Snorri Sturluson

In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (/ɪˈniːəs/ in-EE-əs; Classical Latin: [ae̯ˈneːaːs]; from Ancient Greek: Αἰνείας, romanized: Aineías) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons of Ilus, founder of Troy), making Aeneas a second cousin to Priam's children (such as Hector and Paris). He is a minor character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homer's Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgil's Aeneid, where he is cast as an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. He became the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse god Víðarr of the Æsir.

In Norse mythology, Víðarr (Old Norse: [ˈwiːðɑrː], possibly "wide ruler", sometimes anglicized as Vidar /ˈviːdɑːr/, Vithar, Vidarr, and Vitharr) is a god among the Æsir associated with vengeance. Víðarr is described as the son of Odin and the jötunn Gríðr and is foretold to avenge his father's death by killing the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarök, a conflict he is described as surviving. Víðarr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and is interpreted as depicted with Fenrir on the Gosforth Cross. A number of theories surround the figure, including theories around potential ritual silence and a Proto-Indo-European basis.

Ari Þorgilsson (1067/1068 – 9 November 1148; Old Norse: [ˈɑre ˈθorˌɡilsˌson]; Modern Icelandic: [ˈaːrɪ ˈθɔrˌcɪlsˌsɔːn]; also anglicized Ari Thorgilsson) was Iceland's most prominent medieval chronicler. He was the author of Íslendingabók, which details the histories of the various families who settled Iceland. He is typically referred to as Ari the Wise (Ari fróði), and according to Snorri Sturluson was the first to write history in Old Norse.

Ari was a part of the Haukdælir family clan and studied in the school in Haukadalur as a student of Teitur Ísleifsson (the son of Ísleifur Gissurarson, first bishop of Iceland). There he became acquainted with Classical education. His writings clearly indicate that he was familiar with Latin chronicler traditions, but at the same time he is widely regarded as excelling in the Icelandic oral storytelling tradition.

The Sturlungs (Icelandic: Sturlungar [ˈstʏ(r)tluŋkar̥]) were a powerful family clan in 13th century Iceland, in the time of the Icelandic Commonwealth. Their story is partly told in Sturlunga saga, and members of the clan were significant participants in the civil war of the Age of the Sturlungs. The Sturlungs were a wealthy and influential clan. They controlled western Iceland, the Westfjords and north eastern Iceland.

The patriarch of the Sturlungs was Sturla Þórðarson, whom scholars believe was born around 1115. He inherited his goðorð (domain, realm or area of influence) from his father Þórður Gilsson. Sturla quarrelled extensively with Einar Þorgilsson of Staðarhóll and many other chieftains. Jón Loftsson, a well-respected man, mediated in one of these disputes. Following this, he was entrusted with the upbringing of Sturla's son Snorri Sturluson, who later became the most influential of the Sturlungs and the most famous because of his literary endeavours. Snorri had two brothers, Þórður Sturluson and Sighvatur Sturluson.

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda (Icelandic: Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some extent written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson c. 1220. It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Norse mythology, the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples, and draws from a wide variety of sources, including versions of poems that survive into today in a collection known as the Poetic Edda.

The Prose Edda consists of four sections: The Prologue, a euhemerized account of the Norse gods; Gylfaginning, which provides a question and answer format that details aspects of Norse mythology (consisting of approximately 20,000 words), Skáldskaparmál, which continues this format before providing lists of kennings and heiti (approximately 50,000 words); and Háttatal, which discusses the composition of traditional skaldic poetry (approximately 20,000 words).

Ynglingatal or Ynglinga tal (Old Norse: 'Enumeration of the Ynglingar') is a Skaldic poem cited by Snorri Sturluson in the Ynglinga saga, the first saga of Snorri's Heimskringla. Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (Thjodolf), who was a poet for Harald Fairhair (r. 872–930), is traditionally credited with its authorship. Snorri quotes frequently from this poem and cites it as one of the sources of the saga. The composition of the poem is dated to the 9th century.

