654 
STURLESON. 
Quinebaug, and the turnpike from Worcester to Hertford 
passes through the town. Population 1927; 58 miles south¬ 
west of Boston. 
STU’RDILY, adv. Stoutly; hardily.—Obstinately; re¬ 
solutely. 
Then withdraw 
From Cambridge, thy old nurse: and, as the rest. 
Here toughly chew and sturdily digest 
Th’ immense vast volumes of our common law. Donne. 
STU'RDINF.SS, s. Stoutness; hardness.—Sacrifice not 
his innocency to the attaining some little skill of bustling for 
himself, by his conversation with vicious boys, when the 
chief use of that sturdiness, and standing upon his own legs, 
is only for the preservation of his virtue. Locke. —Brutal 
strength. 
STU'RDY, adj. [estourdi , Fr. Johnson. —From the 
Icel. styrd, rigidus. Screnius. Or from stuer, Teut. torvus, 
trux, horridus, ferox; dicitur stuer q. d. stier, i. e. taurus. 
Kilian. “ By the accustomed addition of 13 , or y, to stour, 
or fCup (tumult), we have sturdy, and the Fr. estourdi." 
//. Tooke. ] Hardy; stout; obstinate.—It is always used of 
men with some disagreeable idea of coarseness or rudeness. 
Aw’d by that house accustom’d to command, 
The sturdy kerns in due subjection stand, 
Nor bear the reins in any foreign hand. Dryden. 
The ill-apparelled knight now had gotten the reputation 
of some sturdy lout, he had so well defended himself. 
Sidney. 
Sturdiest oaks 
Bow’d their stiff’necks, loaden with stormy blasts, 
Or torn up sheer. Milton. 
STU'RGEON, s. [ sturgeon , old Fr.; sturio, tursio, 
Lat.] A sea-fish. See Accipenser Sturio. —It is part 
of the scutellated bone of a sturgeon, being flat, of a porous 
or cellular constitution on one side, the cells being worn 
down and smooth on the other. Woodward. 
STURGEON, Lake, a lake of North America, which is 
connected with Pine Island lake, by the river Saskatchiwine, 
and which also communicates with the lake Winnipic by 
means of Sturgeon Weir river. It forms an irregular horse¬ 
shoe, one side of which runs to the north-west, and bears 
the name of Pine Island lake; and the other, known by the 
name of Sturgeon lake, runs to the east of north, and is the 
largest. Its length is about 27 miles, and its greatest breadth 
about 6 miles. 
STURGEON WEIR RIVER, a river of North America, 
which discharges itself into Sturgeon lake. It is almost one 
continual rapid; and its course, including its windings, may 
be about 30 miles. 
STURK, 5. [jtypc, Sax.] A young ox or heifer. Ob¬ 
solete. 
STURLESON (Snorro), a celebrated Icelandic writer, 
styled the Herodotus of the north, was born in the district 
of Dale, in the year 1178. At three years of age he was 
put to school under the learned John Loptson, a distin¬ 
guished character at that period, with whom he remained 
till the time of his death, in 1197. Though of noble 
descent he was poor, till by marriage he so much increased 
his property, as to become the richest man in the island, 
excepting the son of his deceased preceptor. He was re¬ 
markably fond of parade; and when he went to the courts 
of justice, was usually attended with several hundred armed 
men. He possessed six large farms, and several on a smaller 
scale. After the death of his father-in-law, in 1202, he 
removed to Borg, the inheritance of his wife ; but in 
1209 he went to reside at the farm of Reikholt, in the 
improvements of which he spared neither time nor ex¬ 
pense. He surrounded his mansion and church with a very 
high rampart, to serve as a security in time of danger; and 
by means of a subterraneous channel, constructed of stone, 
conveyed water from the neighbouring warm springs of 
Skribla, to a bath, still denominated after the founder, 
Snorrolaug, which was paved with hewn stone, and bor¬ 
dered by seats of the same material. This building has 
survived the depredations of 600 years. In 1213, Snorro 
was chosen supreme judge over the whole island. About 
the same period he acquired great reputation abroad by his 
poetical talents. He composed a poem in honour of the 
powerful northern earl, Haco Galin, which he sent to him 
the same year from Iceland, and in return for the civility 
he received many valuable presents. In 1218 he proceeded 
to Norway, where he was in great favour with the king, 
Haco, and several of the nobility. Under the government 
of this sovereign, he was appointed to various offices, and 
went several times to Iceland, in order to promote his pa¬ 
tron’s views in regard to that island. It having been deter¬ 
mined to send troops thither from Norway, either for the 
purpose of conquering the country, or for obtaining satis¬ 
faction on account of some acts of violence committed by 
the inhabitants against Norwegian merchants, Snorro pre¬ 
vented this expedition, by his remonstrances to one of the 
king’s friends; but he engaged, on the other hand, with 
the assistance of his brother, to bring the island under the 
king’s authority without bloodshed, and promised to send 
his son to Norway, as a pledge of what he had undertaken. 
