Edda
Edda,an Old Norse name of uncertain meaning given to a 13th-cent. poetic manual written by Snorri Sturluson , known as the Prose, Younger, or Snorra Edda. The same name was applied in the 17th cent. to a manuscript collection of poems, the Poetic or Elder Edda. The Prose Edda is divided into a prologue and three parts: the ‘Gylfaginning’, or Deluding of Gylfi, a series of mythological stories in the form of a dialogue between one Gylfi and the Norse gods; the ‘Skáldskaparmál’, or Poetic Diction, in which Snorri illustrates the elaborate diction of skaldic verse , retelling many myths and legends; and the ‘Háttatal’, or List of Metres, a long poem each strophe of which exemplifies a different Norse metre. Snorri's work is valuable for the stories it enshrines, the verses it has preserved, and Snorri's own gifts as a storyteller. The Poetic Edda was compiled in about 1270 , but some of the poems in it undoubtedly belong to a much...
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