Knowra Gylfaginning Gylfaginning Gylfaginning is the mythological section of Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, presenting Norse gods and cosmic history through a king’s dialogue with supernatural figures.
Prose Edda : A medieval Icelandic handbook of myth, poetic language, and skaldic verse attributed to Snorri Sturluson. Gylfaginning forms its mythological opening section.
Gylfi : A legendary Swedish king who appears in Norse tradition as a seeker of divine knowledge. He enters Ásgarðr in disguise to question its rulers.
Yggdrasil : The immense tree that connects the worlds and serves as a central structure in Norse cosmology. Gylfaginning describes its roots, inhabitants, and cosmic reach.
Icelandic Commonwealth : The period of Icelandic self-government from the establishment of the Althing in 930 until 1262–1264. Gylfaginning was composed in Iceland near the Commonwealth’s end.
Völuspá : An Eddic poem in which a seeress recounts the creation, fate, and renewal of the Norse cosmos. It gives a poetic account of cosmic events that Gylfaginning retells in prose.
Snorri Sturluson : An Icelandic chieftain, poet, and historian who lived from 1179 to 1241. He is traditionally identified as the author of Gylfaginning.
Gangleri : The name adopted by Gylfi when he approaches the gods disguised as a wanderer. His questions provide the dialogue’s framework.
Ragnarök : The prophesied conflict and destruction in which many gods die before the world is renewed. Gylfaginning recounts the signs and events of the gods’ final battle.
Medieval Icelandic literature : The prose and poetry produced in Iceland during the Middle Ages, including sagas, eddas, and legal writing. The work belongs to a literary culture that recorded inherited traditions in new written forms.
Vafþrúðnismál : An Eddic wisdom poem in which Odin and the giant Vafþrúðnir exchange questions about the cosmos. Its mythic knowledge appears in dialogue, but without Gylfaginning’s extended frame narrative.
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