Early in his career, he won a reputation at home and in Norway for his poetic talents. He was born in western Iceland, the son of a great chieftain. His books include Heimskringla Saga, Egil's Saga, and Saint Oláf's Saga. The Prose Edda forms the basis of what the world knows as Norse mythology, and contains legends of the creation of the cosmos and the best-known stories of Odin. Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), Iceland's most versatile literary genius, wrote about poetry, mythology, and the lives of Norse kings. 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. It was designed as a handbook for poets to compose in the style of the skalds of the Viking ages. 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). 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. The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson: Tales from Norse Mythology, Volumes 1178-1241 From inside the book What people are saying - Write a review Other editions.

It is an exposition of the rule of poetic diction with many examples, applications, and retellings of myths and legends. The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorris Edda or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early. Prose Edda is a work without predecessor or parallel. Edda means “poetic art,” and Sturluson’s guidebook for Icelandic poets has been a timeless inspiration for generations of writers around the world, including Wagner, Borges, and Tolkien.The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology By Snorri Sturluson (Author), Jean I Young (Translator) Iceland’s great literary genius, Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), combined oral traditions, genealogical records, and old songs to immortalize his country’s glorious past. The wellspring of modern knowledge of Norse mythology, these sagas preserved the Vikings’ narrative style from an invading European influence. They also depict the comic and disastrous results of ambition, passion, and destiny. Resounding with a poetic instinct for the picturesque, the dramatic, and the human, they form vivid portraits of the characters’ personalities. Spanning the dawn of the world’s creation to its fiery destruction, these gripping Norse legends chronicle the triumphs and tragedies of a lost era. Gods and giants bestride these ancient tales, in which warrior queens and noble heroes battle with elves, dwarves, and fearsome monsters.

Prose edda