Questions about Prose Edda
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who wrote the Prose Edda?
The Prose Edda is generally attributed to Snorri Sturluson, an Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian who compiled or composed it around 1220. The attribution rests on a passage in Codex Upsaliensis, an early 14th-century manuscript. However, scholars note that surviving manuscripts were all written more than half a century after Snorri's death and differ considerably from one another, making it unclear whether he authored every section or served primarily as compiler.
What is the Prose Edda about?
The Prose Edda is a four-part Old Norse textbook written in Iceland in the early 13th century. It is considered the fullest source for Norse mythology and was designed to help Icelandic poets understand skaldic verse, kennings, and eddic poetry. Its four sections are the Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál, and Háttatal.
What are the four sections of the Prose Edda?
The Prose Edda is divided into the Prologue, a euhemerized account of the Norse gods; Gylfaginning (approximately 20,000 words), covering Norse mythology in question-and-answer format; Skáldskaparmál (approximately 50,000 words), presenting kennings and poetic vocabulary; and Háttatal (approximately 20,000 words), illustrating Old Norse verse forms using Snorri's own compositions.
What is the difference between the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda?
The Prose Edda, also called the Younger Edda, was written or compiled around 1220 by Snorri Sturluson. The Poetic Edda, also called the Elder Edda, is a collection of poems, some of which Snorri quotes in his work. Early scholars suspected the Poetic Edda existed as a source for Snorri; this was confirmed when manuscripts of the Poetic Edda were rediscovered.
Where are the original Prose Edda manuscripts kept?
The four main manuscripts are held in different institutions. Codex Regius is at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík, Iceland, having been returned from Denmark in 1985. Codex Upsaliensis is at the University of Uppsala library in Sweden. Codex Wormianus is in the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection in Copenhagen, Denmark. Codex Trajectinus is at the University of Utrecht library in the Netherlands.
What does the word Edda mean?
The etymology of Edda remains uncertain. Proposed meanings include "book of Oddi" (a town in southern Iceland), a derivation from the Old Norse óðr meaning "poetry or inspiration," and a connection to the Latin edo meaning "I write," which would render Edda as "Poetic Art." The word also independently means "great-grandparent" in Old Norse, appearing in that sense in Skáldskaparmál and other medieval texts.