The

Poetic Edda

, also known as the

Elder Edda

or

Sæmundar Edda

[Sæmundr's Edda], is a collection of Old Icelandic poems about the Norse gods and heroes. The name Edda is not original to the manuscript(s). The primary and largest manuscript of the collection, Codex Regius 2365 4to, was acquired by Bishop Brynjólfr Sveinsson in 1643. At the time it was assumed that Snorri Sturluson had drawn on a lost collection of poems for his own Edda, a book of poetics and mythology which was written around 1220. The newly discovered collection was taken as Snorri's source and named

Sæmundar Edda

on the assumption that it was written by Sæmundr inn fróði [Sæmundr the learned]. Sæmundr died in 1133, which would put the writing of his Edda nearly a century before Snorri's. Based on this…

1407 words

Citation: Olsen, Carl. "Edda, the Poetic". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 November 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5444, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5444 Edda, the Poetic 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.