The Prose Edda

The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturlson Translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur [1916] The Prose Edda is a text on Old Norse Poetics, written about 1200 by the Icelandic poet and politican Snorri Sturlson, who also wrote the Heimskringla. The Prose Edda contains a wide variety of lore which a Skald (poet) of the time would need to know. The text is of interest to modern readers because it contains consistent narratives of many of the plot lines of Norse mythology. Although Snorri was a Christian, he treated the ancient Pagan mythology with great respect. To this end, Snorri created a quasi-historical backstory for the Norse Gods. Hence the Prose Edda is of interest because it contains one of the first attempts to devise a rational explanation for mythological and legendary events. It is also notable because it contains fragments of a number of manusripts which Snorri had access to, but which are now lost. THE PR SE EDDA BY SN RRI STURLUS N TRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ARTHUR GILCHRIST BR DEUR, Ph.D. Instructor in English Philology in the University of California NEW YORK THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION 1916 {scanned at sacred-texts.com, July 2001} TO WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD WHO MADE THE WORK POSSIBLE THE TRANSLATOR RENDERS THE TRIBUTE OF THIS BOOK INTRODUCTION ix PROLOGUE 1 GYLFAGINNING 11 SKLDSKAPARMAL 87 INDEX 243 INTR DUCTI N THE life of Snorri Sturluson fell in a great ,ut contradictory age, when all that was no,le and spiritual in men seemed to promise social regeneration, and when ,loody crimes and sordid am,itions gave this hope the lie. Not less than the rest of Europe, Scandinavia shared in the ,itter conflict ,et1een the la1 of the spirit and the la1 of the mem,ers. The North, like England and the Continent, felt the religious fervor of the Crusades, passed from potential anarchy into union and national consciousness, experienced a literary and spiritual revival, and suffered the fury of persecution and of fratricidal war. No greater error could ,e committed than to think of the Northern lands as cut off ,y ,arriers of distance, tongue, and custom from the heart of the Continent, and in consequence as countries where men's thoughts and dee.s were more unrestrained and uncivili:ed. Even as England, France, and Germany acte. and reacted upon one another in politics, in social growth, in art, and in literature, so all three acted upon Scandinavia, and felt the reaction of her influence. Nearly thirty years ,efore Snorri9s ,irth, the Danish kingdom had ,een the plaything of a German prince, Henry the Lion, 1ho set up or pulled down her rulers as he sa1 fit; and during Snorri9s ,oyhood, one of these rulers, Valdamarr I, contri,uted to Henry9s political destruction. In Nor1ay, Sverrir Sigurdarson had s1ept a1ay the old social order, and replaced it with one more highly centrali:e.; had challenged the power of Rome without, and that of his own no,les 1ithin, like Henry II of England and Frederick Bar,arossa. After Sverrir9s death, an interregnum followe.; ,ut at last there came to the throne a monarch =p. x> ,oth powerful and enlightened, who extended the reforms of Sverrir, and having ,rought a,out unity and peace, quickened the intellectual life of Nor1ay with the fructifying influence of French and English literary models. Under the patronage of this ruler, H?7on H?konarson, the great romances, nota,ly those of Chrétien de Troyes, were translated into Norse, some of them passing over into S1edish, Danish, and Icelandic. Some1hat later, Matthe1 Paris, the great scholar and author, who represented the culture ,oth of England and of France, spent eighteen months in Nor1ay, though not until after Snorri9s death. Iceland itself, in part through Nor1ay, in part directly, dre1 from the life of the ContinentA SBmundr the Learned, who had studied in Paris, founded a school at Oddi; Sturla Sigvatsson, Snorri9s nephe1, ma.e a pilgrimage to Rome, and visited Germany; and Snorri himself shows, in the opening pages of his Heimskringla, or History of the Kings of Nor1ay0 the influence of that great romantic cycle, the Matter of Troy. Snorri Sturluson was in the fullest sense a product of his time. The son of a tur,ulent and am,itious chieftain, Sturla T2C&dsson, of Hvamm in western Iceland, he 1as ,orn to a heritage of strife and avarice. The history of the Sturlung house, like that of Douglas in Scotland, is a long and perplexed chronicle of intrigue, treachery, and assassination, in all of which Snorri played an active part. But even as among the Douglases there was one 1ho, however deep in treason and intrigue, yet loved learning and poetry, and 