ABSTRACT
Snorri Sturluson wrote Heimskringla, one of the best known of Icelandic sagas, in the early thirteenth century, covering the deeds of Scandinavian kings from the tenth to the late twelfth century. Snorri would immediately seem to be an ideal example of a historian subjected to defeat, colonization, exile, or imprisonment, as he was a prominent Icelandic chieftain, killed at the order of the King of Norway. However, this probably happened long after he had written Heimskringla. Nor can this text be regarded as anti-Norwegian or anti-royal. On the other hand, neither is it a royal panegyric but a remarkable analysis of internal and external politics, written at a certain distance from the royal court, and during a period when Iceland's independence from Norway was being threatened.
