( xxii )
The first collection being apparently too voluminous, and in many respects obscure, and not sufficiently adapted to common use, the young poets would naturally wish that some body would extract from the materials there collected, a course of Poetic Mythology, more easy and intelligible. Accordingly, about 120 years afterwards, another learned Icelander engaged in this task: This was the famous Snorro Sturleson, born in the year 1179, of one of the most illustrious families in his country, where he twice held the dignity of first magistrate, having been the supreme judge of Iceland in the years 1215 and 1222. He was also employed in many important negotiations with the King of Norway, who incessantly strove to subdue that island, as being the refuge of their malcontent subjects. Snorro, whose genius was not merely confined to letters, met at last with a very violent end. He was assassinated in the night that he entered into his 62d year, anno 1241[1],
- ↑ Vid. Peringskiold in Præfat. ad Hiemskringla Saga, &c. Since I first wrote this, it hath been observed to me, that the second part of the Edda mentions the Kings of Norway who have lived down to the year 1270, and consequently who outlived Snorro near thirty years; whence it is inferred, that this must have been the work of a later hand. Nevertheless, as tradition and universal
