Heimskringla

Some of the exact sources of Heimskringla are disputed, but they include earlier kings' sagas, such as Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna and the 12th-century Norwegian synoptic histories and oral traditions, notably many skaldic poems.

[2] The earliest parchment copy of the work is Kringla, now in the National and University Library of Iceland, catalogued as Lbs fragm 82.

The saga is a prose epic, relevant to the history of not only Scandinavia but the regions included in the wider medieval Scandinavian diaspora.

The first part of the Heimskringla is rooted in Norse mythology; as the collection proceeds, fable and fact intermingle, but the accounts become increasingly historically reliable.

The first saga tells of the mythological prehistory of the Swedish and Norwegian royal dynasty, the Ynglings, tracing their lineage to Freyr (Yngve) of the Vanaland people, who arrived in Scandinavia with Odin from the legendary Asgard.

In the early 20th century, this trust was largely abandoned with the advent of saga criticism, pioneered by the Swedish historians Lauritz and Curt Weibull.

In Norway, the historian Edvard Bull famously proclaimed that "we have to give up all illusions that Snorri's mighty epic bears any deeper resemblance to what actually happened" in the time it describes.

[11] A school of historians has come to believe that the motives Snorri and the other saga writers give to their characters owe more to conditions in the 13th century than in earlier times.

[13] The text is also referenced in Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne; the work is the one Professor Liedenbrock finds Arne Saknussem's note in.