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78-461: This work is one of the earliest written works in Icelandic (and in any North Germanic language ). It is a linguistic work dealing with Old Norse , in the tradition of Latin and Greek grammatical treatises, generally dated to the mid-12th century. Hreinn Benediktsson was not able to narrow the time of writing more precisely than to 1125–1175. The First Grammatical Treatise is of great interest to

156-573: A West Scandinavian branch, consisting of Norwegian , Faroese and Icelandic and, thirdly, an Old Gutnish branch. Norwegian settlers brought Old West Norse to Iceland and the Faroe Islands around 800. Of the modern Scandinavian languages, written Icelandic is closest to this ancient language. An additional language, known as Norn , developed on Orkney and Shetland after Vikings had settled there around 800, but this language became extinct around 1700. In medieval times, speakers of all

234-483: A chieftainship, and soon acquired more property and additional chieftainships. Snorri and Herdís were together for four years at Borg. They had at least two children, Hallbera and Jón. The marriage succumbed to Snorri's philandering, and in 1206, he settled without Herdís in Reykholt as the manager of an estate. He also made significant improvements to the estate, including an outdoor bath fed by hot springs . The bath

312-627: A continental group (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The division between Insular Nordic ( önordiska / ønordisk / øynordisk ) and Continental Scandinavian ( Skandinavisk ) is based on mutual intelligibility between the two groups and developed due to different influences, particularly the political union of Denmark and Norway (1536–1814) which led to significant Danish influence on central and eastern Norwegian dialects ( Bokmål or Dano-Norwegian ). The North Germanic languages are national languages in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, whereas

390-574: A francophone period), for example the Old Swedish word vindöga 'window' was replaced by fönster (from Middle Low German), whereas native vindue was kept in Danish. Norwegians, who spoke (and still speak) the Norwegian dialects derived from Old Norse, would say vindauga or similar. The written language of Denmark-Norway however, was based on the dialect of Copenhagen and thus had vindue . On

468-533: A knife—intending, she said, to make him like his one-eyed hero Odin . Before the knife could strike its target, though, bystanders deflected the blow so it hit his cheek instead. The resulting settlement would have beggared Páll, but Jón Loftsson intervened in the Althing to mitigate the judgment and, to compensate Sturla, offered to raise and educate Snorri. Thus Snorri received an excellent education and forged connections he might not otherwise have been able to. He

546-456: A meeting with them and Kolbein the Younger, Gissur brought out the letter. Orm refused. Shortly after, Snorri received a letter in cipher runes warning him of the plot, but he could not understand them. After Gissur led seventy men on a daring raid to his house, achieving complete surprise. Snorri Sturluson was assassinated in his house at Reykholt in autumn of 1241. It is not clear that he

624-533: A monstrosity among the world's phonemic systems". However, a system of 18 oral vowels is in no way unusual for a Germanic language, and nasality must be seen an independent category. The author is unknown, and is usually referred to as "First Grammarian". Scholars have hypothesized various identities for the First Grammarian. One probable candidate is Hallr Teitsson (born ca. 1085, died 1150). Þóroddr Gamlason has also been suggested. Haugen notes that

702-466: A more significant extent than the West Germanic languages do. These lexical, grammatical, and morphological similarities can be outlined in the table below. Given the aforementioned homogeneity, there exists some discussion on whether the continental group should be considered one or several languages. The Continental Scandinavian languages are often cited as proof of the aphorism " A language

780-538: A poor command of Norwegian and Swedish. They do somewhat better with Danish, as they are taught Danish in school (Icelandic is not mutually intelligible with Scandinavian languages, nor any language, not even Faroese, which is though closest). When speakers of Faroese and Icelandic were tested on how well they understood the three Continental Scandinavian languages, the test results were as follows (maximum score 10.0): The North Germanic languages share many lexical, grammatical, phonological, and morphological similarities, to

858-464: A resolution of the Althing , where Snorri exerted much influence due to his political ties and legal acumen. In 1220, Snorri returned to Iceland and by 1222 was back as law speaker of the Althing, which he held this time until 1232. The basis of his election was entirely his fame as a poet. Politically he was the king's spokesman, supporting union with Norway, a platform that acquired him enemies among

