This is the account of a trip made years ago in the middle of winter, which has its charm in Iceland, but certainly everything is easier in the summer. The reportage had as its theme the places of Norse mythology, Thor and Odin, following in the footsteps of Snorri Sturluson, the great Icelandic medieval writer and collector of traditions; much of what we know about the Viking gods and heroes is due precisely to the work of Snorri, the “Homer of the North”. Snorri was also a bad guy, a typical human example of his country and his time, the protagonist of political plots and sword feuds of which in the end he himself was a victim. His farm, where he was killed in 1241, was located in the locality of Reykholt. Here is the round tub, of smooth stones, where Snorri bathed while chatting with friends. There is also the connecting tunnel between the house and the tank where a killer of the king of Norway killed him. In the adjacent Snorri Museum, which is located in the basement of a small church, everything and more is told. They are not the Uffizi, but this is Iceland: suggestive and humble.
Thingvellir National Park is home to the seat of the old Icelandic parliament
Snorri was president of the Althing several times, the highest office an Icelandic could aspire to in the Middle Ages. This Althing was the parliament of the island and the meeting place is a breathtaking place, a magnificent volcanic amphitheater (all of Iceland is the daughter of volcanoes). It is located in Thingvellir National Park, which is one of the stops on the so-called Golden Circle, a 300-kilometer route in the Reykjavik area. The Golden Circle fulfills its promise to enjoy a taste of Iceland in just one day. Another stop on the Circle is the Geysir geysers (this has given the name to the whole category) and Strokkur. Then there is the Gullfoss waterfall which flows into a canyon. Other stops are at the volcanic crater of Kerid, the town of Hveragerdi, the cathedral of Skálholt and some spas. The Golden Circle, Snorri’s house in Reykholt, Hvaldfiordur fjord and more can be found in packages such as the two-day ‘Saga Trail’ offered by a local agency. In the capital it is worth seeing the Saga Museum which tells the whole epic of the Great North.
An illustration taken from an ancient manuscript of the Edda of Snorri
The readings
The journey in the footsteps of Snorri Sturluson is to be accompanied with the right readings. In Italian the Edda by Snorri (Adelphi) is available while the «Edda poetica» is available on the Internet. Specialized publishing houses, such as Iperborea but also others, have translated the most famous Icelandic sagas, which in turn can be found in large numbers on the web in English or even in Italian. Widening the view, the saga of the kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson has also been translated into our language, as well as the story of the Danes of Sassone Grammatico and the overall story of the Great North of Adam from Bremen.
It is curious that Sweden, a country so cultured today, for a good part of the Middle Ages produced only runic inscriptions on funerary stelae, and almost all very short, of the type “Helga did this for Erik who did not return from Rus”. However, 90% of the ancient “Norse” literature was written right here in the Icelandic lands we are visiting. The best introduction to this world is the book by Jorge Luis Borges Medieval Germanic Literatures. While a good recent novel, The Song of the Rebel by Joanne Harris, tells Icelandic myths from the point of view of Loki, the most extravagant and uncontrollable of the Norse gods. And we dare to say that the film Thor (2011) set between Asgard and our Earth, with a plot full of irony, would also have liked Snorri Sturluson.
