Prose Edda
Also known as: Edda, Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda, Edda Prosaica, Snorra Edda
Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda systematizes Norse myth and skaldic poetics through a frame dialogue, mythic narratives, and a handbook of kennings. It preserves a comprehensive account of the gods, cosmos, and Ragnarök while instructing poets in traditional diction.
Description
The Prose Edda, attributed to the Icelandic chieftain and poet Snorri Sturluson, comprises a Prologue, the mythic handbook Gylfaginning, the poetics compendium Skáldskaparmál, and the metrical treatise Háttatal. Framed by King Gylfi’s questioning of the High One, it recounts creation from Ymir, the ordering of the worlds, the deeds and destinies of the Æsir and Vanir, and the foretelling of Ragnarök and renewal. Skáldskaparmál embeds an anthology of origin-tales explaining kennings—stories like the Mead of Poetry, the forging of the gods’ treasures, and the ransoming of Ótr. Háttatal then exemplifies verse forms. As both mythographic source and ars poetica, the work stabilizes a pre-Christian oral tradition within a Christianized scholarly milieu.
Historiography
Survives chiefly in Codex Upsaliensis (U, c. 1300), Codex Regius of Snorri’s Edda (R, c. 1300), Codex Wormianus (W, mid-14th c.), and Codex Trajectinus (T, 17th-c. copy of a lost medieval exemplar). The four-part structure and internal ordering vary slightly by manuscript, especially the placement and expansions in Skáldskaparmál. Snorri’s aims—pedagogical for skalds and antiquarian for myth—shaped reception; later editors (e.g., Faulkes) collated witnesses to establish a critical text. The Prose Edda has been central to early modern and modern reconstructions of Norse myth and influenced Romantic nationalism and comparative mythology.
Date Notes
Compiled in Iceland by Snorri Sturluson; draws on earlier skaldic and Eddic traditions; extant in several 13th–14th c. manuscripts (U, R, W, T).
Themes
Archetypes
Major Characters
- Snorri Sturluson
- Odin
- Thor
- Loki
- Baldr
- Freyja
- Freyr
- Tyr
- Heimdall
- Frigg
Myths
- Creation from Ginnungagap
- The Æsir–Vanir War
- The Mead of Poetry
- The Binding of Fenrir
- The Death of Baldr
- Ragnarök
Facts
- The work serves both as mythographic compendium and as a manual of skaldic diction and meter.
- Its core parts are Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál, and Háttatal.
- Gylfaginning frames myths as answers to King Gylfi from three manifestations of Odin.
- Skáldskaparmál explains kennings through embedded origin-stories and catalogues.
- Háttatal presents verse forms by example, likely composed to honor Hákon and Skúli.
- Major manuscripts include U (Upsaliensis), R (Regius), W (Wormianus), and T (Trajectinus).
- Snorri’s Christian perspective shapes the euhemerizing Prologue and interpretive glosses.
- The text preserves versions of myths otherwise lost or fragmentary in the Poetic Edda.
- Narratives such as the Mead of Poetry and Otter’s Ransom supply etiologies for poetic terms.
- Ragnarök in Gylfaginning culminates with world renewal and the return of Baldr and Höðr.