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936-652: A separate language by many linguists. Traditionally regarded as a Swedish dialect, but by several criteria closer to West Scandinavian dialects, Elfdalian is a separate language by the standard of mutual intelligibility. Traveller Danish, Rodi, and Swedish Romani are varieties of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish with Romani vocabulary or Para-Romani known collectively as the Scandoromani language . They are spoken by Norwegian and Swedish Travellers . The Scando-Romani varieties in Sweden and Norway combine elements from

1014-527: A strong mutual intelligibility where cross-border communication in native languages is very common, particularly between the latter two. Approximately 20 million people in the Nordic countries speak a Scandinavian language as their native language, including an approximately 5% minority in Finland . Besides being the only North Germanic language with official status in two separate sovereign states, Swedish

1092-461: Is a dialect with an army and navy ". The differences in dialects within the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark can often be greater than the differences across the borders, but the political independence of these countries leads continental Scandinavian to be classified into Norwegian , Swedish , and Danish in the popular mind as well as among most linguists. The generally agreed upon language border is, in other words, politically shaped. This

1170-456: Is also because of the strong influence of the standard languages , particularly in Denmark and Sweden. Even if the language policy of Norway has been more tolerant of rural dialectal variation in formal language, the prestige dialect often referred to as "Eastern Urban Norwegian", spoken mainly in and around the Oslo region, is sometimes considered normative. The influence of a standard Norwegian

1248-458: Is also referred to as the Nordic languages , a direct translation of the most common term used among Danish , Faroese , Icelandic , Norwegian , and Swedish scholars and people. The term North Germanic languages is used in comparative linguistics , whereas the term Scandinavian languages appears in studies of the modern standard languages and the dialect continuum of Scandinavia . Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are close enough to form

1326-751: Is also spoken by the North Schleswig Germans , and German is a recognized minority language in this region. German is the primary language among the Danish minority of Southern Schleswig , and likewise, Danish is the primary language of the North Schleswig Germans. Both minority groups are highly bilingual. Traditionally, Danish and German were the two official languages of Denmark–Norway ; laws and other official instruments for use in Denmark and Norway were written in Danish, and local administrators spoke Danish or Norwegian. German

1404-619: Is also the most spoken of the languages overall. 15% of the population in Greenland speak Danish as a first language. This language branch is separated from the West Germanic languages , consisting of languages like English, Dutch, and German to the south, and does not include Finnish to the east, which belongs to the completely unrelated Uralic language family . The modern languages and their dialects in this group are: The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West , East and North Germanic. Their exact relation

1482-619: Is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible to some degree during the Migration Period , so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. Dialects with the features assigned to the northern group formed from the Proto-Germanic language in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe . Eventually, around the year 200 AD, speakers of

1560-518: Is important for the study of Old Norse, as it is a major text showing the state of the language just prior to the writing of the Icelandic Sagas . It also provides a comprehensive study of the pronunciation of the language, to the extent that it created an Icelandic alphabet derived from the Latin, and more adapted to writing on paper or parchment than the older, epigraphic Runic alphabet that

1638-546: Is nevertheless less so than in Denmark and Sweden, since the prestige dialect in Norway has moved geographically several times over the past 200 years. The organised formation of Nynorsk out of western Norwegian dialects after Norway became independent from Denmark in 1814 intensified the politico-linguistic divisions. The Nordic Council has on several occasions referred to the (Germanic) languages spoken in Scandinavia as

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1716-433: Is similar to Nynorsk and is used by a very small minority. Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( Old Norse : [ˈsnorːe ˈsturloˌson] ; Icelandic: [ˈsnɔrːɪ ˈstʏ(r)tlʏˌsɔːn] ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing . He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of

1794-611: The Prose Edda , which is a major source for what is today known about Norse mythology and alliterative verse , and Heimskringla , a history of the Norse 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 . He was assassinated in 1241 by men claiming to be agents of

1872-849: The Isle of Man , and Norwegian settlements in Normandy . The Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Russia, England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. Yet, by 1600, another classification of the North Germanic language branches had arisen from a syntactic point of view, dividing them into an insular group (Icelandic and Faroese) and

1950-558: The Northwest Germanic languages, divided into four main dialects: North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely Inability of the tree model to explain the existence of some features in the West Germanic languages stimulated the development of an alternative, the so-called wave model . Under this view, the properties that the West Germanic languages have in common separate from

