Snorri Sturluson qua Fulcrum: Perspectives on the Cultural Activity of Myth, Mythological Poetry and Narrative in Medieval Iceland

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artful and allusive language and techniques of this vernacular poetry 

remained dependent on a rich body of cultural knowledge rooted in a pre-

Christian milieu. Snorri’s ars poetica therefore surveys and summarizes a vast 

range of mythological information which both elucidates circulating verses 

and provides a resource for the generation of new compositions. It is 

arguably the most important single source for Old Norse mythology, and 

perhaps for Germanic mythology more generally. Edda  is  such  a  rich  

resource that it is often forgotten that it is a treatise on the art of poetry 

intended  til  fróðleiks  ok  skemtunar  (‘for  the  scholarly inquiry  and 

entertainment’) of young poets

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 – with an eye for Christian royal patronage – 

rather than being composed as a treatise on vernacular mythology. Evidence 

of this work’s reception suggests that it was valued in these capacities, with 

impacts on this area of culture, and although Snorri was not necessarily the 

‘first’ in all he undertook, his works became pillars in the corpus of 

vernacular literature. However, Snorri’s creative genius is not a question of 

the size or scope of his literary production, but rather in something far more 

rare: it is in the degree to which these could engage, incite and inspire his 

own and later generations. Snorri was a product of his times, responding to 

the contemporary discourse which surrounded him, yet within the 

intersection of historical circumstances, Snorri emerges as a pivot – a 

fulcrum  –  and  his  creative  genius  as  a  lever  that  could  shift  the  course  of  

history. 

 

1. Old Norse Poetry in Changing Contexts 

 

Early Old Norse poetry is conventionally approached according to two 

broad categories, ‘eddic’ and ‘skaldic’. The term ‘eddic’ is a modern 

adjectival form  of Edda, used to describe poetry which was originally 

presumed to have provided the sources for Snorri’s knowledge of 

mythological and heroic traditions. This term has become used by extension 

to describe similar and other poetry earlier presumed to reflect the 

anonymous voice of das Volk. ‘Eddic’ is opposed to ‘skaldic’ verse, ‘skaldic’ 

being a modern term derived from skáld (‘poet’) used to designate poetry 

                                                                                                                                          

position of Edda as a (sometimes contested) authority, see Judy Quinn, ‘Eddu list: The Emergence of 

Skaldic Pedagogy in Medieval Iceland’, Alvíssmál 4 (1994), 69–92. 

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 Skáldskaparmál, ch. 1. 

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composed by namable poets

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 ‘Eddic’ and ‘skaldic’ are not useful terms for 

analysis, but they retain practical value for discussion. 

 

Skaldic verse made extensive use of poetic circumlocutions, and those 

called kennings

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 in particular. Skaldic use of (‘pagan’) mythological 

kennings and references has been statistically measured in the corpus, 

dropping abruptly with the legal conversion of Iceland to Christianity 

(999/1000).

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  Use  of  heroic  material  rose  in  the  12

th

  century,  when  a  few  

‘Christian’ poets also made use of mythology for æsthetic purposes.

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Nonetheless, the rapid and steady overall decline of mythological reference 

continued. However, Bjarne Fidjestøl observes that this was followed by an 

immediate and “notable increase” in the 13

th

 century, “obviously due to the 

‘renaissance’ of Snorri Sturluson and his nephews.”

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 Snorri’s engagement of 

vernacular mythology as an interesting and valuable referent was 

anticipated by those earlier poets, but in the early hours of vernacular 

literacy, the combination of his interest with a pedagogical treatise on the art 

of poetry appears to have resulted in a statistically discernable social and 

historical impact on the cultural activity of vernacular mythology in skaldic 

verse.  

Eddic poetry requires a slightly fuller introduction owing to its 

relevance to later discussion. The main corpus of eddic poetry is built 

around the unified collection often called The Poetic Edda or Elder Edda which 

makes up the Codex Regius manuscript,

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 conventionally dated to ca. 1270,

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from  which  poems  and  prose  will  be  addressed  below  (§5–8).  Another  

                                                

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Discussions of skaldic verse tend to emphasize its complexity and to focus on the meter called 

dróttkvætt, but skaldic verse was also commonly composed in ‘eddic’ meters within a dynamic 

and coherent system. See E. O. G. Turville-Petre, Scaldic Poetry, Clarendon Press: Oxford 1978; 

Clunies Ross 2005.  

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 A kenning is a rhetorical figure of a noun modified by another noun referring to a third higher concept. 

Its correct interpretation is normally dependent on (sometimes specialized) cultural knowledge. Old Norse 

kennings are formed in a genitive construction (e.g. dynr geira, ‘din of spears’ = ‘battle’) or compound 

(e.g.  dyn-skúr,‘din-shower’ = ‘battle’). See Bjarne Fidjestøl, ‘The Kenning System: An Attempt at a 

Linguistic Analysis’, in Odd Einar Haugen & E. Mundal (eds), Selected Papers, Odense University Press: 

Odense 1997, 16–67. 

10

 Jan de Vries, De Skaldenkenningen met mythologischen Inhoud, H.D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon N.V.: 

Haarlem 1934; Bjarne Fidjestøl, ‘Pagan Beliefs and Christian Impact: The Contribution of Skaldic 

Studies’, in A. Faulkes & R. Perkins (eds), Viking Revaluations, Viking Society: London 1993, 100–120; 

Bjarne Fidjestøl, The Dating of Eddic Poetry: A Historical Survey and Methodological Investigation, 

Reitzels: Copenhagen 1999, at 270–293; see also Ásdís Egilsdóttir, ‘Pagan Poetry Meets Christianity’, in 

L. P. S upecki & J. Morawiec (eds), Between Paganism and Christianity in the North, Wydawnictwo 

Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego: Rzeszów 2009, 84–92. 

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 See Bjarne Fidjestøl, Det norrøne fyrstediktet, Alvheim & Eide: Bergen 1982. 

12

 Fidjestøl 1993, 102. 

13

 Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, GKS 2365 4

to

. 

14

 Following Gustav Lindblad, Studier i Codex Regius af äldre Eddan, Lund: Gleerup 1954. 

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