By Means of Deception: Snorri Sturluson as a Military Strategist

Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), who is believed to be the author of both Heimskringla (The Orb of the World) and Egils saga, is nowadays mostly remembered for his interest in the Norwegian monarchy and Scandinavian politics. It is, however, often overlooked that both these works are chiefly concerned with warfare, and in them Snorri emerges as a significant military strategist just as much as he does as a political thinker. This is somewhat enigmatic, because according to contemporary sources that sketch out Snorri’s life and career he had little or no personal experience of warfare, and a search of works in Latin that deal with the subject of war does not reveal that he borrowed many ideas from that quarter. Thus one is forced to conclude that he was a gifted and imaginative strategist by nature, although he did not put his skills into practice as a military leader. What is even more puzzling is that Snorri in the end put his life in great danger by disobeying King Hákon of Norway, whose retainer he was, but failed to take any precautions against the king’s predictable revenge, which a man of his military skills should have been able to foresee.