1as distinguished in each, so Snorri, involved ,y sordid political chicanery, found time not only to compose original verse which was admired ,y his contemporaries, ,ut also to record the myths and legends, the history =p. xi> and poetry, of his race, in a prose that is one of the glories of the age. The perplexing story of Snorri9s life, told ,y his nephe1, Sturla T2C&dsson,[1] may 1ell ,e omitted from this ,rief discussion. A careful and scholarly account of it ,y EirFkr Magnússon[1] 1ill ,e found in the introduction to the sixth volume of The Saga Library. From Snorri9s marriage in 1199 to his assassination at the hands of his sonIinIla1, Gi:urr T2C&valdsson, in 1241, there was little in his life which his ,iographer could relate with satisfaction. His friends, his relatives, his very children, Snorri sacrificed to his insatiate am,ition. As chief and as la1man, he gave venal decisions and perverted Justice; he purposed at any cost to ,ecome the most powerful man in Iceland. There is even ground for ,elief that he deli,erately undertook to ,etray the repu,lic to H?kon of Nor1ay, and that only his lack of courage prevented him from su,verting his country9s li,erty. Failure ,rought a,out his death, for Snorri, 1ho had ,een a favorite at the Nor1egian court, incurred the King's suspicion after fifteen years had passed with no accomplishment; and daring to leave Nor1ay against H?kon9s command, he fell under the royal displeasure. Gi:urr, his murderer, proved to have ,een acting at the express order of the King. EirFkr Magnússon, in the admira,le ,iography to 1hich I have referred, attempts to apologi:e for Snorri9s faults on the ground that ,e "really compares very favora,ly with the leading contemporary godar [chieftainsE of the land." It is true that he made no overt attempt to keep his treasona,le D1. Sturlunga Saga0 e.ite. ,y G. VigfGsson0 Oxfor.0 1878. 2. The Saga Library0 e.ite. ,y William Morris an. EirF7r MagnGsson0 vol. vi; Heimskringla0 vol. iv0 Lon.on0 1905.E =p. xii> promise to Nor1ay, ,ut I think it ,y no means certain that repentance stayed his hand. Indeed, familiar as he was with the hopelessly anarchical conditions of his native land, its devastating feuds, its plethora of la1less, unscrupulous chiefs, all striving for wealth and influence, none inspired with a genuine affection for the common1ealth, nor understanding the fundamental principles of democracy, Snorri may well have felt that it were far ,etter to endure a foreign ruler 1ho could compel union and peace. If this was the motive underlying his selfIa,asement at the Nor1egian court and his promises to H?kon, then 1eakness alone is sufficient to account for his failure; if he had no such purpose, he must ,e regarded as ,oth weak and treacherous. It is with relief that we turn to Snorri9s works, to find in them, at least, traces of genuine no,ility of spirit. The unscrupulous politician kept sound and pure some corner of his heart in which to enshrine his love for his people9s glorious past, for the myths of their ancient gods, half grotesque and half su,limeA for the ChristIlike Baldr; for Promethean Odin and TNr, sacrificing eye and hand to save the race; for the tears of FreyJa, the tragic sorrows of Gudrún, the pitiful end of Svanhildr, the magnificent, allIdevastating fire of RagnarO76 His interest in these wondrous things, like Scott9s love for the heroes, ,eliefs, and customs of the Scottish folk, was, I think, primarily antiquarian. Indefatiga,le in research, with an artist9s eye for the picturesque, a poet9s feeling for the dramatic and the human, he create. the most vivid, vital histories that have yet ,een penned. Accurate ,eyond the manner of his age, gifted with genius for expression, divining the human personalities, the comic =p. xiii> or tragic interplay of am,itions, passions, and destinies ,ehind the mere chronicled events, he had almost ideal qualities as an historian. Poet he was too, though the codified rules, the cryptic phrase, and conventional expression, 1hich indeed K,oundK together the words of the singers of ancient Scandinavia, must spoil his verse for us. Yet it is well to remem,er that in his own lifetime, not his natural prose, ,ut his artificial poetry was famous throughout the North. Snorri9s greatest work is undou,tedly the Heimskringla6D1E Beginning with a rationali:ed account of the founding of Northern civili:ation ,y the ancient gods, he proceeds through heroic legend to the historical period, and follows the careers of his heroes on the throne, in Eastern courts and camps, or on forays in distant lands, from the earliest times to the reign of Sverrir, who came to the throne in 1184, five years after the author9s ,irth.

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