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Achelous Poetic Edda In Greek A collection mythology of, poems about the mythological and legendary themes of the Norse people, written down from the oral tradition by many different poets and scribes at different times between the eighth and 13th centuries. The Poetic Edda was, for many years, known as the Elder Edda because most of its material is hundreds of years older than the Prose Edda, the manuscript written by 13thcentury poet and historian Snorri Sturluson. The Poetic Edda was often the source material for Snorri’ s work.
The primary and oldest manuscripts that contain some of the poems considered to form the Poetic Edda are:
• The Codex Regius( GK 2365 4to). The original manuscript is in the Árni Magnússon Institute in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was written down about 1280 a. d. and appears to be a copy of an even older manuscript. The Codex Regius contains 31 mythical and heroic poems important to the study of Norse mythology.
• The Arnamagnaean Codex( AM 748 Ia 4to). A manuscript that contains some or portions of the poems in the Poetic Edda. The section with these poems is only six handwritten pages long. It contains the only copy of the poem Baldrs draumar( Balder’ s Dreams). This document is in the Árni Magnússon Institute Collection at the Universit of Copenhagen in Denmark.
• Flateyjarbok( GKS 1005 fol.) A late 14thcentury manuscript concerning historical sagas of Scandinavia, it contains the Sorla
Thattr and the only source of the poem
Hyndluljoth. It, too, is in the Arni Magnusson Institute in Reykjavik.
The mythological poems commonly included in published versions of the Poetic Edda are:
• Voluspa( Prophecy of the Seeress)
• Havamal( The Words of the High One)
• Vafthrudnismal( The Words of Vafthrudnir)
• Grimnismal( The Lay of Grimnir)
Title page of a manuscript of the Prose Edda, showing Odin, Heimdall, Sleipnir, and other mythological figures. From the 18th-century Icelandic manuscript IB 299 4to, in the care of the Icelandic National Library
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