Bill Macrae Interviewed by Julie Macrae about Snorre Books
Julie Macrae Speaking: "So Bill Macrae, I was wondering if you can tell me, "what are the Snorre books?":
Bill Macrae speaking: "The only book I read was the one called the "Heimskrimla" and it's the story of the Norse Kings. It traces the ancestry of the Norse Kings from the legendary Oden who moved from what we think of as Southern Russia around about the time of the Roman expansion and he moved North and occupied Sweden. The book reads much like the Bible with long lists of descendents of Oden and then… round about the 8th century the book…concentrates on the Kings of Norway…heavy reading; interesting story
I like the best about a man before he was King, Olaf Trigerson,…a Viking and he did some raids in Ireland and gathered a crowd of cattle which . Cattle that he basically stole from the local people and one of the owners came and wanted his cattle back and he sent his…..collie dog went in and picked out all the right cows and Olaf was impressed with this and …bought the dog for a gold ring and…dog was a faithful companion ….all life even when he became King of Norway..
King Olaf who later became a saint…he Christianized Norway long before Denmark or Sweden…and he's well respected in the rest of Europe and in England especially because he .defended against the Danes, who were Norway's enemies at the time and the Swedes….
He would execute anybody who did not become a Christian…
Snorre Sturleson was an Icelandic writer and in Iceland they were able to concentrate on education and literature because of their isolation from Norway and the rest of Europe….they had plenty of time to do this on their own and a lot of really educated people came out of Iceland and Iceland is still regarded as having a center of education and learning
There are some enjoyable passages in it, but the book is mainly long accounts of one battle after another….how this King ki.but that is how Kings did things in those days…and how they did fighting ….. the ordinary person…to cultivate fields, work the iron, cut the stones for buildings, bake bread, look after animals….They had to pay a portion to the kings and left them alone and Kings went to do their raiding.
Ralph the Ganger, Ganger is a word in the English language, especially in Scottish, meaning to walk and this Ralph the ganger was so big and fat and heavy there was no horse around to carry him but the ships could carry him so he did a lot of raiding on ships…..big and…. Did a lot of raiding on ships and one day accidentally raided an area that was …banished by the King…. Landed in France…..what we call Normandy, and that is why it is called Normandy, because a Norwegian, Ralph the Ganger, arrived there…… One of his descendants was William the Conquerer but by that time he did not speak Norwegian ….he spoke French..."
