First time in Penguin Classics for Scandinavia's best known work of literature and the principal source for knowledge about Norse mythology
One of the great storybooks of the middle ages: a master storyteller from the thirteenth century recounts classic tales of Icelandic mythology along with a lesson to young poets on the importance of learning, respecting, and continuing traditional Icelandic poetic styles.
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Summary
First time in Penguin Classics for Scandinavia's best known work of literature and the principal source for knowledge about Norse mythology
One of the great storybooks of the middle ages: a master storyteller from the thirteenth century recounts classic tales of Icelandic mythology along with a lesson to young poets on the importance of learning, respecting, and continuing traditional Icelandic poetic styles.
Description
First time in Penguin Classics for Scandinavia's best known work of literature and the principal source for knowledge about Norse mythologyThe Prose Edda is the most renowned of all works of Scandinavian literature and our most extensive source for Norse mythology. Written in Iceland a century after the close of the Viking Age, it tells ancient stories of the Norse creation epic and recounts the battles that follow as gods, giants, dwarves and elves struggle for survival. It also preserves the oral memory of heroes, warrior kings and queens. In clear prose interspersed with powerful verse, the Edda provides unparalleled insight into the gods' tragic realization that the future holds one final cataclysmic battle, Ragnarok, when the world will be destroyed. These tales from the pagan era have proved to be among the most influential of all myths and legends, inspiring modern works as diverse as Wagner's Ring Cycle and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
About the Author
Snorri Sturluson (Author)Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) was born in western Iceland, the son of an upstart Icelandic chieftain. In the early thirteenth century, Snorri rose to become Iceland's richest and, for a time, its most powerful leader. Twice he was elected law-speaker at the Althing, Iceland's national assembly, and twice he went abroad to visit Norwegian royalty. An ambitious and sometimes ruthless leader, Snorri was also a man of learning, with deep interests in the myth, poetry and history of the Viking Age. He has long been assumed to be the author of some of medieval Iceland's greatest works, including the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, the latter a saga history of the kings of Norway.
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