The poem lists the partly mythical and partly historical ancient Swedish kings; twenty-seven of whom are mentioned in the poem, along with details about their deaths and burial places. The title Ynglingatal alludes to Yngling, who had the name Yngve-Frey—another name for Frey, the god who was worshipped in Sweden. Yngling allegedly descended from Frey's son Fjölnir. Snorri portrayed Harald Fairhair as a descendant of the Ynglings. The poem was written on behalf of Ragnvald Heidumhære, a cousin of King Harald Fairhair, and its last stanza is about Ragnvald.

Tønsberg (pronounced [ˈtœ̂nsbær(ɡ)] ), historically Tunsberg, is a city in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located about 102 kilometres (63 miles) south-southwest of the capital city of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The city is the most populous metropolis in Vestfold county. Tønsberg also serves as the administrative centre for Vestfold county and the seat of the County Governor of Vestfold og Telemark.

Tønsberg is generally regarded as the oldest city in Norway, founded in the 9th century. Snorri Sturluson mentions the town in Harald Hårfagre's saga (written around 1220) before the battle at Hafrsfjord, which historians have traditionally dated to the year 872, therefore the town was in existence by 871 at the latest. This dating is again based on Are Frode's book, Íslendingabók. Using this information, Tønsberg celebrated its one-thousandth anniversary in 1871 and its 1100th anniversary in 1971. Archaeological findings confirm that there was a farm settlement in Tønsberg at the end of the 8th century, which likely developed into a town during the early 9th century.

Eadgils, Adils, Aðils, Adillus, Aðísl at Uppsölum, Athisl, Athislus or Adhel was a semi-legendary king of Sweden, who is estimated to have lived during the 6th century.

Beowulf and Old Norse sources present him as the son of Ohthere and as belonging to the ruling Yngling (Scylfing) dynasty. These sources also deal with his war against Onela, which he won with foreign assistance: in Beowulf he gained the throne of Sweden by defeating his uncle Onela with Geatish help, and in two Scandinavian sources (Skáldskaparmál and Skjöldunga saga), he is also helped to defeat Onela in the Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern, but with Danish help. However, Scandinavian sources mostly deal with his interaction with the legendary Danish king Hrólfr Kraki (Hroðulf), and Eadgils is mostly presented in a negative light as a rich and greedy king. Snorri Sturluson, who documented many of the Scandinavian traditions, reported that the Swedes called him a "great king".

Fróði (Old Norse: Frōði; Old English: Frōda; Middle High German: Vruote) is the name of a number of legendary Danish kings in various texts including Beowulf, Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda and his Ynglinga saga, Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, and the Grottasǫngr. A Danish king by this name also appears as a minor character in the Middle High German epic Rabenschlacht. The name is possibly an eponym for the god Freyr.

• The Fróði of the Grottasǫngr is said to be the son of Fridleif, the son of Skjǫldr. According to Ynglinga saga it was in this Fróði's beer that King Fjǫlnir drowned. Snorri Sturluson here and in the Skáldskaparmál make this Fróði the contemporary of Roman emperor Augustus and comments on the peacefulness of his reign, referred to as Fróði's Peace, suggesting a relationship to the birth of Christ. Though Icelandic sources make this Fróði a very early Danish king, in Gesta Danorum (Book 5), Saxo puts him late in his series of rulers, though including the chronological equation with Augustus and mentioning the birth of Christ.
• The Fróði who, according to Ynglinga saga and Gesta Danorum, was the father of Halfdan. He would have lived in the 5th or 6th century. He appears to be the same king who later in the Ynglinga saga aided the Swedish king Ongenþeow in defeating the thrall Tunni. Because of this, Egil and his son Ottar (Ohthere) became tributaries to the Danish king.
• Fróði the father of Ingjald, who in Beowulf is Froda the father of Ingeld and king of the Heathobards. The existence of the Heathobards has been forgotten in Norse texts and this Fróði there sometimes appears as the brother of Halfdan with the long hostility between Heathobards and Danes becoming a family feud between Halfdan and his brother Fróði. Fróði kills Halfdan and is himself slain by Halfdan's sons Helgi (Halga) and Hroar (Hrothgar). (In Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin summary to the lost Skjöldunga saga the names Fróði and Ingjald are interchanged. Saxo Grammaticus (Book 6) makes this Fróði instead to be a very late legendary king, the son of Fridleif son of Saxo's late peaceful Fróði. Saxo knows some of the story of this feud but nothing of any relationship to Halfdan. Instead Saxo relates how this Fróði was slain by Saxons and how, after a marriage alliance between his son Ingel and a Saxon princess to heal the feud, Ingel opened it again at the urging of an old warrior, just as the hero Beowulf prophesies of Ingjald in the poem Beowulf.
• A legend from Ydre in the South Swedish highlands tells that a king known as Frode was killed by Urkon, the same cow that created Lake Sommen.

