The Prose Edda

by Snorri Sturluson

Also known as: Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda

"A conscious preservation of fading pagan traditions, recast through a Christian medieval lens, showing both the fragility of myth and its enduring power as poetic truth."
The Prose Edda cover
Type:Prose Mythological Handbook and Treatise on Poetics
Source:Medieval Iceland
Original Date:Draws on oral Norse mythic tradition (c. 800–1100 CE)
Written Date:c. 1220 CE
Length:1 books (~4 hours)

Summary

The Prose Edda, written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson, is a handbook of Norse mythology and poetics. Composed in the early 13th century, it preserves mythic narratives that would otherwise have been lost. The text has three main parts: the Prologue, which interprets the gods as ancient human kings (euhemerism); Gylfaginning (‘The Deluding of Gylfi’), which recounts the Norse cosmogony, gods, and the prophecy of Ragnarök; and Skáldskaparmál (‘The Language of Poetry’), which explains kennings and poetic devices through mythic anecdotes. It is a cornerstone of Norse mythology, giving us much of what is known today about Odin, Thor, Loki, Baldr, and the fate of the gods.

Themes

Creation and cosmic orderThe twilight of the gods (Ragnarök)Trickster and deceptionPreservation of mythPoetry as memory and survival

Major Characters

OdinThorLokiBaldrFriggHeimdallTýrFreyrFreyjaSurtFenrirJörmungandrThe NornsKing Gylfi (in the framing story)

Notable Quotes

"In the beginning, there was nothing, no sand, no sea, no cool waves, no earth, no heaven above, only a gaping void and grass nowhere."

"It is called Ragnarök, the fate of the gods. Then shall the earth sink into the sea, and all things shall be consumed in fire."

"Poetry is called the mead of the gods, because it was brewed from Kvasir’s blood."

Notable Translations

Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur(1916)

One of the first major English translations, still in circulation.

Anthony Faulkes(1987)

Standard scholarly edition, Oxford University Press.

Jesse Byock(2005)

Accessible modern translation for Penguin Classics.

Edda: Snorri Sturluson, translated by Anthony Faulkes(1995)

Critical edition with commentary.