prose edda 81
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S kirnismal (The Words of Skirnir)
H arbardsljuth (The Song of Harbard )
H ymiskvitha (The Lay of Hymir)
L okasenna (Loki’s Verbal Duel )
T hrymskvitha (The Lay of Thrym)
A lvissmal (The Words of the All-Wise; The Bal-
lad of Alvis)
• B aldrs draumar (Balder’s Dreams)
• R igsthula (The Song of Rig; Rig’s Rhymed List)
• H yndluljodth (The Poem of Hyndla)
Some translations include H rafnagaldur O dins
and S vipdagsmal in the Poetic Edda, although these
poems survive only in paper manuscripts created well
after the Codex Regius and the Arnamagnaean Codex
were written. These translators suggest that the
content and poetic style of these additional works is
so similar to the other poems in the Poetic Edda that
they should be included.
The poems in the second half of the Poetic Edda
deal with mortal human heroes whose lives are occa-
sionally interfered with by the Norse gods, dwarfs,
giants and trolls. Among them, R eginsmal (The
Ballad of Regin) and Fafnismal (The Lay of Fafnir) have
the strongest connections of the myths of the gods.
P rose E dda
The work of Icelandic historian,
poet, and politician Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241
a.d.) written in the early part of the 13th century. The
Prose Edda is contained in three vellum manuscripts
preserved in Scandinavia; these are called C odex
R egius , Codex Upsaliensis, and Codex Wormianus. The
manuscripts have been copied onto paper manuscripts
several times since the older vellum manuscripts were
created in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Three separate works make up the Prose Edda
and come together to create a handbook of Norse
mythology, written as a guide for poets to encour-
age them to use the style of the poets of the Viking
Age, particularly skaldic poetry. These works
include:
• G ylfaginning (The Deceiving of Gylfi ) tells the
myths of the Norse gods and the worlds they
lived in. In this section, Snorri borrowed heav-
ily from the works in the Poetic Edda and other
poems that did not survive in manuscripts.
Gylfaginning is an important, and sometimes a
unique, source of many Norse myths. Snorri’s
prologue to Gylfaginning presents his attempt
to create a human history for the Norse gods
or an explanation other than a myth for how
the Norse pantheon and all of its beings came
into existence.
• S kaldskaparmal (Prose Diction), mostly a listing
of the names and kennings, poetic metaphors
or sayings frequently used in Norse poetry.
This work also contains many of the mytho-
logical and historical tales.
• Hattatal (The Meters of Poetry), a poem by
Snorri about King Haakon and Duke Skuli of
Norway during the years 1221–1223 a.d.
Snorri, himself a Christian, wrote this guide to
Old Icelandic poetry and Norse mythology after
Christianity was well established in Iceland and
knowledge about the old gods and their adventures
was dying out. He sought to preserve the old knowl-
edge as well as the poetic form that he practiced.