2028-412: The Øresund Bridge and a larger number of cross-border commuters in the Øresund Region contribute to a better knowledge of spoken Danish and a better knowledge of the unique Danish words among the region's inhabitants. According to the study, youth in this region were able to understand the Danish language (slightly) better than the Norwegian language. But they still could not understand Danish as well as

2106-705: The "Scandinavian language" (singular); for instance, the official newsletter of the Nordic Council is written in the "Scandinavian language". The creation of one unified written language has been considered as highly unlikely, given the failure to agree upon a common standardized language in Norway . However, there is a slight chance of "some uniformization of spelling" between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. All North Germanic languages are descended from Old Norse . Divisions between subfamilies of North Germanic are rarely precisely defined: Most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and

2184-525: The 20th century and to date has been colored by the historical views adopted when Iceland sought to sever its ties with Denmark , any revision of which still has strong nationalistic sentiments to contend with. To serve such views, Snorri and other leading Icelanders of his time are sometimes judged with an element of presentism , drawing on concepts that came into vogue only centuries later, such as state , independence , sovereignty , and nation . Jorge Luis Borges and María Kodama studied and translated

2262-405: The Danish vocabulary and grammar, and was nearly identical to written Danish until the spelling reform of 1907. (For this reason, Bokmål and its unofficial, more conservative variant Riksmål are sometimes considered East Scandinavian, and Nynorsk West Scandinavian via the west–east division shown above.) However, Danish has developed a greater distance between the spoken and written versions of

2340-596: The First Grammatical Treatise proposes that long vowels be marked with an acute accent, e.g. á. The nasal vowels are marked with a dot. Small capitals denote a geminate consonant . The author proposes a letter Ǥ, named eng , which denotes /ŋɡ/ . Raddarstafir (Vowels): a, ȧ, ǫ, ǫ̇, e, ė, ę, ę̇, ı, i, o, ȯ, ø, ø̇, u, u̇, y, ẏ Samhljóðendr (Consonants): b, ʙ, c, ᴋ, d, ᴅ, f, ꜰ, g, ɢ, ǥ, h, l, ʟ, m, ᴍ, n, ɴ, p, ᴘ, r, ʀ, ſ, ꜱ, t, ᴛ, þ Samsettar (Letters for composite sounds): x, z Other: ⁊ , ˜ Based on

2418-426: The Icelandic commonwealth and a position of high respect. In the summer of 1218, he left the lawspeaker position and sailed to Norway , by royal invitation. There he became well acquainted with the teenage King Hákon Hákonarson and his co-regent, Jarl Skúli . He spent the winter as house guest of the jarl. They showered gifts upon him, including the ship in which he sailed, and he in return wrote poetry about them. In

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2496-815: The King of Norway. Snorri Sturluson was born in Hvammur í Dölum  [ is ] (commonly transliterated as Hvamm or Hvammr) as a member of the wealthy and powerful Sturlungar clan of the Icelandic Commonwealth , in AD 1179. His parents were Sturla Þórðarson the Elder of Hvammur (also known as Hvamm-Sturla) and his second wife, Guðný Böðvarsdóttir . He had two older brothers, Þórðr ( b.  1165 ) and Sighvatr Sturluson ( b.  1170 ), two sisters, Helga and Vigdís, and nine half-siblings . Snorri

2574-419: The North Germanic branch became distinguishable from the other Germanic language speakers . The early development of this language branch is attested through runic inscriptions. The North Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological and morphological innovations shared with West Germanic : Some have argued that after East Germanic broke off from the group, the remaining Germanic languages,

2652-540: The North Germanic family tree is divided into two main branches, West Scandinavian languages ( Norwegian , Faroese and Icelandic ) and East Scandinavian languages ( Danish and Swedish ), along with various dialects and varieties. The two branches are derived from the western and eastern dialect groups of Old Norse respectively. There was also an Old Gutnish branch spoken on the island of Gotland . The continental Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian and Danish) were heavily influenced by Middle Low German during

2730-612: The North Germanic languages are not inherited from a "Proto-West-Germanic" language, but rather spread by language contact among the Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia. Some innovations are not found in West and East Germanic, such as: After the Old Norse period, the North Germanic languages developed into an East Scandinavian branch, consisting of Danish and Swedish ; and, secondly,

