Edda de Snorri

Undoubtedly written from 1220 by Poet, Historian, Mythographe and Politician Icelandic Snorri Sturluson, Edda or Edda of Snorri ( Snorra Edda in Old norrois, language in which it is written), also known under the names of Edda in prose and Jeune Edda , want to be initially a Scandinavian handbook of Poésie traditional, the scaldic Poésie. But it is also and especially a complete and organized presentation Scandinavian Mythologie, which does of it one of the masterpieces of the medieval Littérature and traditional of the Icelandic Littérature.

The Edda played an important role in the redécouverte of the Germanic Mythologie at the 18th century and it was used as a basis, at the next century, the first research tasks on the subject. It indeed constitutes the independent source of our knowledge of the Scandinavian mythology, without which many other testimonys would remain incomprehensible. Composed more than two centuries after the end of the Paganism in Iceland, marked by the Christian culture and the literary creativity of its author, it has had however to be handled with prudence, the reliability of its testimony being for several decades the object of a debate between researchers.

Attribution of the Edda to Snorri Sturluson

See also: Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson was born in 1179 in Iceland. Member of the powerful family of the Sturlungar, it is high with Oddi, then one of the principal Icelandic arts centres. Thanks to alliances, it acquires a fortune and a crescents political role. From 1215 to 1219, it is titular high position in Iceland, that of Lögsögumad (president of the Althing ). In 1218, it is invited to the court of Norway by the young king Hákon IV. It spends two years there, at the sides of the king and of its uncle, the Jarl Skuli, then regent. Snorri is committed supporting the Norwegian aimings on Iceland. On its return, this project is worth many enemies and, after his failure, his disgrace near the king to him. Iceland enters then during a time of exacerbation of the competitions between the principal clans of the island. Snorri is the victim in 1241, assassinated on order of king Hákon.

The attribution of the Edda in Snorri is for a long time established by several convergent sources. The Codex Upsaliensis in particular starts with the following sentences: “This book is called Edda. Snorri Sturluson compiled it way in which it is arranged here. ”.

Etymology

The etymology of “Edda” remains dubious, none the many assumptions advanced up to now not having joined together a consensus.

Some support that this word derives from the name of Oddi, city of the south of the Iceland where Snorri was high. Edda would thus mean “delivers of Oddi”. This assumption however is generally rejected. Anthony Faulkes, author of an edition and a translation in English of the Edda , thus considered to be it improbable “, at the same time on the plan lingusitic and historical”, since, being this last reason, Snorri did not live any more in Oddi when it composed his work.

Another rappochement was carried out with the word ódr , which wants to say “poetry, inspiration” in Vieux norrois. Just like Oddi, this assumption runs up against linguistic difficulties or, according to the expression of Régis Boyer, the “grandmother of any crowned knowledge”.

A last assumption makes derive edda from Latin edo , who means “I compose”. She is based on the fact that the word kredda (meaning “belief”) is attested and derives from Latin creed , “I believe”. Probably Latinist, Snorri could thus have invented the mot. Edda could in this case being translated by “poetic Art” . It is remainder with this significance which the word was then employed with the Middle Ages, several features of the characters of Trór and many dissociated episodes of its life appearing Énéide of Virgile in particular.

Eighteen generations later was born Vóden, “which we call Odin”, man of a great wisdom and having many gifts. His wife named Frígídá, “which we call Frigg”. Odin, which had the gift of clairvoyance, learned that it was to go in north. Also it left Turkey with a many continuation. Superiors in beauty and wisdom with the other men, the Ases (thus named because they came from Asia) were regarded soon as gods because, in each place where they remained, peace and prosperity accompanied them. Odin establishes its sons with the head of the regions crossed: three of them divided Saxony (among their descendants appear in particular Baldr and Fródi, but also Rerir, the ancestor of the Völsungar); Skjöld, from which the Skjöldungar result, controlled Denmark; Yngvi, ancestor of the Ynglingar, reigned in Sweden, where Odin founded its capital after the king Gylfi had offered the capacity to him; Sæming finally directed Norway.

The Gylfaginning

See also: Gylfaginning

The Gylfaginning ( “Mystification of Gylfi” as old man norrois) takes the form of a dialog between the king Gylfi and three characters reigning on Ásgard. Their maintenance is used as framework with a coherent presentation of Scandinavian mythology.

