"Edda" (;
Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an
Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two
Medieval Iceland
The recorded history of Iceland began with the settlement by Viking explorers and the people they enslaved from the east, particularly Norway and the British Isles, in the late ninth century. Iceland was still uninhabited long after the rest ...
ic literary works: what is now known as the ''
Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poems without an original title now known as the ''
Poetic Edda''. The term historically referred only to the ''Prose Edda'', but this has fallen out of use because of the confusion with the other work. Both works were written down in
Iceland during the 13th century in
Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the
Viking Age. The books are the main sources of medieval
skald
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionally ...
ic tradition in
Iceland and
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
.
Etymology
At least five hypotheses have been suggested for the origins of the word ''edda'':
* One hypothesis holds that it is identical to a word that means "great-grandmother" appearing in the Eddic poem ''Rígsþula.''
* Another hypothesis holds that ''edda'' derives from Old Norse ''óðr'', "poetry".
* A third, proposed in 1895 by
Eiríkr Magnússon, is that it derives from the Icelandic place name ''
Oddi'', site of the church and school where students, including
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...
, were educated.
* A fourth hypothesis—the derivation of the word ''Edda'' as the name of Snorri Sturluson's treatise on poetry from the Latin ''edo'', "I compose (poetry)", by analogy with ''kredda'', "superstition", from Latin ''credo'', "creed"—is now widely accepted, although this acceptance might stem from its agreement with modern usage rather than historical accuracy.
[''Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages'' (2010) under "Snorri Sturluson"]
* The fifth hypothesis is based on the past fashion of giving Icelandic manuscripts bird titles. Such are the legal codes ''Grágás'' 'grey goose', ''Gullfjǫðr'' 'gold feather (quill?)', and ''Hryggjar-stykki'' 'a kind of duck'. Perhaps ''Edda'' was also one of such titles: ''Edda'' would be an appropriate 'pet name' of ''æðr'' (pronounced as
:ðrf.) 'eider duck'. Then, ''Edda'' meant 'little eider duck' (an analog of ''Grágás'').
[Liberman, Anatoly (2016). "The Origin of the Name Edda", in Anatoly Liberman, ''In Prayer and Laughter. Essays on Medieval Scandinavian and Germanic Mythology, Literature, and Culture''. Paleograph Press. .]
The ''Poetic Edda''
The ''Poetic Edda'', also known as ''Sæmundar Edda'' or the ''Elder Edda'', is a collection of
Old Norse poems from the
Icelandic medieval
manuscript Codex Regius ("Royal Book"). Along with the ''
Prose Edda'', the ''Poetic Edda'' is the most expansive source on Norse mythology. The first part of the Codex Regius preserves poems that narrate the creation and foretold destruction and rebirth of the Old Norse mythological world as well as individual myths about gods concerning
Norse deities
In Germanic paganism, the indigenous religion of the ancient Germanic peoples who inhabited Germanic Europe, there were a number of different gods and goddesses. Germanic deities are attested from numerous sources, including works of literature ...
. The poems in the second part narrate legends about
Norse heroes and heroines, such as
Sigurd,
Brynhildr and
Gunnar
Gunnar is a male first name of Nordic origin (''Gunnarr'' in Old Norse). The name Gunnar means fighter, soldier, and attacker, but mostly is referred to by the Viking saying which means Brave and Bold warrior (''gunnr'' "war" and ''arr'' "warrior ...
.
It consists of two parts. The first part has 10 songs about gods, and the second one has 19 songs about heroes.
The 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 the
Church of Iceland's Bishop of
Skálholt. At that time, versions of the ''
Prose Edda'' were well known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was another ''Edda''—an ''Elder Edda''—which contained the
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
poems Snorri quotes in his book. When the 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 the ''Codex Regius'' as a present to King Christian IV of Denmark, hence the name ''Codex Regius''. For centuries it was stored in the Royal Library, Copenhagen, Royal Library in Copenhagen but in 1971 it was returned to Iceland.
The ''Prose Edda''
The ''Prose Edda'', sometimes referred to as the ''Younger 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 mythological allusions behind the many kennings that were used in skaldic poetry.
It was written by the Icelandic scholar and historian
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...
around 1220. It survives in four known manuscripts and three fragments, written down from about 1300 to about 1600.
The ''Prose Edda'' consists of a Prologue (Prose Edda), Prologue and three separate books: ''Gylfaginning'', concerning the Norse cosmology#Cosmogony, creation and Ragnarök, foretold destruction and rebirth of the Norse mythical world; ''Skáldskaparmál'', a dialogue between Ægir, a Norse god connected with the sea, and Bragi, the
skald
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionally ...
ic god of poetry; and ''Háttatal'', a demonstration of verse forms used in Norse mythology.
See also
* ''Gesta Danorum''
* ''Heimskringla''
* Laufás-Edda
* Saga
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Old Norse literature
Sources of Norse mythology
