The Younger Edda is a prose
paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are
lost, together with a treatise on metre, written by the historian
Snorri Sturluson about 1220.
This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though
convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries. It was early
used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking,
and applied in this sense to Snorri's work. When the poems on which
his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a
misunderstanding applied the name to them also; and as they attributed
the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056-1133),
it was long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in
favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda. From its
application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use,
(1) as a general term for Norse mythology; (2) as a convenient name
to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems
from the elaborate formality of the Skalds.
The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although
the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable. The majority
probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating
does not necessitate the ascription of the shape in which the legends
are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With
regard to the place of their composition opinions vary widely,
Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions;
but the evidence is rather questionable, and I incline to leave
them to the country which has preserved them.
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