Eddas of Norse Mythology

The stories that make up a religion have been expressed in writing in different ways, since the Iliad and the Odyssey (which explain a part of Greek mythology), to the bible, passing through sacred texts throughout the world and all beliefs. For the Norse, the main texts have been the Eddas.

The Eddas are compilations of texts on Norse mythology that put into writing a long oral tradition, written in the 13th century.

At that time, Christianity was progressing but had not yet established itself in the Scandinavian peninsula, although in the rest of Europe it had swept away the rest of the religions to impose itself as the only one, thanks also to the violence exercised by the authorities in its imposition, which passed through the prohibition of other cults and beliefs.

It is possible that the competence what Christian sacred texts meant in writing, encouraged the authors of the Eddas to also put in writing what had hitherto been a mere tradition oral of his ancestors.

The Eddas are two: the Prosaic or Minor or Snorri, and the Poetic, Major or Saemund.

The Prose Edda is written, as its name suggests, in prose and not in verse, although in fact it is a kind of poetry manual that includes the heroic stories.

His drafting It is dated around 1220, and is the work of the Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson, a man wise Among his contemporaries, he was elected to positions that today we would classify as politicians in the first parliament known in history, that of Iceland.

In addition to his Edda, Snorri was Author also of a saga, a historical account (for the concept of the time) that explains events that occurred during the settlement phase of Iceland.

As a sage, Snorri included different versions of the same legend, thus bequeathing us a more vivid and dynamic panorama of Norse mythology.

Snorri's Prose Edda is divided into four sections, the second of which is a compendium of Norse mythology, the rest being a collection of resources to make poetic and stylistic compositions.

The Edda of Snorri mentions the other age, that of Saemund or Greater.

The Poetic Edda is the transcription of the collection of poems preserved in the medieval Codex Regius, a contemporary of the Prose Edda and cited by it, but which was lost until 1643.

It was Brynjólfur Sveinsson, bishop of Skálholt (Iceland), who copied these texts when an original came to him.

Brynjólfur himself attributed the found manuscript to Saemund the Wise, an Icelandic priest and leader who lived at horse of the 11th and 12th centuries, and with this authorship he presented them to the King of Norway (hence it is known as Codex Regius), although it is possible that the text found out a compilation of earlier texts.

The content of the poems that we find in this Edda are various stories from Norse mythology that, however, do not compose a corpus, since they lack some poems and songs, but I would dare to say that they represent more than half of those that have survived to this day.

The exact time in which the original compositions would have been made is unknown, but these would be between the years 800 and 1000.

Photo: Fotolia - Erica Guilane Nachez

Themes in Eddas of Norse Mythology