Snorri Sturluson and the Edda. The Conversion of Cultural Capital in Medieval Scandinavia (review)

This book sets out to explain the apparent dichotomy between Snorri's turbulent and calculating political career and the sensitivity and subtlety of Snorra Edda. In his first chapter, Wanner argues that modern scholars have re-created Snorri in their own image as a detached seeker after truth, and that the supposed contradiction can be resolved by applying the ideas of the French theorist Pierre Bourdieu on the exchange of economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital. Each of these terms is explained, as are Bourdieu's 'field' (the social context within which exchanges of 'capital' take place), 'social space' (struggles whose outcomes depend on the perceived value of one form of 'capital' compared with another), and 'habitus' (which is less clear, but seems to involve the degree to which potential 'capital' is realized in practice). Wanner's view is that Snorri sought, for his own political and financial benefit, to maintain the value of skaldic poetry in the eyes of the Norwegian court, and especially those of the young King Hákon Hákonarson, at a time when its status was being increasingly threatened. This seems thoroughly sensible, but hardly needed Bourdieu's rather ponderous theoretical framework, and Wanner's view (pp. 8–9) that that framework frees the scholar from subjective modern assumptions seems mistaken, since it makes assumptions of its own, notably that all human social behavior is motivated by desire for gain, and that there is no such thing as altruistic behavior, so that such things as protection, feasts, gifts, and charity are defined as 'symbolic violence' (p. 34). This assumption works well for the selfish and violent Sturlung Age, but less well for interventions such as Jón Loptsson's fostering of the child Snorri.

Chapter 2 gives a concise account of Snorri's public and personal life and argues that Snorra Edda, Heimskringla, and Egils saga are probably all by him (though one argument for this, that it accords with Wanner's view of the congruence between Snorri's public life and the intended impact of the written works, seems in danger of becoming circular). Chapter 3 surveys the rising power of the stórhǫfðingjar in Snorri's lifetime and draws an effective contrast between him and his father, noting that Sturla constantly sought reputation and cultural recognition, even at the expense of wealth and immediate power, whereas Snorri, though brought up to a cultural recognition that his father lacked, was marginal in both his birth- and foster-families and therefore pursued wealth and secure political status. Chapter 4 switches to Snorri's use of skaldic verse, whose form is usefully described (pp. 60–61), though Wanner uses the term 'rhyme' without distinction between skothending and aðalhending. He also avoids the term fornafn when describing poetic diction (because it is not used in manuscript U and is, uniquely among Snorri's poetic terms, a calque on the Latin pronominatio). This is unfortunate, since its use probably reflects Snorri's final view, and the distinction between referring to an attribute (fornafn) and using a metaphor (kenning) would have been useful, especially in Wanner's appendix, which summarizes the poetic diction of Háttatal. However, Wanner demonstrates well that the 'second rank' Norwegian nobles for whom Snorri composed all rewarded him for his poetic praise of them, whereas the kings all seem to have ignored it. This leads to an interesting account in Chapter 5 of how the status of skaldic verse was being diminished by written history, competition from other forms of literary entertainment, and a new situation in which Norwegian kings derived their authority primarily from religious consecration rather than from their own personal reputation.

Chapter 6 discusses Háttatal, which Wanner, accepting the arguments of Wessén, regards as the earliest part of Snorra Edda. He demonstrates effectively that its first section, dedicated to King Hákon, seems designed for beginners in the appreciation...