The form Fróði is still in use in Icelandic and Faroese and appears Latinized as Frotho or Frodo. The latter form of the name is used by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings for the main character of the story, Frodo Baggins. Alternative anglicizations are Frode, Fródi, Fróthi and Frodhi. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish form is Frode. The meaning of the name is "clever, learned, wise".

The Thelir or Thilir (Old Norse: Þilir; Norwegian Bokmål: teler; Norwegian Nynorsk: telar or teler) was a North Germanic tribe that inhabited the region now known as Upper Telemark in modern Norway during the Migration Period and the Viking Age. The region of Telemark, which originally only referred to Upper Telemark, was named after them, and means the "mark of the Thelir." The Thelir are mentioned in the Saga of Harald Fairhair by Snorri Sturluson, as one of the tribes who fought against Harald Fairhair in the Battle of Hafrsfjord.

Norse cosmology is the account of the universe and its laws by the ancient North Germanic peoples. The topic encompasses concepts from Norse mythology and Old Norse religion such as notations of time and space, cosmogony, personifications, anthropogeny, and eschatology. Like other aspects of Norse mythology, these concepts are primarily recorded from earlier oral sources in the Poetic Edda, a collection of poems compiled in the 13th century, and the Prose Edda, attributed to the Icelander Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century. Together these sources depict an image of Nine Worlds around a cosmic tree, Yggdrasil.

Yggdrasil (from Old Norse Yggdrasill) is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds.

Yggdrasil is attested in the Poetic Edda compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in the Prose Edda compiled in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Yggdrasil is an immense ash tree that is central to the cosmos and considered very holy. The gods go to Yggdrasil daily to assemble at their traditional governing assemblies. The branches of Yggdrasil extend far into the heavens, and the tree is supported by three roots that extend far away into other locations; one to the well Urðarbrunnr in the heavens, one to the spring Hvergelmir, and another to the well Mímisbrunnr. Creatures live within Yggdrasil, including the dragon Níðhöggr, the squirrel Ratatoskr, the hawk Veðrfölnir, and the stags Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór.

In Norse mythology, Ymir (/ˈiːmɪər/), also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar. Ymir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, in the Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century, and in the poetry of skalds. Taken together, several stanzas from four poems collected in the Poetic Edda refer to Ymir as a primeval being who was born from atter (Old Norse: eitr), yeasty venom that dripped from the icy rivers called the Élivágar, and lived in the grassless void of Ginnungagap. Ymir gave birth to a male and female from his armpits, and his legs together begat a six-headed being. The grandsons of Búri, the gods Odin and Vili and Vé, fashioned the Earth—elsewhere personified as a goddess named Jörð—from Ymir's flesh; the oceans from his blood; from his bones, the mountains; from his hair, the trees; from his brains, the clouds; from his skull, the heavens; and from his eyebrows, the middle realm in which humankind lives, Midgard. In addition, one stanza relates that the dwarfs were given life by the gods from Ymir's flesh and blood (or the Earth and sea).

In the Prose Edda, a narrative is provided that draws from, adds to, and differs from the accounts in the Poetic Edda. According to the Prose Edda, after Ymir was formed from the elemental drops, so too was Auðumbla, a primeval cow, whose milk Ymir fed from. The Prose Edda also states that three gods, the brothers Odin, Vili and Vé, killed Ymir, and details that, upon Ymir's death, his blood caused an immense flood. Scholars have debated as to what extent Snorri's account of Ymir is an attempt to synthesize a coherent narrative for the purpose of the Prose Edda and to what extent Snorri drew from traditional material outside of the corpus that he cites. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, scholars have linked Ymir to Tuisto, the Proto-Germanic being attested by Tacitus in his 1st century CE ethnography Germania and have identified Ymir as an echo of a primordial being reconstructed in Proto-Indo-European mythology.

