How long is the Poetic Edda?
392 pagesProduct informationPublisherHackett Publishing Company, Inc. (March 5, 2015)LanguageEnglishPaperback392 pagesISBN-101624663567ISBN-13978-16246635676 more rows
How many words are in the Prose Edda?
It begins with a euhemerized Prologue, a section on the Norse cosmogony, pantheon, and myths. This is followed by three distinct books: Gylfaginning (consisting of approximately 20,000 words), Skáldskaparmál (approximately 50,000 words), and Háttatal (approximately 20,000 words).
How many poems are in the Poetic Edda?
Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic medieval manuscript known as the Codex Regius, which contains 31 poems.
Is the Prose Edda good?
It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Norse mythology, the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples, and draws from a wide variety of sources, including versions of poems that survive into today in a collection known as the Poetic Edda.
Should I read the prose or Poetic Edda first?
By reading the Prose Edda first, you will have the easier material "under your belt." You can then move to the more difficult, older Poetic Edda with more background to help you digest the nuggets that are harder to comprehend.
How many pages is the Prose Edda?
270The Prose Edda 4.1 out of 5 stars....Product Details.ISBN-13:9781389651922Pages:270Sales rank:276,786Product dimensions:6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.57(d)2 more rows•Jul 8, 2022
What's the difference between the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda?
The Poetic Edda uses more structured language compared to the Prose Edda. Its formalized language reflects the wording of earlier centuries, so there was little room for retelling stories.
Which Poetic Edda is the best?
Faulkes' translation of the Prose Edda is indeed the best and most reliable, aside from being complete.
What does Edda mean in Norse?
great-grandmotherEtymology. Likely from Old Norse edda (“great-grandmother”).
Should I buy the Prose Edda or Poetic Edda?
Read the Poetic Edda first. It is considered to be the fundamental collection of Germanic and Nordic mythology and legends. The Prose Edda is basically a “how to read poetry” book for 13th-century scholars—still worth a read if you like the Poetic Edda.
What are the 2 eddas?
Edda, body of ancient Icelandic literature contained in two 13th-century books commonly distinguished as the Prose, or Younger, Edda and the Poetic, or Elder, Edda.
Who came before Odin?
The man who had grown out of the salty rock was Buri, the first of the Gods. Buri was a giant, big and handsome. He would later have a son called Borr, with his wife Bestla. Borr and Bestla would also have three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve.
What does the Prose Edda contain?
The Prose Edda is a handbook on poetics. In this work Snorri arranges and recounts the legends of Norse mythology in an entertaining way. He then explains the ornate diction of the ancient skaldic poets and explains the great variety of poetic metres used in skaldic and Eddic verse.
What is the difference between the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda?
The Poetic Edda uses more structured language compared to the Prose Edda. Its formalized language reflects the wording of earlier centuries, so there was little room for retelling stories.
What are the 2 eddas?
Edda, body of ancient Icelandic literature contained in two 13th-century books commonly distinguished as the Prose, or Younger, Edda and the Poetic, or Elder, Edda.
What is the best translation of the Prose Edda?
Faulkes'Faulkes' translation of the Prose Edda is indeed the best and most reliable, aside from being complete.
Who is the author of Prose Edda?
In this lesson, we'll be looking at the ''Prose Edda'' and its relationship to Old Norse verse and mythology. We will learn about its author, Snorri Sturluson. We will also note the links between the ''Prose Edda'' and the ''Poetic Edda.''
What really sets the Prose or Younger Edda apart from other Icelandic texts of the same time?
What Sturluson does is describe the kind of poetry the skalds composed. He starts by telling a story like those the skalds would have told, an ancient Norse legend of gods and heroes. Then, he gives examples of what previous skalds wrote in poetic form. Sturluson gives many examples for each poetic device. So, Sturluson has created a 'How to Write Old Norse Verse' manual.
What Is Edda?
The Danish king, Frederic III, had asked him to gather up all the old manuscripts he could find, and the Bishop had just discovered an old manuscript which retold Old Norse myths about gods such as Odin, Thor, and Loki. Although the manuscript itself was written in the 12th century, the stories it tells are much older. For the Bishop, this was an exciting discovery.
When was the Prose Edda written?
The work is often assumed to have been written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson c. 1220. It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Germanic mythology.
What is the Prologue of the Edda?
The Prologue is the first section of four books of the Edda, consist ing of an euhemerized Christian account of the origins of Nordic mythology : the Nordic gods are described as human Trojan warriors who left Troy after the fall of that city (an origin similar to the one chosen by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century to account for the ancestry of the British nation, and which parallels Virgil's Aeneid ). According to Edda, these warriors settled in northern Europe, where they were accepted as divine kings because of their superior culture and technology. Remembrance ceremonies later conducted at their burial sites degenerate into heathen cults, turning them into gods. Alexander M. Bruce suggested that Sturlson was in possession of the Langfeðgatal or a closely related text when he composed the detailed list of gods and heroes given. He noted parallel sequences in the Langfeðgatal and the Edda, noting the second appearance of a "Scyld figure" as both an ancestor and a descendant of Óðinn in both. This figure is expanded upon in the Edda detailing Skjöldr as Odin's son after his migration northwards to Reidgothland and his ordination as a King of Denmark.
