Narrative
The Prose Edda
Edda
Snorri Sturluson · 1220
Synopsis
The Swedish king Gylfi, who wants to learn the secret of the Æsir's power, goes to them under the name of Gangleri. Three figures seated on thrones, High, Just-As-High and Third, answer his questions: the primordial void, the world drawn from the body of the giant Ymir, the tree Yggdrasil, Odin, Thor, Baldr and Loki, their adventures and their quarrels, up to Ragnarök. The god Bragi then explains to Ægir the myths that account for the language of the poets, and a final poem illustrates each metre with a stanza.
Context
The book was composed as a manual for poets: it was meant to help in understanding skaldic poetry and its periphrases, the kennings. It comprises a prologue and three parts: mythology, a dialogue between the sea god Ægir and the god of poetry Bragi, in which long extracts from ancient poems are quoted, and a poem of praise for Hákon, king of Norway, and his jarl Skúli, each stanza of which illustrates a metrical form. It survives in seven manuscripts copied between about 1300 and 1600, four of them main ones, none complete, and the attribution to Snorri, which is debated, rests mainly on a note in the Codex Upsaliensis.
Who it is for
A manual of poetry in three parts, the first of which sets out the mythology; the French translation of 1991 gives its mythological narratives, the most accessible part.
Prizes and reception
Long little known outside Iceland, the book reached learned Europe after its 1665 edition, the Edda Islandorum.