The king Gylfi reigned in Sweden. He offered one day to a vagrant who had distracted it part of her kingdom, as large as what four oxen could plow in one day and a night. But this vagrant was a ESA, Gefjon. The draft animals which it employed were actually the children whom it had had with a giant . They plowed so well the ground which a portion of territory was detached, forming the island of Zeeland. Surprised of the capacity of the Adzes, Gylfi wondered whether it did not come from the gods whom they révéraient. Also it for Ásgard got under way. When it arrived, it discovered a gigantic market, the Valhöll. It was introduced near the Masters of the places: High, Également-Haut and Troisième. Gylfi then questioned them on their gods. At the end of this questioning, Gylfi heard a great noise. When it looked around him, the market had disappeared: it had been the toy of an illusion.

In answer to the interrogations of Gylfi, its hosts tell initially the origin of the world, the birth of the first gods and the appearance of the man. He is then question of the ash Yggdrasil, which makes it possible in particular to evoke the source of Mimir and the Nornes. Comes then a successive presentation from the various gods, of Odin to Loki, whose three monstrous children (Fenrir, the snake of Midgard and Hel) are introduced. The goddesses and the Valkyries are also evoked. Valhöll is then described, then the Einherjar. The origin of the horse Sleipnir and thus the construction of Ásgard are also told. Gylfi then asks its interlocutors if Thor met forever more extremely than him. Those, reticent, are however constrained to tell its voyage to Útgardaloki. It is then question of the revenge of Thor about the snake of Midgard at the time of its voyage to Hymir. It is then the death of Baldr and the punishment of Loki which are told. Occurs then the account of the Crépuscule of the gods, and finally the evocation of the birth of a new world.

The Skáldskaparmál

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See also: Skáldskaparmál

In the Skáldskaparmál or Skaldskaparmal ( “Known as on poetry” ), of the lists of Kenning rear and of Heiti is the occasion to bring back many mythological and heroic accounts and to quote several poems scaldic.

The Skáldskaparmál has as a framework a sumptuous banquet given by the Ases in the honor of Ægir, presented here like a magician come from the island of Hlésey. At the time of the meal, Bragi, the god of poetry, provides to its neighbor at table of long lists of Heiti and Kenning rear , and tells him many stories allowing to explain the origin of it.

Certain of these stories belong to mythology: the removal of Idun by Thjazi, and how Skadi chooses Njörd for husband, the origin and the flight of the poetic Hydromel, combat of Thor against the giant S Hrungnir and Geirröd or the manufacture of the invaluable objects of the gods. Others are relating to heroes or legendary kings: Snorri thus summarizes all the history of Sigurd and the Völsungar. It evokes also the kings Fródi and Hrólf kraki, as well as the Hjadningavíg.

The kenningar which appear in the Skáldskaparmál are borrowed from old Scalde S. Parfois, Snorri are not satisfied to quote a kenning , but bring back also long extracts of poems making it possible to explain it: the Haustlöng of Thjódólf of Hvínir, the Thórsdrápa of Eilíf Godrúnarson and the Ragnarsdrápa of Bragi Boddason are thus reproduced. Is also integrated into the Skáldskaparmál a poem considered as belonging to the poetic Edda although it does not appear in the Codex Regius : the Gróttasöng . The Skáldskaparmál includes/understands also lists of heiti . Its last part is presented in the form of Thulur (lists of versified names and heiti and using average mnemotechnics): the various manners are thus presented of designating the gods, the giants, the men and the women, the battle and the weapons, and finally the natural elements.

The Háttatal

The Háttatal ( “Enumeration of the meters” ) is initially a poem of praise in the honor of king Hákon and jarl Skuli. Conventional on the bottom - it rents glory, the courage and the generosity of the two men - it is characterized on the other hand by its form: its 102 Strophe S illustrate the hundred different meters which can be used by the scaldes. Each one is accompanied by a stylistic comment, which makes this part of the Edda a handbook of metric scaldic.

Models

The three principal parts of the Edda take the form of didactic dialogs. The origin of this presentation is to be sought so much side of medieval handbooks in Latin as the Elucidarius (translated into old man norrois at the 12th century) that poems eddic such as, particularly, the Vafthrúdnismál which, just like the Gylfaginning , is presented as a contest of wisdom which overcome will not leave alive.

Sources

Oral and written, collected in Iceland and Norway, the sources of Snorri are numerous. Oddi, where it was high, is one of the principal arts centres of the island. It is in addition probable that Snorri collected mythological materials at the time of its stay in Norway.

