Chronicle
Heimskringla
Snorri Sturluson · 1230
Synopsis
A series of sagas following the kings of Sweden and then of Norway, from the Ynglings, a mythical line that the work traces back to the god Freyr, to the death of Eysteinn Meyla in 1177. The narrative passes through Harald Fairhair, in the ninth century, then through the Christian kings, and reserves its central part for Óláfr Haraldsson, Saint Olaf: his fifteen-year reign occupies about a third of it. The author draws on earlier chronicles and on the poems of the skalds, which he cites abundantly.
Context
No manuscript names the author of the work, and the traditional attribution remains disputed. The title, used from the seventeenth century, takes up the first words of the saga of the Ynglingar, kringla heimsins, the circle of the world. The work draws on older royal chronicles, on the Ágrip and on many skaldic poems. The oldest copy is a vellum leaf of about 1260, a remnant of the Kringla manuscript, lost in the fire of 1728. Translated into Danish around 1600 and into English in 1844, the work appeared in French from Gallimard, in the translation by François-Xavier Dillmann, in 2000 and again in 2022.
Who it is for
A considerable body of work, two parts of which exist in French; the verses quoted require notes.
Prizes and reception
The best known of the kings' sagas, regarded as a monument of Old Norse literature.