Title: Prose Edda/Younger Edda

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The Prose or Younger Edda, also called Snorri's Edda, is a treatise on mythology and skaldic poetry compiled in the early 13th century. It is the source of most of our knowledge of Old Norse mythology, alongside the Poetic or Elder Edda (LINK). It is attributed to the Icelandic chieftain and scholar Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), either as author or as compiler (modern ideas of authorship do not fit in the Middle Ages, where manuscripts were the products of workshops called scriptoria ("writing places"). The Prose Edda survives in seven manuscripts, each of which are incomplete and have variations, and some of these are fragments. The four main manuscripts that are often used as a basis for modern editions are: Codex Upsaliensis (early 14th century), Codex Regius (early–mid 14th century), Codex Wormianus (mid 14th century), and Codex Trajectinus (a 16th century copy of a lost 13th century manuscript). Codex Upsaliensis contains the attribution to Snorri, as well as the name "Edda": "This book is called Edda. It has been compiled by Snorri Sturluson in the manner in which it is arranged here." There are also studies on the socio-political background of 13th century Iceland and Norway that argue for Snorri's compilation of the Prose Edda, aligning it with his lofty political ambition to become the earl of Iceland under the Norwegian king. (LINK TO KEVIN WANNER) The Prose Edda is a complex work, and is broken into four sections: a Prologue, Gylfaginning (LINK) ("the tricking of Gylfi"), Skáldskaparmál (LINK) ("the language of poetry"), and Háttatál (LINK) ("list of verse-forms"). The Prologue opens with a version of the Biblical creation of the world. It then describes the Norse gods, the Æsir, as extraordinary human kings from Troy, who left Turkey and traveled west and north until they reached Scandinavia and settled there. Their glorious deeds and skills in magic and cunning led anyone they encountered on the way to think they were gods and not mortal kings. This process or humanizing gods or deities is called euhemerization. This was likely done because the ruling dynasties of Scandinavia, like in many cultures, traced their ancestry to the gods, and giving these gods-turned-mortals (so as not to be calling them gods in a Christian culture) an origin in Classical Troy gives the culture and kings of the North a classical origin, on par with the Classical roots claimed by the rest of Europe. This also sets the stage for the sections of the Prose Edda about poetry, Skáldskaparmál and Háttatál, giving Nordic poetry an equal prestige to the different poetic conventions of Latinate Europe. Gylfaginning, the deluding of Gylfi, is a frame narrative to structure the explanation of elements of Norse mythology. It describes how the king of Sweden, Gylfi, offers as much land as she can plough in one day to a woman named Gefjun, who is one of the Æsir. She summons her four sons, which she had with an unnamed jötunn (LINK), in the shapes of oxen, and hitches them to her plough. She then plows a huge amount of land, and the plough cuts so deep that the land is torn away into the sea, and she pulls it out to the west and this is the origin of Zealand, a region in Denmark. Amazed, Gylfi goes in disguise under the name Gangleri to investigate the Æsir, arriving at Valhöll, which is extremely tall and roofed with shields. He sees many wondrous things inside as he is led to the triple thrones of the rulers, High, Just as High, and Third. Here Gangleri and the three rulers engage in a dialogue of question and answer, where Gangleri asks about the gods of the Æsir, the origins of myths and magical things, the creation and prophesied destruction of the world, and other matters. Many stories of the gods are found only in this story, and Gylfaginning is a comprehensive survey of at least a certain version of Norse myth. The compiler often quotes from Eddic poetry found in the Poetic Edda as a source, but some Skaldic poetry is also included here. At the end, Gylfi leaves and turns back to look at the hall again, only to find it has disappeared and the area is empty. Everything was an illusion made by the kings of the Æsir who foresaw Gylfi's arrival with their prophetic gifts. The kings then take on the names of the gods that they were telling stories about, and Gylfi spreads the stories around Scandinavia; this is thus the Prose Edda's 'explanation' for the existence of Norse mythology and pagan belief. It also supplies a great amount of mythological information to the reader, which is expanded in the following sections, and which is important for understanding and composing skaldic poetry. Skalds use constructions called kennings (LINK) and heiti, which use mythological material to vary their poetry with restatement, something called periphrasis. See entry on kennings (LINK) for more. Skáldskaparmál, "the language of poetry," begins as a dialogue similar to Gylfaginning, but this falls away at certain points. This part contains more mythological stories, including the story of the origin of the Mead of Poetry as the inspiration for all poetry. Skáldskaparmál is split roughly into two sections, the first dealing with aforementioned kennings, these periphrastic phrases used to restate things (for example, a ship can be called "horse/steed of the sea"), and they can be quite winding and complex in their references; the second section is about heiti, which are synonyms, other ways to call the same thing so as not to be repetitive in one's poetry. This section is explicitly given as an instructional manual for young poets. The given kennings and heiti are also supplemented with frequent quotation of stanzas of actual poems, which do not survive in other sources outside of Skáldskaparmál. This makes it the main source for a major percentage of all known skaldic poetry. Háttatál, "list of verse-forms," is the final section of the Prose Edda. It comprises 102 skaldic stanzas, composed by Snorri, which illustrate different verse forms and poetic conventions, with prose commentary, presumably also by Snorri, explaining these strategies and devices. The subject of the poem is also the traditional material of skaldic poetry: the eulogization and/or praise of the deeds of kings and nobles, in this case the Norwegian king Hákon Hákonarson and his earl and relative, Earl Skúli. These sections each have their own entries, in order to properly source the mythological and heroic material that they contain.