REYKHOLT. 
255 
of the thirteenth century, he fixed his abode, 
after retiring from the fatigues of his public 
duties, and devoted his time to the improve¬ 
ments of his farm and the composition of his 
numerous works, as well poetical as historical. 
Here, too, in the turbulency of those barbarous 
ages, he fell a victim to a midnight assassin, and 
he now lies buried in some part of the present 
churchyard, though, as the pastor assured me, the 
precise spot is not known, nor is there a vestige 
of any monument to lead to its discovery. The 
only probable conjecture to be formed is, that he 
lies in that portion of the ground which is still 
called Sturlunga-Reitur , because, to use the 
“ 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 
ie entered into his sixty-second year, anno 1241, by a faction 
“ of which he was the avowed enemy. We owe all that is 
“ rational, certain, and connected in the ancient history of 
“these vast countries, to his writings, and especially to 
“ his 4 Chronology of the Northern Kings’ There runs 
* f through this whole work so much clearness and order, 
“ such a simplicity of style, such an air of truth, and so 
“ much good sense, as ought to rank its author among the 
“ best historians of that age of ignorance and bad taste. He 
“ was also a poet, and his verses were often the entertain- 
“ ment of the courts to which he was sent. It was, doubt- 
' “ less, a love for this art which suggested to him the design 
“ of giving a new Edda , more useful to the young poets 
than that of Seemund ” 
