The name of two separate collections of Old Norse literature. The Elder Edda, long handed down by oral tradition, dating from the 9th-c to the 12th-c, consists of heroic and mythological poems. It comprises mythological poems featuring Germanic gods and goddesses and heroic lays based on early Germanic history. The Younger or Prose Edda was written (mainly in prose) in the early 13th-c by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson. It contains a discussion of skaldic poetry, giving rules and examples, and a poem in honour of the king and earl of Norway.
The Edda are collections of poetically narrated folk-tales relating to Norse Mythology or Norse heroes. The most well-known are the Icelandic Poetic Edda (also known as Elder Edda) and the Prose Edda (also known as the Younger Edda), both of which were written during the 13th century. (See Ríg.) Another theory holds that edda derives from Old Norse óðr, "poetry."
The Poetic Edda
The Poetic Edda, also known as Sæmundar Edda or the Elder Edda, is a collection of Old Norse poems from the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri's Edda the Poetic Edda is the most important source we have on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.
Codex Regius was written in the 13th century but nothing is known of its whereabouts until 1643 when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then Bishop of Skálholt. At that time versions of Snorri's Edda were well known in Iceland but scholars speculated that there once was another Edda - an Elder Edda - which contained the pagan poems Snorri quotes in his book.
Bishop Brynjólfur sent Codex Regius as a present to the Danish king, hence the name.
The Prose Edda
The Younger Edda, known also as the Prose Edda or Snorri's Edda is an Icelandic manual of poetics which also contains many mythological stories.
It was written by the Icelandic scholar and historian Snorri Sturluson around 1220.
The Prose Edda consists of a Prologue and three separate books: the Gylfaginning (c 20 000 words), the Skáldskaparmál (c 50 000 words) and the Háttatal (c 20 000 words).
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