The Prose Edda

The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been to some extent written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson 1220. It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Norse mythology, the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples, and draws from a wide variety of sources, including versions of poems that survive into today in a collection known as the ''Poetic Edda''.

The ''Prose Edda'' consists of four sections: The Prologue, a euhemerized account of the Norse gods; ''Gylfaginning'', which provides a question and answer format that details aspects of Norse mythology (consisting of approximately 20,000 words), ''Skáldskaparmál'', which continues this format before providing lists of kennings and ''heiti'' (approximately 50,000 words); and '' Háttatal'', which discusses the composition of traditional skaldic poetry (approximately 20,000 words).

Dating from 1300 to 1600, seven manuscripts of the ''Prose Edda'' differ from one another in notable ways, which provides researchers with independent textual value for analysis. The ''Prose Edda'' appears to have functioned similarly to a contemporary textbook, with the goal of assisting Icelandic poets and readers in understanding the subtleties of alliterative verse, and to grasp the meaning behind the many kennings used in skaldic poetry.

Originally known to scholars simply as ''Edda'', the ''Prose Edda'' gained its contemporary name in order to differentiate it from the ''Poetic Edda''. Early scholars of the ''Prose Edda'' suspected that there once existed a collection of entire poems, a theory confirmed with the rediscovery of manuscripts of the ''Poetic Edda''.Faulkes (1982: XI).

Naming

The etymology of "Edda" remains uncertain; there are many hypotheses about its meaning and developing, yet little agreement. Some argue that the word derives from the name of Oddi, a town in the south of Iceland where Snorri was raised. Edda could therefore mean "book of Oddi." However, this assumption is generally rejected. Anthony Faulkes in his English translation of the Prose Edda comments that this is "unlikely, both in terms of linguistics and history"Faulkes (1982). since Snorri was no longer living at Oddi when he composed his work.

Another connection was made with the word ''óðr'', which means 'poetry or inspiration' in Old Norse. According to Faulkes, though such a connection is plausible semantically, it is unlikely that "Edda" could have been coined in the 13th century on the basis of "óðr", because such a development "would have had to have taken place gradually", and ''Edda'' in the sense of 'poetics' is not likely to have existed in the preliterary period.Faulkes (1977: 32-39).

Edda also means 'great-grandparent', a word that appears in ''Skáldskaparmál'', which occurs as the name of a figure in the eddic poem '' Rigsthula'' and in other medieval texts.

A final hypothesis is derived from the Latin ''edo'', meaning "I write". It relies on the fact that the word ''"kredda"'' (meaning "belief") is certified and comes from the Latin ''"credo"'', meaning 'I believe'. ''Edda'' in this case could be translated as "Poetic Art". This is the meaning that the word was then given in the medieval period.

The now uncommonly used name ''Sæmundar Edda'' was given by the Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson to the collection of poems contained in the Codex Regius, many of which are quoted by Snorri. Brynjólfur, along with many others of his time incorrectly believed that they were collected by Sæmundr fróðiGísli (1999: xiii). (therefore before the drafting of the Edda of Snorri), and so the Poetic Edda is also known as the Elder Edda.

Manuscripts

Seven manuscripts of the ''Prose Edda'' have survived into the present day: Six copies from the medieval period and another dating to the 1600s. No one manuscript is complete, and each has variations. In addition to three fragments, the four main manuscripts are Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus, Codex Trajectinus, and the Codex Upsaliensis:Wanner (2008: 97).

The other three manuscripts are AM 748; AM 757 a 4to; and AM 738 II 4to, AM le ß fol. Although some scholars have doubted whether a sound stemma of the manuscripts can be created, due to the possibility of scribes drawing on multiple exemplars or from memory, recent work has found that the main sources of each manuscript can be fairly readily ascertained.Haukur (2017:49–70). The ''Prose Edda remained fairly unknown outside of Iceland until the publication of the ''Edda Islandorum'' in 1665.Gylfi (2019: 73-86).

