Snorri Sturluson /ˈsn̥ɔrɪ ˈstʰʏrtl̥ʏsɔn/ (1179 – 23 September 1241) was an
Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as
lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the
Althing. He was the author of the
Prose Edda or
Younger Edda, which consists of
Gylfaginning ("the fooling of Gylfi"), a narrative of
Norse mythology, the
Skáldskaparmál, a book of poetic language, and the
Háttatal, a list of verse forms. He was also the author of the
Heimskringla, a history of the
Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in
Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval
Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of
Egil's saga.