Tag Archives: Snorri Sturlusson

Reading, Writing

The Tale of Klypp the Hersir

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Illustration of Klypp killing King Sigurd Sleva, by Christian Krohg, for J.M. Stenersen & Co.’s 1899 edition of Heimskringla. Krohg was a Commie and made ugly pictures, and I’ve never liked him.

I’m still researching my book on Haakon the Good. It occurred to me that I possess a resource most English-speaking scholars don’t have access to – the Norwegian translation of Flatøybok, published by my friends at Saga Bok in Norway. In it I came upon a fuller version of a story that Snorri Sturlusson only mentions in passing in Heimskringla. Which also involves Erling’s family. Had I known this story when I wrote my Erling books, I might have changed a couple lines.

The Tale of Sigurd the Slobberer

It is said that when the sons of Gunnhild [widow of King Erik Bloodaxe] ruled in Norway, King Sigurd Sleva (the Slobberer, though I’ve also seen it translated “Sleeve”) sat in Hordaland. He was manly in appearance, and a great spendthrift. Lightminded and inconstant he was, and fond of women, nor was he careful about it.

Torkjell Klypp was the name of a man, a rich hersir in Hordaland; he was the son of Thord Horda-Kaaresson. He was a fearless and strong fellow, and an outstanding man. His wife was named Aalov; she was beautiful and honorable.

It is said that one day King Sigurd Sleva sent him a summons to come and see him, and he did so. Then the king said: “It has come about that there is a voyage west to England to be made, and I want to send you to meet King Adalraad (Ethelred the Unready) and collect tribute from him. Such men as you are best fitted to carry out errands suitable to great men.”

Torkjell answered, “Isn’t it true that you have already sent your own men on such errands, and that they’ve had no success?”

“That is true,” said the king, “but I think you’ll have better success in this matter than they, useless as they were.”

Torkjell answered, “Then it looks as if it is my duty to travel, and I will not make excuses, even if others have had so little luck in the errand.”

Afterward Torkjell set out and went west to England with a good following, met King Adalraad and greeted him. The king received him well and asked who was the leader of this group. Torkjell then explained who he was. The king said, “Of you I have heard that you have a good reputation. Be welcome among us.”

After that Torkjell was with the king over the winter. One day he said to the king: “This is how things stand, my lord, with this journey of mine, that King Sigurd Sleva has sent me to you to collect tribute. And I hope that you can find a good solution for this.”

(Continued after page break)

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Authors, Uncategorized

Rainy day musing

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It’s one of those loose end nights. I’ve accomplished little today, and the book I’m reading goes slow. Above is a video I found, in which a saga scholar discusses the influence of the saga writer Snorri Sturlusson on J.R.R. Tolkien, citing his own interview with one of the Tolkiens’ Icelandic au paires.

Today was a rainy, cool day, devoted – in my world – to worrying about buying a car. I’d made contact with a guy who had one to sell that interested me. Last night I made all kinds of plans for getting over to Woodbury, where he’s located, to look at it (without a working car of my own). This morning all the plans fell apart, as it appeared somebody else was considering the car. I studied the ads over again, increasingly aware how rare is the plausible vehicle that I can actually afford. But later today the guy called me back, inviting me to call him tomorrow morning to make arrangements; he’s willing to drive the thing to my place so I can test-drive it.

I have a feeling I’ll buy it after all that trouble, unless it’s visibly smoking or trailing oil, or smells of dead bodies.

I’m already thinking of my brief adventure with Sigrid the Haughty, my Subaru Forester turbo, as a kind of midlife crisis (a little late in life, but that’s mostly how I roll). Sigrid was fast and exciting, but expensive and not really suited to me. The car I have in mind looks to be a little more bourgeois and conventional.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Authors

Snorri’s place

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Tonight, in the absence of any ideas from my corner, here’s a short video from the great Jackson Crawford, filmed at Reykholt, the home of Snorri Sturlusson, the great Icelandic saga author, poet, and chieftain. Crawford explains some things about Snorri’s life. And death. Which happened right there. That pool is geothermally heated, by the way.

Have a good weekend.

Authors

Snorri on my mind

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An old friend of mine, Brad Day, mentioned on Facebook that today (actually yesterday) was the anniversary of the death of an author I’ve talked about a lot on this blog – Snorri Sturlusson (your spelling may vary), author of Heimskringla, the Prose Edda, and (very likely) the Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson).

Snorri is an author I identify with, not because of his genius, but because he wrote better than he lived. Born to a powerful Icelandic family and well-educated in the home of a learned relation, he grew up to cherish both literary and political ambitions. These sometimes overlapped. His great historical saga, Heimskringla, was clearly composed to gain favor with the Norwegian king. His Prose Edda was an effort to present the myths of the old religion in a way acceptable to the Church, so that the tradition of Norse poetry might carry on.

He sailed to Norway twice, and got to see a lot of the country. That familiarity comes out in Heimskringla. Lacking the gift of prophecy, he made a bad tactical mistake, attaching himself to the powerful Duke Skuli, uncle of the king, Haakon IV Haakonsson. This would prove fatal, as Skuli and Haakon fell out, and Haakon won the war. Snorri’s second visit to Norway turned out badly, and he actually offended the king. This led eventually to his murder at the hands of his enemies, one of whom was his son-in-law. It is thought that the killers were acting on Haakon’s orders.

Snorri did not die like a saga hero. We are told he was speared to death while cowering in his cellar, crying “Don’t strike!”

It is believed that Snorri also connived in Iceland’s loss of independence to Norway.

But he was a literary genius. Every Viking and mythology buff owes Snorri a tremendous debt. Tolkien’s work would have been vastly different without Snorri – perhaps it might not have been written at all.

Non-fiction, Reviews

‘Song of the Vikings,’ by Nancy Marie Brown

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The famous phrase, “The history of the world is but the biography of great men,” was inspired by this book [Heimskringla]: Snorri is indeed a deft biographer.


Any Viking aficionado can’t help being aware of Snorri Sturluson, the Icelandic chieftain who penned Heimskringla, the sagas of the Norwegian kings, and the Prose Edda, which tells us almost everything we know about Norse mythology. He is an essential figure in the lore – Tom Shippey called him “the most influential writer of the Middle Ages.”

And yet, although he has a saga we can read, most of us don’t know a lot about his life (the saga is rather sad and bloody, and was written by a relation who disliked him. I confess I haven’t read it). So Nancy Marie Brown, who wrote Ivory Vikings, which I reviewed not long ago, has done us a service by writing his biography for a modern audience in Song of the Vikings.

Song of the Vikings follows Snorri’s life story, and integrates it with commentary on his important works (some of the attributions have been questioned, but Brown seems to accept them). Thus we get insight on the events of his life through considering the things he wrote that appear to have been informed by them. For instance, the content of Heimskringla bears witness to Snorri’s ambivalent attitude toward the institution of kingship – he was somewhat star-struck by kings (and may have collaborated to subvert the Icelandic republic for a Norwegian king), but he had bitter experience of royal capriciousness. His narrative of Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, may relate to some bad years Iceland suffered following devastating volcanic eruptions, and also the violence that accompanied the breakdown of his own (somewhat cynical) schemes to make himself “the uncrowned king of Iceland.”

The book begins with an anecdote about J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and we learn much about the amazing influence of Snorri’s work throughout the world’s literature and art – for better and worse. This is all the more remarkable because his books weren’t even known outside Iceland until around the beginning of the 17th Century.

I was very impressed by Song of the Vikings. Any reader interested in Norse history or myth will gain many new insights. Author Brown is a good writer and an impressive scholar. I recommend this book.