Heimskringla | Page 3

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Heimskringla
or
The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
by
Snorri Sturlson (c.1179-1241)
Originally written in Old Norse, app. 1225 A.D., by the poet and
historian Snorri Sturlson.
This electronic edition was edited, proofed, and prepared by Douglas B.
Killings ([email protected]), April 1996.
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PREPARER'S NOTE:
The "Heimskringla" of Snorri Sturlason is a collection of sagas
concerning the various rulers of Norway, from about A.D. 850 to the
year A.D. 1177.
The Sagas covered in this work are the following:
1. Halfdan the Black Saga 2. Harald Harfager's Saga 3. Hakon the
Good's Saga 4. Saga of King Harald Grafeld and of Earl Hakon Son of
Sigurd 5. King Olaf Trygvason's Saga 6. Saga of Olaf Haraldson (St.
Olaf) 7. Saga of Magnus the Good 8. Saga of Harald Hardrade 9. Saga
of Olaf Kyrre 10. Magnus Barefoot's Saga 11. Saga of Sigurd the
Crusader and His Brothers Eystein and Olaf 12. Saga of Magnus the
Blind and of Harald Gille 13. Saga of Sigurd, Inge, and Eystein, the
Sons of Harald 14. Saga of Hakon Herdebreid ("Hakon the

Broad-Shouldered") 15. Magnus Erlingson's Saga
While scholars and historians continue to debate the historical accuracy
of Sturlason's work, the "Heimskringla" is still considered an important
original source for information on the Viking Age, a period which
Sturlason covers almost in its entirety.
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PREFACE OF SNORRE STURLASON.
In this book I have had old stories written down, as I have heard them
told by intelligent people, concerning chiefs who have have held
dominion in the northern countries, and who spoke the Danish tongue;
and also concerning some of their family branches, according to what
has been told me. Some of this is found in ancient family registers, in
which the pedigrees of kings and other personages of high birth are
reckoned up, and part is written down after old songs and ballads which
our forefathers had for their amusement. Now, although we cannot just
say what truth there may be in these, yet we have the certainty that old
and wise men held them to be true.
Thjodolf of Hvin was the skald of Harald Harfager, and he composed a
poem for King Rognvald the Mountain-high, which is called
"Ynglingatal." This Rognvald was a son of Olaf Geirstadalf, the brother
of King Halfdan the Black. In this poem thirty of his forefathers are
reckoned up, and the death and burial-place of each are given. He
begins with Fjolner, a son of Yngvefrey, whom the Swedes, long after
his time, worshipped and sacrificed to, and from whom the race or
family of the Ynglings take their name.
Eyvind Skaldaspiller also reckoned up the ancestors of Earl Hakon the
Great in a poem called "Haleygjatal", composed about Hakon; and
therein he mentions Saeming, a son of Yngvefrey, and he likewise tells
of the death and funeral rites of each. The lives and times of the
Yngling race were written from Thjodolf's relation enlarged afterwards
by the accounts of intelligent people.
As to funeral rites, the earliest age is called the Age of Burning;
because all the dead were consumed by fire, and over their ashes were
raised standing stones. But after Frey was buried under a cairn at
Upsala, many chiefs raised cairns, as commonly as stones, to the
memory of their relatives.

The Age of Cairns began properly in Denmark after Dan Milkillate had
raised for himself a burial cairn, and ordered that he should be buried in
it on his death, with his royal ornaments and armour, his horse and
saddle-furniture, and other valuable goods; and many of his
descendants followed his example. But the burning of the dead
continued, long after that time, to be the custom of the Swedes and
Northmen. Iceland was occupied in the time that Harald Harfager was
the King of Norway. There were skalds in Harald's court whose poems
the people know by heart even at the present day, together with all the
songs about the kings who have ruled in Norway since his time; and we