Submitted by: Luca Panaro
Description:
Alvíssmál ("The Sayings of All-Wise") is a poem of the Poetic Edda. It comes at the end of the mythological section of the Edda, as it is compiled in Codex Regius ("Royal Book," the principle manuscript of the Poetic Edda), and before the heroic section. The poem is a dialogue between the eponymous All-Wise, a dwarf, and the Æsir god Þórr (LINK). It is loosely categorized as a wisdom contest, although rather than mutual questioning, Þórr asks all the questions, testing All-Wise's encyclopedic knowledge of the different names for something among different groups (gods, dwarves, giants, elves, humans). It is therefore likely to be a versified and narrativized form of a list, meant to be used as a source for heiti, or poetic synonyms, in Old Norse poetry.
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