PROSE EDDA AND
POETRY EDA
WHAT IS EDDA?
The exact etymology of the term
edda is disputed by scholars.
However, Edda is the term for
two literary works that are the
most significant sources of
Norse mythology: the Younger
Edda and the Elder Edda.
WHAT ARE THE TWO EDDA?
The two Eddas are the Prose Edda, known as the
Younger Edda, and the Poetic Edda, known as the
Elder Edda. The Prose Edda is a textbook on Norse
poetic meter that references and contains the
poems of Norse mythology. The Poetic Edda is a
collection of narrative poems that recount Norse
mythology and has no attributable author because
the poems were composed over centuries in the oral
tradition.
WHO WROTE THE EDDA?
While there are many Old Norse manuscripts
for which we can find no author, the Prose
Edda is definitely the work of Icelandic
aristocrat Snorri Sturluson (1149–1241).
Sturluson was raised in a chieftain's
household, in which he was immersed in
Icelandic tradition.
POETRY
EDDA
POETRY EDDA
The Poetic Edda is a collection of
narrative poems that recount Norse
mythology and has no attributable
author because the poems were
composed over centuries in the oral
tradition.
POETRY EDDA
The Poetic Edda is a collection of narrative
poems that recount Norse mythology and has
no attributable author because the poems
were composed over centuries in the oral
tradition. The Poetic Edda, otherwise known as
the Elder Edda, is a collection of alliterative
verse poems narrating Old Norse mythology.
POETRY EDDA
The term Elder Edda is given to the Poetic
Edda because these poems have no
attributable author but were likely minstrel
poems handed down from poet to poet in the
oral tradition over the course of centuries.
PROSE
EDDA
PROSE EDA
✒️ 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.
PROSE EDA
The Prose Edda is an important
source, as it is the only comprehensive
account of Norse mythology from the
Middle Ages that we have. Since its
discovery, it has been one of the most
widely read of the early Icelandic
texts.
PROSE EDA
It retells stories that you may have
heard of: for example, those about
the serpent, Midgard, and the place
of Valhalla, where heroes go after
death. The Prose Edda is an important
source of literature from the Viking
Age (800–1050 AD).
PROSE EDA
The Prose Edda, also known as the
Younger Edda, is so named because it
was written after the poems of the
Poetic Edda were collected. It was
inspired by and cited the earlier Edda
in its inclusion of stories and poems.
PROSE EDA
The Prose Edda is at once an early
source of Norse mythology, an
argument for the preservation of that
mythology, and a treatise on the
proper composition of that mythology
in the traditional way.
WHAT ARE THE STORIES IN PROSE EDDA?
The Prose Edda consists of numerous tales
of Norse mythology, including Idunn's
golden apples and Ragnarök. However, the
two main framing devices contained within
the Prose Edda are the dialogues of Gylfi
and Odin, and Ægir and Bragi.
PROLOUGE
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
GYLFAGINNING
(The Tricking of Gylfi)
✒️ Consist of around 20,000 words
✒️ It is the first part of The Prose Edda after Prologue.
✒️ 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.
GYLFAGINNING
✒️ 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.
GYLFAGINNING
✒️ 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.
GYLFAGINNING
✒️ 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.
SKÁLDSKAPARMÁL OR "LANGUAGE OF POETRY"
✒️ Consist of around 50,000 words
✒️ It is a second part of the Prose Edda and is effectively a
dialogue between Ægir (The Norse god of the sea) and Bragi
(The god of poetry and music, son of Odin)
SKÁLDSKAPARMÁL OR "LANGUAGE OF POETRY"
✒️ 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
bānhus (bone house) for "body"
SKÁLDSKAPARMÁL OR "LANGUAGE OF POETRY"
✒️ 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).
HÁTTATAL
✒️ Consist of around 20,000 words.
✒️ It is a demonstration of verse forms used in Norse
mythology.
•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.
HÁTTATAL
✒️ 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.
CONCLUSION
In other words, the Prose Edda
could be considered akin to a
textbook on the poetry and myths,
while the Poetic Edda is a
collection of the narrative poems
themselves.
THANK
YOU
