Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/217

 S N O S N O 201 SNORRO STURLUSON (Snorri, son of Sturla) (1179- 1241), the celebrated Icelandic historian, born in 1179, the youngest son of a chief in the VestfirSir (western fiords), was brought up by a powerful chief, Jon Loptsson, in Odda, who seems first to have awakened in him an interest for history and poetry. His career begins with his marriage, which made him a wealthy man; in 1206 he settled at Reykjaholt, where he constructed magnificent buildings and a bath of hewn stones, preserved to the present day, to which water was conducted from a neighbouring hot spring. He early made himself known as a poet, especially by glorifying the exploits of the contemporary Norse kings and earls ; at the same time he was a learned lawyer, and from 1215 became the " logsogumaSr," or president of the legislative assembly and supreme court of Iceland. The prominent features of his character seem to have been cunning, am- bition, and avarice, combined with want of courage and aversion to effort. By royal invitation he went in 1218 to Norway, where he remained a long time with the young king Hakon and his tutor Earl Skuli. When, owing to disputes between Icelandic and Norwegian merchants, Skuli thought of a military expedition to Iceland, Snorro persuaded him to give up this plan, promising to make the inhabitants submit to Hakon of their own free will. Snorro himself became the " lendrmaSr," vassal or baron, of the king of Norway, and held his lands as a fief under him. On his return home Snorro sent his son to the king as a hostage, and made peace between Norway and Iceland, but his power and influence were used more for his own enrichment and aggrandizement- he was " logsogumaCr " again from 1222 to 1232 than for the advantage of the king. Hakon, therefore, stirred up strife between Snorro's kinsman Sturla and Snorro, who had to fly from Reykjaholt in 1236; and in 1237 he left the country and went back to Norway. Here he joined the party of Skuli, who was meditating a revolt. Learning that his cousin Sturla in Iceland had fallen in battle against Gissur, Snorro's son-in- law, Snorro, although expressly forbidden by his liege lord, returned to Iceland in 1239 and once more took possession of his property. Meanwhile Hakon, who had vanquished Skuli in 1240, sent orders to Gissur to punish Snorro for his disobedience either by capturing him and sending him back to Norway or by putting him to death. Gissur took the latter course, attacked Snorro at his residence, Reykja- holt, and slew him on 22d September 1241. Snorro is the author of the Edda and of the Sagas of the Nor- wegian Kings. The Edda, now called the Prose Edda, to distinguish it from the Poetic or Saemund's Edda, was finished in 1222, and con- sists of three parts. (1) The Gylfayinning, or the Delusion of Gylfi, with a short preface, gives a summary of the ancient Norse myth- ology, founded on the VoluspA and other mythical poems; the author gives a euhemeristic account of the ancient gods, regarding them as chiefs versed in witchcraft who had immigrated to the north and there introduced their special religion. (2) The Skalds- kaparmdl, or Art of Poetry, gives, under the form of a dialogue between the god Bragi and the giant (jbtun) .<gir, an explanation of all figurative mythological expressions of the ancient poetry, and the rules for using them. (3) The Hdttatal, or Enumeration of Metres, is a running commentary on three poems composed by Snorro in 1222 in honour of Hakon and Skuli, the stanzas of which, numbering about a hundred, are each in a different metre. In the MSS. the Edda has received many additions, which are wrongly ascribed to Snorro. For different editions see EDD A. The Sagas of the Norwegian Kings gives a connected series of biographies of the kings of Norway down to Sverri in 1177 ; here the author stops, because the history of Sverri and his successors had already been written. The work opens with the Ynglinga Saga, a brief history of the pre- tended immigration into Sweden of the uEsir, of their successors in that country, the kings of Upsala, and of the oldest Norwegian kings, their descendants. Next come the biographies of the succeeding Norwegian kings, the most detailed being those of the two mission- ary kings Olaf Tryggvason and St Olaf. Snorro's sources were partly succinct histories of the realm, as the chronological sketch of Ari ; partly more voluminous early collections of traditions, as the Noregs Konungatal (FagrsMnna) and the Jarlasaga ; partly