In Norse mythology, Ragnarök (also Ragnarok; /ˈræɡnərɒk/ RAG-nə-rok or /ˈrɑːɡ-/ RAHG-; Old Norse: Ragnarǫk [ˈrɑɣnɑˌrɒk]) is a foretold series of impending events, including a great battle in which numerous great Norse mythological figures will perish (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, and Loki); it will entail a catastrophic series of natural disasters, including the burning of the world, and culminate in the submersion of the world underwater. After these events, the world will rise again, cleansed and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors, Líf and Lífþrasir. Ragnarök is an important event in Norse mythology and has been the subject of scholarly discourse and theory in the history of Germanic studies.

The event is attested primarily in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In the Prose Edda and in a single poem in the Poetic Edda, the event is referred to as Ragnarøkkr (Old Norse for 'Twilight of the Gods'), a usage popularised by 19th-century composer Richard Wagner with the title of the last of his Der Ring des Nibelungen operas, Götterdämmerung (1876), which is "Twilight of the Gods" in German.

In Norse mythology, Líf (identical with the Old Norse noun meaning "life, the life of the body") and Lífþrasir (Old Norse masculine name from líf and þrasir and defined by Lexicon Poëticum as "Livæ amator, vitæ amans, vitæ cupidus" "Líf's lover, lover of life, zest for life"), sometimes anglicized as Lif and Lifthrasir, female and male respectively, are two humans who are foretold to survive the events of Ragnarök by hiding in a wood called Hoddmímis holt and, after the flames have abated, to repopulate the newly risen and fertile world. Líf and Lífþrasir are mentioned in the Poetic Edda, which was compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Many scholars have speculated as to the underlying meaning and origins of both names.

A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: [ˈskɔːld]; Icelandic: [ˈskault], meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally composed to honor kings, but were sometimes ex tempore. They include both extended works and single verses (lausavísur). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings, which require some knowledge of Norse mythology, and heiti, which are formal nouns used in place of more prosaic synonyms. Dróttkvætt metre is a type of skaldic verse form that most often use internal rhyme and alliteration.

More than 5,500 skaldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in several sagas and in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, a handbook of skaldic composition that led to a revival of the art. Many of these verses are fragments of originally longer works, and the authorship of many is unknown. The earliest known skald from whom verses survive is Bragi Boddason, known as Bragi the Old, a Norwegian skald of the first half of the 9th century. Most known skalds were attached to the courts of Norwegian kings during the Viking Age, and increasingly were Icelanders. The subject matter of their extended poems was sometimes mythical before the conversion to Christianity, thereafter usually historical and encomiastic, detailing the deeds of the skald's patron. The tradition continued into the Late Middle Ages.

Layamon or Laghamon (UK: /ˈlaɪ.əmən, -mɒn/, US: /ˈleɪ.əmən, ˈlaɪ-/; Middle English: [ˈlaɣamon]) – spelled Laȝamon or Laȝamonn in his time, occasionally written Lawman – was an English poet of the late 12th/early 13th century and author of the Brut, a notable work that was the first to present the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in English poetry (the first Arthurian poems were by Frenchman Chrétien de Troyes).

J. R. R. Tolkien valued him as a transmitter of early English legends in a fashion comparable to the role played with respect to Icelandic legend by Snorri Sturluson.

In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (/ˈvælkɪri/ VAL-kirr-ee or /vælˈkɪəri/ val-KEER-ee; from Old Norse: valkyrja, lit. 'chooser of the slain') is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become einherjar ('single fighters' or 'once fighters'). When the einherjar are not preparing for the cataclysmic events of Ragnarök, the valkyries bear them mead. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens and sometimes connected to swans or horses.

Valkyries are attested in the Poetic Edda (a book of poems compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources), the Prose Edda, the Heimskringla (both by Snorri Sturluson) and the Njáls saga (one of the Sagas of Icelanders), all written—or compiled—in the 13th century. They appear throughout the poetry of skalds, in a 14th-century charm, and in various runic inscriptions.