2808-722: The Northern Peoples . Dialectal variation between west and east in Old Norse however was certainly present during the Middle Ages and three dialects had emerged: Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old Icelandic was essentially identical to Old Norwegian , and together they formed the Old West Norse dialect of Old Norse and were also spoken in settlements in Faroe Islands, Ireland , Scotland,

2886-562: The Norwegians could, demonstrating once again the relative distance of Swedish from Danish. Youth in Copenhagen had a very poor command of Swedish, showing that the Øresund connection was mostly one-way. The results from the study of how well native youth in different Scandinavian cities did when tested on their knowledge of the other Continental Scandinavian languages are summarized in table format, reproduced below. The maximum score

2964-553: The Nynorsk project (which had as a goal to re-establish a written Norwegian language) would have been much harder to carry out if Norway had been in a union with Sweden instead of with Denmark, simply because the differences would have been smaller. Currently, English loanwords are influencing the languages. A 2005 survey of words used by speakers of the Scandinavian languages showed that the number of English loanwords used in

3042-547: The Scandinavian languages could understand one another to a significant degree, and it was often referred to as a single language, called the "Danish tongue" until the 13th century by some in Sweden and Iceland. In the 16th century, many Danes and Swedes still referred to North Germanic as a single language, which is stated in the introduction to the first Danish translation of the Bible and in Olaus Magnus ' A Description of

3120-489: The Swedish dialects. Nynorsk incorporates much of these words, like byrja (cf. Swedish börja , Danish begynde ), veke (cf. Sw vecka , Dan uge ) and vatn (Sw vatten , Dan vand ) whereas Bokmål has retained the Danish forms ( begynne , uke , vann ). As a result, Nynorsk does not conform to the above east–west split model, since it shares a lot of features with Swedish. According to the Norwegian linguist Arne Torp ,

3198-619: The author of the text cannot be the 11th century Icelandic scholar Ari the Learned (1067-1148), as the author refers to Ari, "in the text with a reverence such as might be offered by a pupil or a friend." Furthermore, Haugen notes, concerning the author candidate Hallr Teitsson, that, "His [Hallr's] father was a foster brother of Ari the Learned, and Hallr himself was the fourth in line of a distinguished family of cultural leaders in Iceland". . The First Grammarian's choice of terminology, such as

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3276-496: The chiefs of Iceland. In 1262, the Althing ratified union with Norway and royal authority was instituted in Iceland. Each member swore an oath of personal loyalty to the king, a practice which continued as each new king came to the throne, until absolute and hereditary monarchy was formally accepted by the Icelanders in 1662. Snorri Sturluson's writings provide information and indications concerning persons and events influencing

3354-414: The chiefs. In 1224, Snorri married Hallveig Ormsdottir (c. 1199–1241), a granddaughter of Jón Loftsson, now a widow of great means with two young sons, and made a contract of joint property ownership (or helmingafélag ) with her. Their children did not survive to adulthood, but Hallveig's sons and seven of Snorri's children did live to adulthood. Snorri was the most powerful chieftain in Iceland during

3432-421: The description of minimal pairs of words in Old Norse, Einar Haugen proposes one tentative interpretation of the vowel description given by the First Grammatical Treatise. There are potentially 36 vowels in Old Norse, with 9 basic vowel qualities, /i, y, e, ø, ɛ, u, o, ɔ, a/ , which are further distinguished by length and nasality. Haugen notes that "A system of thirty-six vowel phonemes would have been something of

3510-441: The dialects of Western Sweden, Eastern Norway (Østlandet) and Trøndersk. Norwegian has two official written norms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. In addition, there are some unofficial norms. Riksmål is more conservative than Bokmål (that is, closer to Danish) and is used to various extents by numerous people, especially in the cities and by the largest newspaper in Norway, Aftenposten . On the other hand, Høgnorsk (High Norwegian)

3588-486: The discovery of Vinland . To an extent, the legacy of Snorri Sturluson also played a role in politics long after his death. His writings could be used in support of the claims of later Norwegian kings concerning the venerability and extent of their rule. Later, Heimskringla factored in establishing a national identity during the Norwegian romantic nationalism in mid-19th century. Icelandic perception of Snorri in