Authorship

The text is often assumed to have been written or at least compiled to some extent by Snorri Sturluson. This identification is largely based on the following paragraph from a portion of Codex Upsaliensis, an early 14th-century manuscript containing the ''Edda'':

Scholars have noted that this attribution, along with that of other primary manuscripts, is not clear whether or not Snorri is more than the compiler of the work and the author of ''Háttatal'' or if he is the author of the entire ''Edda''.Byock (2006: XII). Faulkes summarizes the matter of scholarly discourse around the authorship of the ''Prose Edda'' as follows:
:Snorri’s authorship of the Prose Edda was upheld by the renaissance scholar Arngrímur Jónsson (1568–1648), and since his time it has generally been accepted without question. But the surviving manuscripts, which were all written more than half a century after Snorri’s death, differ from each other considerably and it is not likely that any of them preserves the work quite as he wrote it. A number of passages in Skáldskaparmál especially have been thought to be interpolations, and this section of the work has clearly been subject to various kinds of revision in most manuscripts. It has also been argued that the prologue and the first paragraph and part of the last paragraph of Gylfaginning are not by Snorri, at least in their surviving forms.Faulkes (2005: XIV).

Whatever the case, the mention of Snorri in the manuscripts has been influential in a common acceptance of Snorri as the author or at least one of the authors of the ''Edda''.

Contents

Prologue

The Prologue is the first section of four books of the ''Prose Edda'', consisting of a euhemerized Christian account of the origins of Norse mythology: the Nordic gods are described as human Trojan warriors who left Troy after the fall of that city (an origin which parallels Virgil's ''Aeneid''). According to the ''Prose Edda'', these warriors settled in northern Europe, where they were accepted as divine kings because of their superior culture and technology. Remembrance ceremonies later conducted at their burial sites degenerated into heathen cults, turning them into gods.

''Gylfaginning''

''Gylfaginning'' (Old Icelandic 'the tricking of Gylfi')Faulkes (1982: 7). follows the Prologue in the ''Prose Edda''. ''Gylfaginning'' deals with the creation and destruction of the world of the Nordic gods, and many other aspects of Norse mythology. The section is written in prose interspersed with quotes from eddic poetry.

''Skáldskaparmál''

''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Icelandic 'the language of poetry'Faulkes (1982: 59).) is the third section of ''Edda'', and consists of a dialogue between Ægir, a jötunn who is one of various personifications of the sea, and Bragi, a skaldic god, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined. The origin of a number of kennings are given and Bragi then delivers a systematic list of kennings for various people, places, and things. Bragi then goes on to discuss poetic language in some detail, in particular ''heiti'', the concept of poetical words which are non-periphrastic, for example "steed" for "horse", and again systematises these. This section contains numerous quotes from skaldic poetry.

''Háttatal''

''Háttatal'' (Old Icelandic "list of verse-forms"Faulkes (1982: 165).) is the last section of ''Prose Edda''. The section is composed by the Icelandic poet, politician, and historian Snorri Sturluson. Primarily using his own compositions, it exemplifies the types of verse forms used in Old Norse poetry. Snorri took a prescriptive as well as descriptive approach; he has systematized the material, often noting that the older poets did not always follow his rules.

Translations

The ''Prose Edda'' has been the subject of numerous translations:

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Editions

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See also

* Edda
* Saga
* ''Heimskringla''

Notes

References

*Faulkes, Anthony. 1977. "Edda", ''Gripla'' II, Reykjavík
Online
Last accessed August 12, 2020.
*Faulkes, Anthony. Trans. 1982. ''Edda''. Oxford University Press.
*Faulkes, Anthony. 2005. ''Edda'': Prologue and ''Gylfaginning''. Viking Society for Northern Research
Online
Last accessed August 12, 2020.
*Gísli Sigurðsson. 1999. "''Eddukvæði''". ''Mál og menning''. .
*Gylfi Gunnlaugsson. 2019. "Norse Myths, Nordic Identities: The Divergent Case of Icelandic Romanticism" in Simon Halik (editor). ''Northern Myths, Modern Identities'', 73–86. ISBN 9789004398436_006
*Haukur Þorgeirsson. 2017. "A Stemmic Analysis of the 'Prose Edda'". ''Saga-Book'', 41
Online
Last accessed August 12, 2020.
*Ross, Margaret Clunies. 2011. ''A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics''. DS Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-279-8
*Wanner, Kevin J. 2008. ''Snorri Sturluson and the Edda: The Conversion of Cultural Capital in Medieval Scandinavia''. University of Toronto Press.

External links

* Hopkins, Joseph S. 2019.
Edda to English: A Survey of English Language Translations of the ''Prose Edda''
at Mimisbrunnr.info
* (plain text, HTML and other)
* Langeslag, Paul Sander. ''Undated''
"Old Norse editions"
at Septentrionalia.net

{{Authority control

1220s books
Icelandic literature
Medieval literature
Old Norse literature
Old Norse prose
Scandinavian folklore
Sources of Norse mythology
Works by Snorri Sturluson