The Eddas

A Two medieval collections are the principal sources for Old Norse mythology. The Poetic Edda is an anonymous collection of poems preserved chiefly in Codex Regius (GKS 2365 4to, ca. 1270), discovered in 1643 by Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson and once attributed to Sæmundr fróði, an attribution scholarship now rejects. The Prose Edda, Snorri's Edda, is Snorri Sturluson's handbook of skaldic poetry, probably compiled around 1220 and preserved in four principal manuscripts: Codex Upsaliensis (DG 11), Codex Regius of the Prose Edda (GKS 2367 4to), Codex Wormianus (AM 242 fol), and Codex Trajectinus.

The Poetic Edda

Thirty-one poems in Codex Regius plus a small number of texts traditionally counted with the collection, thirty-five lays in all in this catalogue. Mythological poems (Völuspá, Hávamál, Grímnismál …), heroic poems (the Sigurd cycle, Atlakviða, Hamðismál), and additions (Baldrs draumar, Rígsþula).

The Prose Edda

Snorri's Prologue, the mythological Gylfaginning (54 chapters), the handbook of skaldic diction Skáldskaparmál, and the metrical showcase Háttatal (102 stanzas).

Every poem and every chapter gets its own page with a fact box, stanza- or chapter-by-stanza translation, categorised commentary, and a full bibliography.