3666-435: The eve of battle he dismissed those forces and offered terms to his brother. Sighvatur and Sturla drove Snorri into the countryside with a force of 1000 men, where he sought refuge among other goðar. Órækja undertook guerrilla operations in the fjords of western Iceland and fighting carried on. Haakon IV made an effort to intervene from afar, inviting all of Iceland's cheiftains to a peace conference in Norway. This maneuver

3744-534: The giant Hymir (90.20), and the legendary Dane Ubbi (90.19)". North Germanic language Continental Scandinavian languages: Insular Nordic languages: The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages —a sub-family of the Indo-European languages —along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages . The language group

3822-436: The history of linguistics, since it systematically used the technique of minimal pairs to establish the inventory of distinctive sounds or phonemes in the Icelandic language, in a manner reminiscent of the methods of structural linguistics . It is also notable for revealing the existence of a whole series of nasal vowel phonemes, whose presence in the Icelandic language of the time would otherwise be unknown. The Treatise

3900-523: The king and questions of loyalty but he nevertheless managed to build up the Norwegian state from what it had been. When Snorri arrived in Norway for the second time, it was clear to the king that he was no longer a reliable agent. The conflict between Haakon and Skúli was beginning to escalate into civil war. Snorri stayed with the jarl and his son, and the jarl gave him the jarl title, hoping to command his allegiance. In August 1238, Sighvatur and four of his sons (Sturla, Markús, Kolbeinn, and Þórður Krókur,

3978-695: The language group. According to a study undertaken during 2002–2005 and funded by the Nordic Cultural Fund, Swedish speakers in Stockholm and Danish speakers in Copenhagen have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Nordic languages. The study, which focused mainly on native speakers under the age of 25, showed that the lowest ability to comprehend another language is demonstrated by youth in Stockholm in regard to Danish, producing

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4056-453: The language, so the differences between spoken Norwegian and spoken Danish are somewhat more significant than the difference between their respective written forms. Written Danish is relatively close to the other Continental Scandinavian languages, but the sound developments of spoken Danish include reduction and assimilation of consonants and vowels, as well as the prosodic feature called stød in Danish, developments which have not occurred in

4134-630: The languages between different parts of the three language areas. Sweden left the Kalmar Union in 1523 due to conflicts with Denmark, leaving two Scandinavian units: The union of Denmark–Norway (ruled from Copenhagen, Denmark) and Sweden (including present-day Finland). The two countries took different sides during several wars until 1814, when the Denmark-Norway unit was disestablished, and made different international contacts. This led to different borrowings from foreign languages (Sweden had

4212-502: The languages has doubled during the last 30 years and is now 1.2%. Icelandic has imported fewer English words than the other North Germanic languages, despite the fact that it is the country that uses English most. The mutual intelligibility between the Continental Scandinavian languages is asymmetrical. Various studies have shown Norwegian speakers to be the best in Scandinavia at understanding other languages within

4290-517: The latter two executed after the battle), were killed at the Battle of Örlygsstaðir in Iceland against Gissur Þorvaldsson and Kolbein the Young, chiefs whom they had provoked. Snorri, Órækja, and Þorleifur requested permission to return home. As the king now could not predict Snorri's behavior, permission was denied. He was explicitly ordered to remain in Norway on the basis of his honorary rank. Skúli on

4368-431: The lowest ability score in the survey. The greatest variation in results between participants within the same country was also demonstrated by the Swedish speakers in the study. Participants from Malmö , located in the southernmost Swedish province of Scania (Skåne), demonstrated a better understanding of Danish than Swedish speakers to the north. Access to Danish television and radio, direct trains to Copenhagen over

4446-589: The most separated ones not. The Jamtlandic dialects share many characteristics with both Trøndersk and with Norrländska mål. Due to this ambiguous position, it is contested whether Jamtlandic belongs to the West Scandinavian or the East Scandinavian group. Elfdalian (Älvdalen speech), generally considered a Sveamål dialect, today has an official orthography and is, because of a lack of mutual intelligibility with Swedish , considered as

