This fact is important, as there was no intermediate stage of translation into Latin, for example the Eddas are 'true' to the original sagas. Old Norse was the language spoken and the two Eddas were written in a branch of Old Norse that had changed little from the time Iceland was settled. This era from roughly 800 to 1100 was a time of raiding and settlement. Snorri appears to have been a good compiler and teacher, but not a very good poet.īoth the Eddas - poetry and prose - were written in Iceland but were based in large part on the oral traditions that stemmed from the earlier Viking Age. Described as a ' somewhat pedantic work' it is intended to be a teaching aid and is often omitted from translations. The List of Meters is better known as the Hattatal and there is no doubt here about its authorship. In general, the word Edda means 'great-parent', or ancestor and the word ' kredda' means ' belief', as such the Prose Edda and the Poetic Eddatogether constitute the source book for all Norse ancient beliefs or sacred knowledge.įrom this it has been accepted that Snorri compiled some parts of the work and also contributed to it. It combines symbolism, descriptions of the creation and its order, descriptions of the Intelligences and their hierarchy it is smaller, but every bit as rich as the Bible. The stories had a great influence upon later story tellers, poets, musicians and painters, inspiring J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Richard Wagner's Ring cycle, poets Auden and Longfellow, and many others.īut the Edda as a whole is much more than a set of legends, it is the Norse'Bible'. The Edda also tells heroic stories about legendary warriors and their kin, stories which incorporate shards of ancient memory. Woven throughout is the gods' tragic realisation that the future holds one final cataclysmic battle, Ragnarok when the world will be destroyed. In straightforward prose interspersed with ancient verse, the Edda recounts the Norse creation epic and the subsequent struggles of the gods, giants, dwarves and elves in that universe.

The Prose Edda is Scandinavia's best known work of literature and the most extensive source for Norse mythology. Jesse Byock - from the Introduction to a translation of the Prose Edda

Prose edda prologue