The Heimskringla and the Prose Edda

by Snorri Sturluson

THE HEIMSKRINGLA (Old Norse, 'the Circle of the World') is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas, recounting the lives of famous Scandinavian kings. First written about 1230 by Icelandic scholar and poet Snorri Sturluson (c. 1179-1241), the HEIMSKRINGLA contains the sagas of 16 Norse kings, beginning with the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair up to the death of Eystein Meyla in 1177, just before the birth of Snorri Sturluson. The PROSE EDDA is a collection of Norse mythology and epic poetry. It consists of the Gylfaginning ("the fooling of Gylfi"), a collection of Norse mythology, and the Skáldskaparmál, a book of poetic language used by Norse poets. THE • Ynglinga Saga• Halfdan the Black Saga• Harald Harfager's Saga• Hakon the Good's Saga• Saga of King Harald Grafeld and of Earl Hakon Son of Sigurd• King Olaf Trygvason's Saga• Saga of Olaf Haraldson (St. Olaf)• Saga of Magnus the Good• Saga of Harald Hardrade• Saga of Olaf Kyrre• Magnus Barefoot's Saga• Saga of Sigurd the Crusader and His Brothers Eystein and Olaf• Saga of Magnus the Blind and of Harald Gille• Saga of Sigurd, Inge, and Eystein, the Sons of Harald• Saga of Hakon Herdebreid (Hakon the Broad-Shouldered)• Magnus Erlingson's SagaTHE PROSE • Gylfaginning• Skáldskaparmál

Genres: Mythology

608 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 3, 2012

About the author

Snorri Sturluson (also spelled Snorre Sturlason) was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He was the author of the Prose Edda or Younger Edda, which consists of Gylfaginning ("the fooling of Gylfi"), a narrative of Norse mythology, the Skáldskaparmál, a book of poetic language, and the Háttatal, a list of verse forms. He was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of Egils saga.

.

Reviews

[Philiplibri · Rating 4 out of 5]

(recension av Snorres edda. Heimskringla har jag också läst, men skrivit en separat recension för den).

Snorres edda är indelad i olika delar. Den första delen berättar om de nordiska gudarna och världens undergång, ragnarök. De resterande delarna handlar om hur man skapar "skaldemål", dvs poesin på den tiden. Det senare finner jag ointressant men historierna om gudarna är helt fantastiska. De är så tokiga men kärvänliga, och jag värms av tanken på att dessa historier berättas framför lägereldar i århundraden för mer än tusen år sedan. Någonting inom mig resonerar verkligen med dessa historier , och tanken om mina anrika förfäder. Kommer nog att läsa om denna nedteckning mången gång framöver livet.

[Jonathan Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing

However, this is such at variance with other translation (and, indeed the archaeology of the Norse) that I am not willing to give it a higher rating. Nonetheless, it does contain snippets of information not present in other translations and I would be loathe to give it fewer than three stars in case some of that additional information is important. One must be very careful with judgements based on partial information.