4524-406: The necessity to confront Skúli, who declared himself king in 1239. Skúli was defeated militarily and killed in 1240. Meanwhile, Snorri resumed his chieftainship and made a bid to crush Gissur by prosecuting him in court for the deaths of his brother Sighvatr and nephew Sturla. After the jarl's defeat, Haakon sent two agents to Gissur bearing a secret letter with orders to kill or capture Snorri. Gissur

4602-533: The non-Germanic Finnish is spoken by the majority in Finland. In inter-Nordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions: Finnish, Icelandic, and one of the three languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Another official language in the Nordic countries is Greenlandic (in the Eskimo–Aleut family ), the sole official language of Greenland . In Southern Jutland in southwestern Denmark, German

4680-411: The other hand gave permission and helped them book passage. Snorri must have had his own ideas about the king's position and the validity of his orders, but at any rate he chose to disobey them; his words according to Sturlunga saga , 'út vil ek' (literally 'out want I', but idiomatically 'I will go home'), have become proverbial in Icelandic. He returned to Iceland in 1239. The king was distracted by

4758-518: The other hand, the word begynde 'begin' (now written begynne in Norwegian Bokmål) was borrowed into Danish and Norwegian, whereas native börja was kept in Swedish. Even though standard Swedish and Danish were moving apart, the dialects were not influenced that much. Thus Norwegian and Swedish remained similar in pronunciation, and words like børja were able to survive in some of the Norwegian dialects whereas vindöga survived in some of

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4836-544: The other languages (though the stød corresponds to the changes in pitch in Norwegian and Swedish, which are pitch-accent languages ). Scandinavians are widely expected to understand some of the other spoken Scandinavian languages. There may be some difficulty particularly with elderly dialect speakers, however public radio and television presenters are often well understood by speakers of the other Scandinavian countries, although there are various regional differences of mutual intelligibility for understanding mainstream dialects of

4914-452: The peoples inhabiting North Europe during periods for which relevant information is scarce: thus, for example, he can be used to illuminate relations between England and Scandinavia during the 10th and 11th centuries. Snorri is considered a figure of enduring importance in this regard, Halvdan Koht describing his work as "surpassing anything else that the Middle Ages have left us of historical literature". He also provided an early account of

4992-401: The period of Hanseatic expansion . Another way of classifying the languages – focusing on mutual intelligibility rather than the tree-of-life model – posits Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish as Continental Scandinavian , and Faroese and Icelandic as Insular Scandinavian . Because of the long political union between Norway and Denmark, moderate and conservative Norwegian Bokmål share most of

5070-574: The summer of 1219, he met his Swedish colleague, the lawspeaker Eskil Magnusson , and his wife, Kristina Nilsdotter Blake , in Skara . They were both related to royalty and probably gave Snorri an insight into the history of Sweden . Snorri was mainly interested in history and culture. The Norwegian regents, however, cultivated Snorri, made him a skutilsvein , a senior title roughly equivalent to knight , and received an oath of loyalty. The king hoped to extend his realm to Iceland, which he could do by

5148-512: The use of the Latin terms "capitulum" and "vers", as well as a quotation from Cato's Distichs , suggests he received a Latin education. However, he was also well-versed and familiar with Norse skaldic poetic verse, making him "one of that line of students of poetics, whose greatest representative from Iceland was to be Snorri Sturluson ." This can be seen in the illustrative sentences used in demonstrating minimal pairs, which contain allusions to "the giantess Þórgerð Hǫlgabrúð (90.20), Thor and

5226-533: The year before Snorri married Hallveig. A period of clan feuding followed. Snorri raised an armed party under his nephew Böðvar Þórðarson, and another under his son Órækja, with the intent of executing a first strike against his brother Sighvatur and Sturla Sighvatsson. It is possible that Snorri perceived that only resolute, saga -like actions could achieve his objective, but if so he proved unwilling or incapable of carrying them out. Alternatively, he might have done this as military posturing or performance of power. On

5304-557: The years 1224–1230. Many of the other chiefs found his position as royal office-holder contrary to their interests, especially the other Sturlungar . Snorri's strategy seems to have been to consolidate power over them, at which point he could offer Iceland to the king. His first moves were civic. On the death in 1222 of Sæmundur, son of Jón Loftsson, he became a suitor for the hand of his daughter, Sólveig . Herdís' silent vote did nothing for his suit. His nephew, Sturla Sighvatsson, Snorri's political opponent, stepped in to marry her in 1223,