Snorri profited from excellent a knowledge of the vast poetic corpus written in language norroise. It frequently mentions its source in support of its dires: poems eddic mainly in the Gylfaginning (particularly the Völuspá , the Grímnismál and the Vafthrúdnismál ), poem scaldic in the Skáldskaparmál . In addition to the poem eddic appearing in the Codex Regius , it is probable that Snorri knew other similar poems which did not reach us: in addition to both poem which it quotes completely (the Gróttasöng and the Völuspá in skamma ), certain researchers located the trace of at least six other poems having been used as source for the Gylfaginning .

Objectives of Snorri

To preserve a poetic tradition in the process of disappearance

At the time of Snorri, oral poetry, traditional literary kind at the era Viking (and even at more moved back times) are in the process of disappearance It is true than this oral, known poetry under the name of scaldic Poésie (of the name of the Scalde S, poets attached to the court of a high-ranking person), is of a great formal complexity.

See also: scaldic Poetry

The conversion of Iceland to Christianity (999) especially caused deep cultural upheavals. The Église indeed brings with it the writing (the Icelanders knew hitherto only the runes, alphabet not very suitable for the drafting of long texts), and of new literary traditions. Régis Boyer showed that associated with traditions arts person already strongly anchored in Iceland, the influence of the Church, which stresses the importance of the history and introduced a new literary kind, the lives of saints ( vitae ), led to the birth, the end of the 12th century, of this new kind which is the saga . In addition, Iceland is subject to also at the time of Snori the influence of new literary forms come from abroad: Courtly romance, Tale of chivalry, Ballade by these new kinds, and which he thus wrote the Edda to preserve scaldic poetry.

To preserve Scandinavian mythology

In addition to the control of a metric extremely complex, scaldic poetry supposes also excellent knowledge of the myths and legends. It indeed requires the use of Heiti (synonymous) and of Kenning rear (periphrases) whose terms very often refer to the myths or the Scandinavian legends. kenningar indicating gold such as “hair of Sif”, “tribute of the otter”, “flour of Fródi” or “seed of Kraki” suppose to know the myths and legends to which they referents, with the risk for the young person scalde to lose and employ there in an erroneous way of the kenningar such as “flour of Kraki” or “seed of Fródi”.

Beyond this practical interest, the safeguarding of the myths and legends Scandinavian company by Snorri in the Gylfaginning and the Skáldskaparmál undoubtedly testifies to the “deep inclination for ancestral mythology”. The Skáldskaparmál in particular was used as reference to the type-setters of Rímur ”

These remarks of Anthony Faulkes reflect the opinion of all the commentators of the Edda . These qualities make of it an always popular work, read nowadays still in the Icelandic schools.

But the Edda holds especially its notoriety of its statute of independent source of Scandinavian mythology. It is its redécouverte out of the Scandinavian world at the 18th century which gave rise to a vast interest for the subject. It is due to the Monuments of the mythology and the poetry of the Celts, and particularly of the former Scandinavians of Switzerland Paul-Henri Mallet, from which one of the components is a translation of the Gylfaginning . Translated into German (1765-1769) then in English by the bishop Thomas Percy in 1770 pennies the title Northern Antiquities , this work is at the origin of the interest for Germanic mythology.

With the Saga de Njáll the Flaring , the Edda de Snorri is medieval Scandinavian work the most translated in the world. During thirty last years, one or the other of these texts was the subject of a translation in Chinese, in Czech, Dutch, Géorgien, German, English, Féringien, Finnois, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Rumanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenien and Spanish.

The documentary value of the Edda

Critical

The value of the Edda as a source making it possible to know and study Scandinavian mythology was disputed as of the end of the XIXe century, in particular by Viktor Rydberg. But the sharpest criticism came, at the beginning of the XXe century, German scandinavist Eugen Mogk.

According to Mogk, the accounts of Snorri are only “mythological tales” ( “mythologischen Novellen” ). This thesis rests initially on the fact that Snorri writes more than two centuries after the conversion of Iceland to Christianity (it dates from the year 1000). Since, the country was opened with the foreign influences (England, Ireland, France, Germany…) : the first bishops of Iceland and many clerks came from abroad, while several Icelandic scholars remained there (it is the case for example of Sæmund the scientist). The schools which opened in Iceland (in particular in Oddi, place where Snorri carried out its intellectual formation) exempted a teaching based on Christian and Latin works. The memory of paganism was thus largely unobtrusive where moment when Snorri wrote. Moreover, Mogk supported that it did not lay out of much more sources than those available today.

