"Sourcing Tolkien's "Circles of the World": Speculations on the
Heimskringla, the Latin Vulgate Bible, and the Hereford Mappa Mundi." Middle earth and Beyond: Essays on the World of J.R.R.
Most scholars find Snorri Sturluson's (1197-1241)
Heimskringla to be a compilation of sagas concerning Norwegian kings from their mythical origin to Magnus Erlingsson, and to have been fairly impartial, expect for an understandable bias toward Icelandic heroes.
Alli se cuenta que su atipico nombre Olaf se debe al hecho de que durante el embarazo su madre, Emmeline Miller, habia leido la historia de los primeros reyes de Noruega escrita por Thomas Carlyle basado en la
Heimskringla que el historiador islandes Snorri Sturluson habia escrito en el siglo XIII.
Three of these are based on holidays mentioned in Ynglinga saga, the first story in Snorri Sturlusson's mammoth thirteenth-century history of the kings of Norway,
Heimskringla. (Ironically, Ynglinga saga denies that the Norse gods were actually deities, but instead makes them out to be human Icings who were deified by their followers.
The Old Norse
Heimskringla is contrasted with the Latin Gesta Danorum, but one of the salient points Bagge makes is that "the retreat of the author and the focus on dramatic narrative do not make the sagas more 'popular' or less 'learned' than contemporary Latin works" (p.
Heimskringla or The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway (orig.
On the theme of 'Centre' and 'Periphery' in medieval historiography, see Sverre Bagge, Society and Politics in Snorri Sturluson's
Heimskringla' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), esp.
The topics include the transformation of literary genres in Iceland from orality to literacy, dreams in the sagas, ideology and structure in
Heimskringla, the double scene of Arrow-Oddr's drinking contest, and a structural approach to the Riddles of the Rok-Stone.
There is evidence from
Heimskringla that the remnants of Harald Hardrada's army re-embarked on their ships at Spurn Head following their defeat at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066) (King Harald's Saga Ch.
He has published articles on Halldor Laxness in Mannlif, Grapevine, and Logberg
Heimskringla.