How many manuscripts of Snorra Edda have survived?
The likely stemma of Snorra Edda, considering only the main source of each manuscript. Seven manuscripts of the Edda have survived: six copies from the Middle Ages and another dating to the 1600s. No one manuscript is complete, and each has variations.
What does Edda mean?
Edda also means "great-grandparent", a word used by Snorri himself in the Skáldskaparmál. That is, with the same meaning, the name of a character in the Rigsthula and other medieval texts.
Where does the word "EDDA" come from?
Some argue that the word derives from the name of Oddi, a town in the south of Iceland where Snorri was raised. Edda could therefore mean "book of Oddi." However, this assumption is generally rejected. Faulkes in his English translation of the Prose Edda commented that this is "unlikely, both in terms of linguistics and history" since Snorri was no longer living at Oddi when he composed his work.
Where is the Edda preserved?
It is preserved in the library of the University of Uppsala (Sweden).
Who wrote the Edda?
Authorship. The assumption that Snorri Sturluson is responsible for writing the Edda is largely based on the following paragraph from a portion of Codex Upsaliensis, an early 14th-century manuscript containing the Edda : This book is called Edda. Snorri Sturluson compiled it in the way that it is arranged here.
What is the prose edda?
They were…. The Prose Edda is a handbook on poetics. In this work Snorri arranges and recounts the legends of Norse mythology in an entertaining way. He then explains the ornate diction of the ancient skaldic poets and explains the great variety of poetic metres used in skaldic….
When was the Prose Edda written?
It is the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Germanic mythology. …the most memorable was his Prose Edda, written c. 1220. It is to this book that the title Edda, whatever its meaning, originally belonged. …commonly referred to as the Prose Edda, or Younger Edda.
Why is the Prose Edda important?
The Prose Edda is an extremely important work, not only for its insight into the nature of Skaldic verse, but also for the wealth of mythological information that it contains.
What is the Prologue of the Old Norse?
The Prologue outlines the Old Norse creation myths. It is of interest not only for the valuable information of these myths that it contains, but also because Snorri gives what is one of the earliest attempts to suggest a rational explanation for the origin of these myths.
Where was the Prose Edda written?
Both works were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age.
What is the purpose of the Prose Edda?
Its purpose was to enable Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, and to grasp the mythological allusions behind the many kennings that were used in skaldic poetry .
What is the Poetic Edda?
The Poetic Edda, also known as Sæmundar Edda or the Elder Edda, is a collection of Old Norse poems from the Icelandic medieval manuscript Codex Regius ("Royal Book"). Along with the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most expansive source on Norse mythology.
What does "edda" mean?
Perhaps Edda was also one of such titles: Edda would be an appropriate ‘pet name’ of æðr (pronounced as [æ:ðr] f.) ‘eider duck’. Then, Edda meant ‘little eider duck’ (an analog of Grágás ).
What is the edda?
e. " Edda " ( / ˈɛdə /; Old Norse Edda, plural Eddur) is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the Prose Edda and an older collection of poems without an original title now known as the Poetic Edda.
Where did the word "EDDA" come from?
Another hypothesis holds that edda derives from Old Norse óðr, "poetry". A third, proposed in 1895 by Eiríkr Magnússon, is that it derives from the Icelandic place name Oddi, site of the church and school where students, including Snorri Sturluson, were educated. A fourth hypothesis—the derivation of the word Edda as the name of Snorri Sturluson's treatise on poetry from the Latin edo, "I compose (poetry)", by analogy with kredda, "superstition", from Latin credo, "creed"—is now widely accepted, though this acceptance may stem from its agreement with modern usage rather than historical accuracy. The fifth hypothesis is based on the fact that there was a fashion of giving Icelandic manuscripts bird titles. (Such are the legal codes Grágás ‘grey goose’, Gullfjǫðr ‘gold feather (quill?)’, and Hryggjar-stykki ‘a kind of duck’.) Perhaps Edda was also one of such titles: Edda would be an appropriate ‘pet name’ of æðr (pronounced as [æ:ðr] f.) ‘eider duck’. Then, Edda meant ‘little eider duck’ (an analog of Grágás ).
When was Codex Regius written?
The Codex Regius was written in the 13th century, but nothing is known of its whereabouts until 1643, when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then the Church of Iceland 's Bishop of Skálholt. At that time, versions of the Prose Edda were well known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was another Edda —an Elder Edda —which contained the pagan poems Snorri quotes in his book. When the Codex Regius was discovered, it seemed that this speculation had proven correct. Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to Sæmundr the Learned, a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest. While this attribution is rejected by modern scholars, the name Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes encountered.