1. • The prose Edda is a treatise on versification
together with a collection of Scandinavian myths,
legends, and poems compiled by Snorri Sturluson
(1179-1241), the Icelandic historian and poet.
2. • Names -The Prose
Edda,Younger
Edda,Snorri's Edda, Edda
• Author-Snorri Sturluson
• Country-Iceland
• Language-Old Icelandic
• Year-1220
• It survives in 7 main
manuscripts, written
down from about 1300 to
about 1600.
3. The Prologue
• The Prologue is the first section of
four books of the Prose Edda, and
consists of an euhemerized
(euhemerism-the theory that gods arose
out of the deification of historical
heroes) Christian explanation of the
origins of Nordic mythology: the Nordic
gods are described as human Trojan
warriors who left Troy after the fall of
that city.
• According to the Edda, these warriors
settled in northern Europe, where they
were accepted as divine kings because
of their superior culture and technology.
4. Gylfaginning or the Tricking of Gylfi
• Consist of
around 20,000
words
• It is the first
part of The
Prose Edda
after Prologue.
5. • In Gylfaginning, Snorri Sturluson enumerates 12
gods and 13 goddesses who, together with Óðin
and his wife Frigg, make up the Norse pantheon
• The Gylfaginning deals with the creation and
destruction of the world of the Norse gods, and
many other aspects of Norse mythology.
6. • The Gylfaginning tells the story
of Gylfi, a king of "the land that
men now call Sweden", who
after being tricked by one of
the goddesses of the Æsir,
wonders if all Æsir use magic
and tricks for their will to be
done. This is why he journeys to
Asgard, but on the way he is
tricked by the gods and arrives
in some other place, where he
finds a great palace.
7. • Inside the palace he encounters a man
who asks Gylfi's name and so king
Gylfi introduces himself as Gangleri.
Gangleri then is taken to the king of
the palace and encounters 3 men;
High, Just-As-High, and Third.
• Gangleri is then challenged to show
his wisdom by asking questions. Each
question made to High, Just-As-High,
and Third is about an aspect of the
Norse mythology or its gods, and also
about the creation and destruction of
the world.
8. •In the end all the
palace and its
people just vanish
and Gylfi is left
standing on empty
ground.
•It is then implied
that as Gylfi
returns to his
nation, he retells
the tales he was
told.
9. Skáldskaparmál or "language of poetry"
• Consist of
around 50,000
words
• It is a second
part of the
Porse Edda and
is effectively a
dialogue
between Ægir
(The Norse god
of the sea) and
Bragi(The god of
poetry and
music, son of
Ægir Odin)
Bragi
10. • In this part is given
the origin of a number
of kennings and Bragi
then delivers a
systematic list of
kennings for various
people, places and
things.
Kenning is a conventional
metaphoric name for something,
esp. in Old Norse and Old
English poetry, such as Old
English bānhūs (bone house) for
"body"
11. • Bragi then goes on to
discuss poetic language in
some detail, in particular
heiti (the concept of
poetical words which are
non-periphrastic) e.g. steed
for horse, and again
systematizes these. This in
a way forms an early form
of poetic thesaurus
(dictionary of synonyms and
antonyms).
12. Háttatal
• Consist of around
20,000 words.
• It is a
demonstration of
verse forms used in
Norse mythology.
13. •In this part he gives some examples of the
types of verse forms used in Old Norse poetry.
•Snorri took a prescriptive as well as
descriptive approach; he has systematized the
material, and often notes that "the older poets
didn't always" follow his rules.
•Most of the forms depend on number of
syllables per line, as well as assonance,
consonance, and alliteration. Although end
rhyme is represented, it does not function in
the ways most modern English speakers expect
(forms include AAAAAAAA, and AAAABBBB),
and plays a very minor role.
