Prose Edda

The Prose Edda is a 13th-century Icelandic handbook attributed to Snorri Sturluson. It preserves Norse myths and explains the poetic conventions used by skalds.

Norse mythology: The religious stories and cosmology associated with pre-Christian Scandinavia and related Germanic traditions. The handbook’s mythic narratives are a major source for this body of stories.
Gylfaginning: The opening narrative section of the Prose Edda, presenting Norse cosmology through a dialogue between a king and three figures. Its mythic dialogue supplies the handbook’s broadest account of gods and the cosmos.
Icelandic Commonwealth: The medieval Icelandic political order, governed without a king from the establishment of the Althing in 930 until 1262–1264. The handbook emerged near the end of this independent Icelandic political period.
Yggdrasil: The world tree in Norse mythology, whose branches and roots connect different realms. Its cosmic role appears in the handbook’s account of the Norse universe.
Skaldic poetry: A complex form of Old Norse court poetry marked by intricate meters, kennings, and allusion. The handbook explains the poetic practices its examples preserve.
Skáldskaparmál: The Prose Edda section that explains poetic diction and kennings through a dialogue and verse examples. It directly teaches the poetic conventions the handbook was designed to preserve.
Christianization of Iceland: The adoption of Christianity as Iceland’s official religion around the year 1000, while some older practices continued privately. The handbook records pre-Christian myths in a Christian society centuries after conversion.
Ragnarök: The prophesied destruction and renewal of the world in Norse mythology, involving a final conflict between gods and their enemies. The handbook recounts this myth as a major episode in the gods’ story.
Old Norse: The North Germanic language spoken in Scandinavia and its settlements during the Viking Age and Middle Ages. The handbook’s surviving text is written in this language.
Háttatal: A poem by Snorri Sturluson accompanied by explanations of its verse forms and metrical patterns. Its annotated stanzas demonstrate how the handbook analyzes poetic technique.

Linked from 23 pages