The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology
Prose Edda is a work without predecessor or parallel. Snorri Sturluson feared that the traditional techniques of Norse poetics, the pagan kennings, and the allusions to mythology would be forgotten with the introduction of new verse forms from Europe. Prose Edda was designed as a handbook for...
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Prose Edda is a work without predecessor or parallel. Snorri Sturluson feared that the traditional techniques of Norse poetics, the pagan kennings, and the allusions to mythology would be forgotten with the introduction of new verse forms from Europe. Prose Edda was designed as a handbook for poets to compose in the style of the skalds of the Viking ages. It is an exposition of the rule of poetic diction with many examples, applications, and retellings of myths and legends. The present selection includes the whole of Gylfaginning (The deluding of Gylfi)--a guide to mythology that forms one of the great storybooks of the Middle Ages--and the longer heroic tales and legends of Skáldskaparmál (Poetic diction). Snorri Sturluson was a master storyteller, and this translation in modern idiom of the inimitable tales of the gods and heroes of the Scandinavian peoples brings them to life again.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780520234772 (0520234774)
Publish date: April 25th 2002
Publisher: University of California Press
Edition language: English
Category:
Fantasy,
Classics,
Non Fiction,
History,
Literature,
European Literature,
Historical Fiction,
Medieval,
Religion,
Poetry,
Mythology,
Folklore,
Scandinavian Literature
Fascinating read for Norse Mythology.
Lovely, though I suspect the original compiler of some of these stories had a bit too much mead to drink when he told the stories.
AcknowledgementsIntroduction & NotesFurther ReadingNote on the TranslationMap: The Geographical World of the 'Edda'The Prose Edda--Prologue--Gylfaginning (The Deluding of Gylfi)Skaldskaparmal (Poetic Diction)--Mythic and Legendary Tales--Poetic References from Skaldskaparmal (Translated by Russell P...
The Edda is a collection of Norse myths, written in the 13th century by a dude named Snorri. It's where we got most of our knowledge of Norse mythology today, and it's wicked awesome. I learned, for instance, that your legs may hump each other and produce a child while you're asleep, which is some...