When Snorro set out on this mission, he received, besides 
other presents, a ship completely equipped. Having re¬ 
turned to Iceland in 1220, nothing farther was done: 
either Snorro found it impossible to carry his designs into 
execution, in consequence of disturbances which agitated the 
island, and in which he himself had a share, or he endea¬ 
voured, through a view to private advantage, to deceive 
both the king and his own countrymen. He was at enmity 
with his relations, among whom were his brother, his 
nephew, and his three sons-in-law, who had all repudiated 
their wives. Finding himself too weak to contend with 
his numerous enemies, he quitted Iceland in 1237, and went 
again to Norway, where he arrived at the moment when 
duke Skule was preparing to deprive his son-in-law, king 
Haco, of the crown, and to place himself on the throne in 
his stead. Snorro espoused the party of the duke, but 
returned to Iceland in 1239. Gissur Thorraldsen, a rela¬ 
tion of king Haco, by whom he had been raised to the rank 
of earl, was one of Snorro’s sons-in-law, but had now become 
his bitter enemy. In 1240, king Haco sent him a message, 
after he had got rid of duke Skule, either to bring Snorro 
a prisoner to Norway, or to put him to death. At first, 
Gissur intended to execute his murderous designs at the 
place where justice, as it was called, was usually adminis¬ 
tered ; but finding this inconvenient, he fell upon him at his 
residence, where he was assassinated, in the 63d year of his 
age. Snorro was unquestionably a great and learned man ; 
his “ Heimskringla, or Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings,” 
has been printed at various times, and under different forms. 
A Danish translation of it by Clausen, with Worm’s pre¬ 
face, was published at Copenhagen in 1633 and 1657. It 
was printed at Stockholm in Icelandic, Swedish, and 
Latin, in 1697, 2 vols. fob But the most elegant edition 
is saidtobethatofSchoning, published in Icelandic, Danish, 
and Latin, which was printed at Copenhagen in 1777 and 
1783. This was printed at the expence of the crown-prince: 
the Latin translation and notes were by Schoning; but the 
Danish is that of Clausen, revised by J. Olafsen. By this 
important work, which throws so much light on the earliest 
history of Norway, Snorro rendered much service to pos¬ 
terity. But his merit does not rest on this alone, since he 
is commonly considered as the author of the prose Edda, 
edited by Resenius in 1665, which is founded on those old 
poems said to have been collected by Ssemund, and on that 
account called “ Edda Sasmundi.” The Edda of Snorro 
is a poetic manual, or the Scandinavian art of poetry, 
consisting of three parts. In the first, which may be com¬ 
pared to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or Hesiod’s Theogony, 
are related all those fables contained in the works of 
Skalda. The second part is a treatise on poetical phraseo¬ 
logy or synonymy, which shews in what manner the Skalda 
gave names to different things: and the third, called Skalda, 
treats of alphabetical characters, their division, and the 
relation 
