom and knowledge of human nature. After a crushing defeat for Sturla, Jon went over to him an offered to foster his youngest son, Snorri, who at the time was a little more than two years old. He asked Sturla to bring his son to Oddi on the 8^th of July, the first anniversary of the consecration of the rich Oddi Church. Sturla accepted his offer. 

UNGDOMENS LAND SNORRE 5

Snorri V.  – The Land of Youth – Here there were rolling plains and no mountains exept on the horizon. Snorri was not entitled to express an opinion about himself, as he onely 3 years old, a pawn in a political game, set out on a jorney with his father to meet his foster home. No one is in a position to know what went on in the little boy’s mind during that long journey across rivers and plains, and through narrow mountain valleys, further and further away from his mother and his sheltered childhood home in the west. And, in all likelihood, no one told him that when his father went home again, laiden with costly gifts after the feast with the mightiest chieftain on Iceland, the little boy would not accompany him.  

FRA ODDI SNORRE 6

Snorri VI.  – From Oddi –

Snorri had come to a center of learning. Many learned works about Snorri have emphasized how much it meant to the coming intellectual gigant to have been reared at precisely this seat of learning; and that both Iceland and Norway owe a debt of gratitude to his foster father, Jon.  

MAKT SNORRE 7

Snorri VII.  – Might –

The strong man spares the blow .

His blood must be as pale as snow .

Land I won by the iron .

Land I won by the iron        (song by Egill Skallagrimsson)  

FØRSTE HJEM SNORRE 8

Snorri VIII.  – First Home –

Reykholt was not an old farm, but it was ideally situated in Reykjadralur, with low mountains and great meadows – and wooded landscapes – with peat marches and mountain summer dairy farms, that could feed large herds of livestock. A Church stood there. In practice it was the farmer who owned the church, with the income it provided.  

UFRED SNORRE 9

Snorri IX.  -  Strife –

For 27 years Bishop Gudmunder at Holar had kept the conflict going between himself on one side, and the chieftains and the Bishop of Sallholt on the other. He was the direct cause of the interference by Norwegian authorities and the end of the Free State of Island. Then Snorri Sturluson stepped forward and cut the Gordian knot. In the summer of 1215, Snorri Sturlason was elected as Law-speaker, Iceland’s onely high office, at the Allting for the first of two times.  

LANDSKAP SNORRE 10

Snorri X.  – Landscape –

In a single moment new variations of brightness can create blatant contrasts in nature and paint bold colours.  

PÅ REISE SNORRE 11

Snorri XI.  – Journeying –

Snorri had been wanting to sail to Norway for a long time. He had written a poem about Jarl Håkon the Mad. For two years he remained in the land from which his forfathers had departed many centuries earlier, among people for whom he was to do more than any foreigner of all times. 

PÅ VEI HJEM SNORRE 12

 Snorri XII.  – Homeward Bound –

King Håkon and Jarl Skule appointed Snorri their Lendmann. Snorri adviced the King strongly against sending an army out to Iceland. On the contrary, he adviced that they should make friends with the men on Iceland.  

HEDENDOM SNORRE 13

Snorri XIII.  – Paganism –

“Representation of the god Thor.” In pagan times the godi was a pagan “priest” who was responsible for the blot (sacrifice). According to the Laws of the Free State, the powers of the godi were  equal. When Christianity was introduced the “godis” became secular chieftains. Iceland needed with this structure no military defence, being more a union of little independent states.  

NAKENT LANDSKAP, VED ISENS RAND SNORRE 14

Snorri XIV.  – Barren Landscape –

A graceful, magnificent and even omnious landscape of rock and ice. 

STRID SNORRE 15

Snorri XV.  – Discord –

The battles were more brutal than ever, kinsman against kinsman fighting for power, opposing Norwegian sovereignty. The ancient ideals of honour, from the time of the Sagas, had crumbled away. Snorri had misjudges the situation because he thought there would be peace. He left Reykholt and moved to Bessastadir, where the president of Iceland now lives.  

MOT NORSKEKYSTEN SNORRE 16

Snorri XVI.  – Off The Coast Of Norway –

Snorri was forced to flee from Iceland and and set out towards the coast of Norway. 

NORGE SNORRE 17

Snorri XVII.  – Norway –

When Snorri had come to Norway for the second time during the summer of 1237, King Håkon and Duke Skule still got on well together. They soon became enemies and Snorri sided with Duke Skule. King Håkon forbaded Snorri to return to Iceland. Snorri was given a ship owned by the Duke himself and paid no attention to the Kings order to postpone the journey.  

DEN SISTE TIME SNORRE 18

Snorri XVIII.  – The Final Hour –

After his return to Iceland Snorri again settled at Reykholt. He was 62 years old when he was killed Sept. 29^th 1241 – by order of Norway’s King Håkon Håkonsson. There had been almost continuous strife on Iceland for more than 100 years. In 1262 the land came under sovereignty of the King of Norway. The Icelanders got full independence 843 years after Snorri’s fall.  

SNORRI SNORRE 19

Snorri XVIX.  – Snorri – (The cover of the book)

More than 300 years before Columbus became the temporary laughingstock of Europa for asserting the Earth was round, Snorri Sturluson, in remote Iceland, started his first Saga in the chronicle of the Norwegian kings with the word: “Heimskringla” – translated by the Encyclopedia Britanica as, “the orb of the world”.  

 jarle@rosseland.no    

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