5382-511: Was 10.0: Faroese speakers (of the Insular Scandinavian languages group) are even better than the Norwegians at comprehending two or more languages within the Continental Scandinavian languages group, scoring high in both Danish (which they study at school) and Norwegian and having the highest score on a Scandinavian language other than their native language, as well as the highest average score. Icelandic speakers, in contrast, have

5460-428: Was being invited now to join the unionist movement. A meeting at the Althing was arranged for the summer of 1241 but Gissur and Kolbein arrived with several hundred men. Snorri and 120 men formed around a church. Gissur chose to pay fines rather than to attack. Hallveig died of natural causes. When the family bickered over the inheritance, Hallveig's sons, Klaeing and Orm, asked assistance from their uncle Gissur. Holding

5538-400: Was deserted by Snorri on the battlefield in a flare-up over the chain of command. In 1237, Snorri thought it best to travel to Norway and join the king. The reign of Haakon IV (Hákon Hákonarson), King of Norway , was troubled by civil war relating to questions of succession and was at various times divided into quasi-independent regions under rival contenders. There were always plots against

5616-424: Was educated by Sæmundr fróði , grandfather of Jón Loftsson, at Oddi, and never returned to his parents' home. His father died in 1183 and his mother, as his guardian, soon squandered Snorri's share of the inheritance. Jón Loftsson died in 1197. The two families then arranged a marriage in 1199 between Snorri and Herdís, the daughter of Bersi Vermundarson. From her father, Snorri inherited an estate at Borg, as well as

5694-632: Was given the option of surrender. He fled to the cellar. There, Símon knútur asked Arni the Bitter to strike him. Then Snorri said: Eigi skal höggva! —"Do not strike!" Símon answered: "Högg þú!" — "You strike now!" Snorri replied: Eigi skal höggva! —"Do not strike!" and these were his last words. This act was not popular in either Iceland or Norway. To diminish the odium, the king insisted that if Snorri had submitted, he would have been spared. The fact that he could make such an argument reveals how far his influence in Iceland had come. Haakon went on suborning

5772-410: Was known as Snorralaug  [ is ] , and the buildings have been preserved to some extent. During his initial years at Reykholt he fathered another five children, with three different women: Guðrún Hreinsdóttir, Oddný, and Þuríður Hallsdóttir. Snorri quickly became known as a poet, and also functioned as a lawyer. In 1215, he became lawspeaker of the Althing , the only public office of

5850-596: Was made for shorter carvings on wood or stone. (Other writings in the Latin alphabet presumably existed in the form of law books and Christian writings. The educated clergy of the time would not have used runes.) This alphabet included þ (derived straight from the runes), as well as diacritic indication of vowel length , and an o with an ogonek . The First Grammarian's entire system was never adopted, as evidenced in later manuscripts, in some cases not much younger, but it has had an influence on Icelandic writing ever since (see above). See Icelandic orthography . The author of

5928-488: Was raised from the age of three or four by Jón Loftsson , a relative of the Norwegian royal family, in Oddi , Iceland. Key to his political and cultural education was his fosterage at Oddi, which resulted from a settlement regarding his father's legal dealings. As Hvamm-Sturla was trying to settle a lawsuit with the priest and chieftain ( Goðorðsmaðr ) Páll Sölvason, Páll's wife Þorbjörg Bjarnardóttir lunged suddenly at him with

6006-544: Was the administrative language of Holstein and the Duchy of Schleswig . Sami languages form an unrelated group that has coexisted with the North Germanic language group in Scandinavia since prehistory. Sami, like Finnish , is part of the group of the Uralic languages . During centuries of interaction, Finnish and Sami have imported many more loanwords from North Germanic languages than vice versa. In historical linguistics,

6084-507: Was transparent to Sighvatur, who suspected, as apparently Snorri did not, that the king was planning a maneuver against the goðar in Norway. Instead of killing his opponents he began to insist that they take the king up on his offer. Órækja's fate was capture by his cousin Sturla during an ostensible peace negotiation at Reykjaholt. Þorleifur Þórðarson, a cousin of Snorri's, was also captured. Þorleifur had come to his assistance with 800 men, but

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