legendary biographies of the two Olafs ; and, in addition to these, studies and collections which he himself made during his journeys in Nor- way. All these he worked up with great independence and critical sagacity into an harmonious whole. His critical principles are ex- plained in the preface, where he dwells on the necessity of starting as much as possible from trustworthy contemporary sources, or at least from those nearest to antiquity, the touchstone by which verbal traditions can be tested being contemporary poems. He inclines to rationalism, rejecting the marvellous and recasting legends containing it in a more historical spirit ; but he makes an exception in the accounts of the introduction of Christianity into Norway and of the national saint St Olaf. Snorro's style is peculiar to himself. He strives everywhere to impart life and vigour to his narrative, to express the sentiments and feelings of the actors, and he gives the dialogues in the individual character of each person. Especially in this last he shows a tendency to epigram and often uses humorous and pathetic expressions. Besides his principal work, he elaborated in a separate form its better and larger part, the History of St Olaf (the great Olafs Saga). In the preface to this he gives a brief extract of the earlier history, and, as an appen- dix, a short account of St Olafs miracles after his death ; here too he employs critical art, as appears from a comparison with his source, the Latin legend. The Sagas of the Norwegian Kings has been preserved in several MSS. of the 13th century ; the oltlest of these, no longer extant, had lost at an early period its first leaf containing the preface, and thus came to begin with the words, Kringla heimsins( = or'}is terraruni), which caused lirst this MS. and later(about Modern translations : into Danish, by N. F. S. Grundtvig, 1818-22 ; Norwegian, by Jacob Aall, 1833-39, and by P. A. Munch, 1859 ; Swedish, by Richert, 1816- 29, and by H. Hildebrand, 1869-71 ; German, by Wachter, 1S35-3G ; English, by Laing, 1844. (G. H.t) SNOW. See METEOROLOGY, vol. xvi. p. 154; also GEOLOGY, vol. x. pp. 280-281. SNOWDROP, Galanthus nivalis, is the best-known representative of a small genus of Amaryllids, all the species of which have bulbs, linear leaves, erect flower- stalks, destitute of leaves but bearing at the top a solitary pendulous bell-shaped flower. The white perianth is six- parted, the outer three segments being larger and more convex than the inner series. The six anthers open by pores or short slits. The ovary is three -celled, ripening into a three-celled capsule. The snowdrop is a doubtful native of Great Britain, but is largely cultivated for market in Lincolnshire. There are numerous varieties, differing in the size of the flower and the period of flowering. The double form is probably the least attractive. Other dis- tinct species of snowdrop, not to be confounded with the varieties before mentioned, are the Crimean snowdrop, G. pl^cat^ls, with broad leaves folded like a fan, and G. Elwesii, a native of the Levant, with large flowers, the three inner segments of which have a much larger and more conspicuous green blotch than the commoner kinds. All the species are very graceful, and as universal favourites amply repay cultivation. SNOW-SHOES are a kind of foot gear used by Indians and trappers in Canada for travelling over the frozen surface of snow. In the long North- American winters they are the sole means of locomotion when railways and roads are snowed up, as the frozen surface of snow is not sufficiently consistent to support the weight of the human body without artificial aid. The snow-shoer protects his feet by wearing moccasins of moose-skin. The framework of a snow-shoe consists of a long narrow piece of pliable hickory wood, placed edge- ways and then bent round with an oval-shaped front, and is adorned on the sides with tufts of crimson wool. The ends taper gradually to the rear, where they are fastened firmly to each other. The total length is about 39 inches and the width from 13 to 16 inches. Across the oval, and fitted into the inside of the framework by mortices, are two battens of wood, 5 or 6 inches clear of both ends. Over the front one at an open space a deerskin thong is fastened, forming an aperture for the reception of the great toe. The thong is then crossed over the top of the foot, passed round and tied to the sides. This leaves the heel free to move up and down on the shoe and rests the weight of it on the toes. Over the remainder of the oval XXII. 26