Edda
This page refers to the Eddas, narrated folk-tales of Norse Mythology. For Edda, the ancestress of serfs in the Rígsthula, see Ríg. For the Hungarian rock group, see Edda művek.The
Edda are collections of poetically narrated folk-tales relating to
Norse Mythology or Norse heroes. These are fragmentary parts of a (presumably) much larger
skaldic tradition of oral narration which has been written down by scholars prior to the tales being lost absolutely.
There are a number of theories concerning the origins of the word
edda. One theory holds that it is identical to the word that seems to mean "great-grandmother". (See
Ríg.) Another theory holds that edda means "
poetics". A third is that it means "the book of Oddi",
Oddi being the place where
Snorri Sturluson was educated.
The
Poetic Edda, also known as Sæmundar Edda or the Elder Edda, is a collection of
Old Norse poems from the
Icelandic mediaeval
manuscript Codex Regius. Along with
Snorri's Edda the Poetic Edda is the most important source we have on
Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.
Codex Regius was written in the
13th century but nothing is known of its whereabouts until
1643 when it came into the possession of
Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then Bishop of
Skálholt. At that time versions of
Snorri's Edda were well known in Iceland but scholars speculated that there once was another Edda - an
Elder Edda - which contained the
pagan poems Snorri quotes in his book. When Codex Regius was discovered it seemed that this speculation had proven correct. Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to
Sæmundr the Learned, a larger-than-life
12th century Icelandic priest. While this attribution is rejected by modern scholars the name
Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes encountered.
Bishop Brynjólfur sent Codex Regius as a present to the Danish king, hence the name. For centuries it was stored in the
Royal Library in
Copenhagen but in
1971 it was returned to Iceland.
The Younger Edda, known also as the Prose Edda or Snorri's Edda is an
Icelandic manual of poetics which also contains many mythological stories. Its purpose was to enable
Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of
alliterative verse, and to grasp the meaning behind the many
kennings that were used in
skaldic poetry.
It was written by the Icelandic scholar and historian
Snorri Sturluson around
1220. It survives in seven main manuscripts, written from about 1300 to about 1600.
The Prose Edda consists of a Prologue and three separate books: the
Gylfaginning (c 20 000 words), the
Skáldskaparmál (c 50 000 words) and the
Háttatal (c 20 000 words).
*
The Elder Eddas and Younger Eddas, Eng. trans. by I. A. Blackwell, 1906
(a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format)*
Prose Edda in Old Norse*
Prose Edda in English*
Poetic Edda in Old Norse*
Poetic Edda in English
