Who was snorri?

Snorri Sturlson was an Icelandic poet and politician who wrote the Prose Edda (a collection of Norse mythology) and the Heimskringla (a history of the founding of Northern civilization and legends of heroes) around 1200 AD. Though he was a Christian, he recorded the pagan mythology that was quickly disappearing from Scandinavia--thankfully for us, because the manuscripts he used to write his accounts are no longer in existence. He was assassinated by his son-in-law in 1241.