This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

But the king's heart swells, bulging with courage in battle, where heroes sink down...
Over a period of twenty years Snorri Sturluson, scholar, courtier and poet, compiled the prose "Edda" as a textbook for young poets who wished to praise kings. His work surveys the content, style and metres of traditional Viking poetry and includes a lengthy poem of Snorrie's own, praising the king of Norway. Ironically, Snorri was killed in his own cellar in Iceland in 1241 on the instigation of the king of Norway, as a result of political intrigue.
The "Edda" contains the most extensive account of Norse myths and legends that has survived from the Middle Ages as well as the popular stories of Odin winning back the mead of poetic inspiration and Thor fishing for the Midgard serpent.

"[Snorri Sturluson] speaks-- as almost no other historian ever has spoken-- with the authority of a man whose masterful skills would have made him one of the formidable, foremost in any of the events he records. So he saturates even remotely past happenings with a gripping first-hand quality...Hollander's translation is very good, fresh on every page ...Wherever you open the book, the life grips you and you read on...." -- Ted Hughes, New York Review of Books "Among the many contibutions to world literature that ancient Iceland has given us, Heimskringla stands out as one of the truly monumental works. Among medieval European histories in the vernacular it has no equal." -- Modern Philology

Beginning with the dim prehistory of the mythical gods and their descendants, Heimskringla recounts the history of the kings of Norway through the reign of Olaf Haraldsson, who became Norway's patron saint. Once found in most homes and schools and still regarded as a national treasure, Heimskringla influenced the thinking and literary style of Scandinavia over several centuries.

"Prose Edda" is a work without predecessor or parallel. It was designed as a handbook for poets to compose in the style of the skalds of the Viking ages. It is an exposition of the rule of poetic diction with many examples, applications, and retellings of myths and legends. 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 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 "Skaldskaparmal" (Poetic diction). 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.

"The Prose Edda," or "Younger Edda," is a classic collection of Norse myths of the Icelandic people. Widely considered as compiled by Icelandic scholar and historian Snorri Sturluson around the year 1220, "The Prose Edda" contains a euhemerized Prologue followed by three tales: the 'Gylfaginning', the story of the creation and destruction of the world of the Norse gods; the 'Sk ldskaparm l', consists of a dialogue between gir, a god associated with the sea, and Bragi, a skaldic god; and the 'H ttatal', a collection of Old Norse poetry including original compositions by Snorri Sturluson. This classic collection of Old Norse myths is one of the most important of the Icelandic eddas and a must read for fans and scholars of Norse mythology.