Its accounts are thus based on restricted sources that, especially, it was not able to include/understand, from where multiple faulty interpretations. In support of its thesis, Mogk tried to dismount the mechanics of creation of several myths told by Snorri. It is the case for example of that of the poetic Hydromel, which would be built on a bad interpretation of the kenning “kvasis dreyri” , which appears in a poem scaldic of Xe century ( Vellekla of Einarr skálaglamm). Snorri included/understood it like meaning “blood of Kvasir” ( “Kvasis blóð” , in the Skáldskaparmál (3) ). Mogk proposes very an other translation: according to him, to kvasir is a common noun indicating a drink (to be put in connection with the Slavic kvas ), while dreyri would be to take in the more general direction, and also attested, of “liquid”. Consequently, “kvasis dreyri” would thus mean “liquidates to kvasir”, therefore “to kvasir” (in the same way that Fenrisúlfr , “wolf of Fenrir”, indicates Fenrir). The double misinterpretation would be at the origin of the invention of a history which is differently not attested.

“Rehabilitation”

Once admitted that Snorri had access to many sources, remained the question in the way in which it inteprétées them. In this respect, work of Georges Dumézil, which endeavoured to show that the Icelandic writer was not this “recidivist of faking” only Eugen Mogk and partisans of a method which it describes as hypercritical believed to uncover, contributed to the “rehabilitation of Snorri”. Its approach specialist in comparative literature indeed made it possible to establish the authenticity of a certain number of myths reported in the Edda (and whose value had been disputed by Mogk), by establishing correspondences with myths belonging to other Indo-European religions . Thus, for Kvasir, it drew up a parallel with an episode of the Mahābhārata (III, 124) . The murder of Kvasir and the distribution of its blood in three containers, which intervenes at the end of a conflict between the gods, find their equivalent in the dismemberment of the demon Mada, whose name means “Intoxication”, which occurs following a structurally identical conflict of nature.

Nuances

If the interest of the work of Snorri is not disputed, the judgments on the documentary value of the Edda are moderate today.

Born in a country converted since several generations, having received a Christian education, it was inevitable that the vision which Snorri of Scandinavian paganism had was influenced by its Christian culture. In fact, the Christian influence is manifest in certain passages of the Edda : it is the case, obviously, of the prolog and the epilog of the Gylfaginning . It is the case also, like had already noticed it Jacob Grimm, of the distinction between luminous Alfes and Alfes blacks, which strongly evokes the opposition between angels and demons. In the same way, the description of the kingdom of Hel must more with the representations of the Christian Enfer that to a traditional Germanic design.

In addition, Snorri is initially a writer, with what that implies of creativity. Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson underlined it, supporting that “as a whole, Snorri a faithful image of pagan mythology gave us, such as it found it among poets”, with these reserves which the poems who were used as sources in Snorri themselves underwent a Christian influence, and which Snorri “was especially a whole literary artist, and not an anthropologist or a historian of the religions”.

Manuscripts and editions of reference

Manuscripts

See also: Handwritten of Edda de Snorri

Seven manuscripts of the Edda de Snorri reached us: six composed with the the Middle Ages, the other about 1600. None is complete, and each one presents alternatives. In addition to three fragments, the four principal manuscripts are: the Codex Upsaliensis , the Codex Wormianus , the Codex Trajectinus and especially the Codex Regius .

The Codex Upsaliensis (dimension DG 11), composed in the first quarter of the 14th century, is the oldest preserved manuscript of the Edda de Snorri . It is of the interest to sometimes offer alternatives which are not found in any of the three other principal manuscripts (the name Gylfaginning is not thus provided that by this only text). It is preserved at the library of the Université of Uppsala (Sweden).

The Codex Regius (dimension GKS 2367 4°) was written in first half of XIVe century. It is most complete of the four manuscripts, and seems closest to the original. This is why it is used as a basis for the editions and the translations of the Edda . Its name comes from its conservation during several centuries with the royal library of the Denmark. From 1973 to 1997, several hundreds of old manuscripts Icelandic were restored by Denmark in Iceland, among which, in 1985, the Codex Regius , which is preserved today by the Institut Árni Magnússon at Reykjavík.

The Codex Wormianus (dimension AM 242 fol) was written in the middle of XIVe century. It always forms part of the Collection arnamagnéenne (of the name of Árni Magnússon) with Copenhagen.

The Codex Trajectinus (dimension 1374) was written about 1600. It is about a copy of a manuscript which would have been composed in second half of the 13th century. It is preserved at the library of the Université of Utrecht (Netherlands).

Editions of reference