5.5.2 Iceland: The Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda
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This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
5.5.2 Iceland: The Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda
The Eddas are two collections of Old Icelandic writings, and together they
form the most important source of Scandinavian mythology. The Poetic Edda is
a collection of 34 Icelandic poems, interspersed with prose dating from the
9th to the 12th century. The poems were composed by anonymous poets and they
deal mostly with mythological themes. Among the most important of these are
the poems Völuspá (The vision of the Seeress) and Hávamál (The Speech of the
High One). To give some taste of the nature of this poetry, here's a famous
quote from Hávamál, where Odin ('The High One') speaks of how he acquired
the art of casting runes by being sacrificed on a branch of the World Tree:
I know I hung
on the windswept Tree
through nine days and nights
I was struck with a spear
and given to Odin,
myself given to myself
They helped me neither
by meat nor drink
I peered downward,
I took up the runes,
screaming, I took them -
then I fell back.
The Younger, or Prose, Edda (c. 1220) is the work of the Snorri Sturluson.
It was probably intended as a handbook for novice poets who wished to become
skalds, or court poets, in a time when the old pagan tradition was already
beginning to fade from men's minds but was still appreciated. Snorri was a
brilliant stylist, writing in his native Icelandic; his Edda is no dry
antiquarian treatise, but a witty, imaginative and lively account of the old
tales of the gods. Despite his being a Christian, there is little doubt that
Snorri has given us a faithful picture of heathen mythology as it was known
in his day; there are few attempts at rationalizing or pointing towards some
Christian moral teaching. It is difficult to know to how far removed
Snorri's stories are from the living faith of the pagan era, but despite its
limitations, the Prose Edda is the best introduction to the world of
Scandinavian mythology there exists. (For a summary of the basic aspects of
Norse mythology, see section 2.2).
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