Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson was born in late 1179 in Hvammur, Dalasýsla, and raised at the historic chieftain seat of Oddi by Jón Loftsson. Becoming the wealthiest chieftain in Iceland and twice serving as Laws-peaker (Logsogumadur) of the national assembly, the Althing, he was a master politician and scholar.

Snorri authored the Prose Edda (c. 1220), which preserved virtually all surviving knowledge of Norse pagan mythology (Odin, Thor, Ragnarok) and scaldic poetics. He penned Heimskringla (The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway) and likely Egil's Saga. In 1241, during the bloody Age of the Sturlungs, he was assassinated in the cellar of his estate at Reykholt on orders of King Haakon IV of Norway; his famous dying words were: 'Eigi skal hoggva!' (Do not strike!).