What Snorri Means

From Old Norse snerra meaning "attack", "onslaught", "wild combat" or "hot fight".

Snorri means "someone unmanageable or unruly" or "the turbulent one".

I have been a huge Björk fan since high school and have developed a keen interest in Iceland. As you may or may not know, I am a Newfoundlander. More specifically, a Labradorian. When the Vikings discovered the new world in 1000 AD (give or take), their first settlement was at L'anse-aux-Meadows, Newfoundland. They called it Vinland. After about a year, they left the island, but during the year or so they stayed, a child was born. That child was named Snorri. As Icelandic custom dictates, his surname was Þorfinnsson after his father, Þorfinn Karlsefni (or Thorfinn), but since his father died when he was young, he was later known as Snorri Guðriðsson, after his mother Guðriðr Eiriksdottir.


A replica of a church built by Snorri in Greenland at a settlement called Brattahlíð.

He was the first child born in North America of European descent. More specifically, born in Newfoundland, of Icelandic heritage. This was documented in the Icelandic saga Grœnlendinga saga or "The Saga of the Greenlanders":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_of_the_Greenlanders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snorri_Þorfinnsson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudrid_Eiriksdottir


The Vinlanders' settlement in L'anse-aux-Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada.

I should also explain that Snorri has been my internet nick since 1996 when I first discovered online chat.
So that's where the name came from!