Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) was an Icelandic chieftain, poet and historian, fostered at Oddi, the great center of learning in medieval Iceland, and twice elected lawspeaker of the Althing, the island's assembly. He visited Norway and became entangled in the politics of King Haakon IV, who eventually had him killed in his own cellar at Reykholt. His Prose Edda, a handbook for poets, is the fullest surviving account of Norse mythology, and his Heimskringla, the history of the kings of Norway, is the greatest work of Old Norse prose. His writing preserved a pagan tradition that was already two centuries out of living memory.