Asbjørn Aarne, professor of European literature at the University of Oslo wrote the book " Lyset i Nord- Et Snorre Album". In the book Aarne shows the effect Snorris work has had on the Nordic and European romanticism, that Snorri is indeed "Homer of the North".
Snorris work were made available for a larger readership in Europe by the translation of the Edda by Swiss Paul-Henri Mallet into French in 1756.
Aarne published three books (2008 at Vidarforlaget i Oslo ) all are highly recommendable; Lyset i Nord, Høvdingen and Edda ( translatiion by Anne Holtsmark ).
And more from others…..
Snorri Sturluson may be the most influential writer of the Middle Ages, his Edda, according to a 1909 translator : " The deep and ancient wellspring of Western Culture". Snorri is the Homer of the North.
Snorri influenced writers as various as Thomas Gray, William Blake, Sir Walter Scott, the Brothers Grimm, Thomas Carlyle, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Richard Wagner, Matthew Arnold, Henrik Ibsen, William Morris, Thomas Hardy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Hugh MacDiarmid, Jorge Luis Borges, W.H. Auden, Poul Anderson, Günther Grass, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Ursula K.LeGuin, A.S Byatt, Seamus Heaney, Jane Smiley, Neil Gaiman, and Michael Chabon.
(From "Song of the Vikings" by Nancy Marie Brown)
My name is Sigrun Guttormsdóttir Þormar. I live inBorgarfjord west Iceland, where I work as a project leader at the cultural medieval center Snorrastofa in Reykholt. For those that don't know, Reykholt was the home of Snorri Sturluson, medieval writer and poet whom lived in Reykholt from 1206 to 1241. He was the author of the Edda, Heimskringla (History of the kings of Norway) and Egils Saga Skallagrimsson. For me Snorri is the most amazing employer whom I proudly serve and constantly present in my every day life! He is absolutely still going strong at 835 years of age. Please come and visit us at www.snorrastofa.is. We are open all weekdays during the winter and all days during summer. We have an exhibition about Snorri Sturluson and offer lectures for groups. Hope to see you soon :)
