Knowra Old Norse literature Old Norse literature Old Norse literature is the medieval Scandinavian tradition of poetry and prose, preserved chiefly in manuscripts from Iceland and Norway. It includes mythological, heroic, historical, and religious writing.
Old Norse : Old Norse is the North Germanic language spoken and written across Scandinavia and its settlements during the Viking Age and Middle Ages. It is the language in which most surviving works of this tradition were composed.
Poetic Edda : The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse mythological and heroic poems preserved principally in the medieval manuscript Codex Regius. It is the best-known surviving collection of Eddic verse.
Viking Age : The Viking Age is the period of Scandinavian expansion, raiding, trade, and settlement conventionally dated from the late eighth to the eleventh century. Many subjects and cultural memories in the literature reach back to this period.
Snorri Sturluson : Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic chieftain, poet, and historian who wrote the Prose Edda and Heimskringla in the thirteenth century. His works are among the most influential prose sources for Norse mythology and royal history.
Old Norse studies : Old Norse studies is the academic study of Old Norse language, literature, history, and culture. Modern scholarship edits, translates, and interprets this scattered manuscript tradition.
Eddic poetry : Eddic poetry is a body of Old Norse mythological and heroic poems, many preserved in the Poetic Edda. Its compact verse preserves central mythological and heroic narratives.
Prose Edda : The Prose Edda is a medieval Icelandic work by Snorri Sturluson that explains poetic technique and recounts Norse mythology. It preserves myths while explaining the poetic language skalds used.
Christianization of Scandinavia : The Christianization of Scandinavia was the gradual adoption of Christianity across the region, especially between the tenth and twelfth centuries. Christian literacy helped create the institutions and manuscripts that preserved older stories.
Egil Skallagrímsson : Egil Skallagrímsson was a tenth-century Icelandic poet and warrior whose life is narrated in Egils saga. His attributed poems illuminate the tradition's portrayal of skalds and poetic skill.
Norse mythology : Norse mythology is the body of myths about gods, beings, and cosmic events known from medieval Scandinavian sources. Literary works are the principal surviving accounts of many Norse myths.
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