The Prose Edda ENG, EDDA
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
The Prose Edda
of Snorri Sturlson
Translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur [1916]
The Prose Edda is a text on Old Norse Poetics, written about 1200 by the Icelandic poet and politican Snorri
Sturlson, who also wrote the
The Prose Edda contains a wide variety of lore which a Skald (poet) of
the time would need to know. The text is of interest to modern readers because it contains consistent narratives of
many of the plot lines of Norse mythology. Although Snorri was a Christian, he treated the ancient Pagan
mythology with great respect. To this end, Snorri created a quasi-historical backstory for the Norse Gods. Hence
the Prose Edda is of interest because it contains one of the first attempts to devise a rational explanation for
mythological and legendary events. It is also notable because it contains fragments of a number of manusripts
which Snorri had access to, but which are now lost.
THE PROSE EDDA
BY
SNORRI STURLUSON
TRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
ARTHUR GILCHRIST BRODEUR, Ph.D.
Instructor in English Philology in the University of California
NEW YORK
THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION
1916
{scanned at sacred-texts.com, July 2001}
TO
WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD
WHO MADE THE WORK POSSIBLE
THE TRANSLATOR
RENDERS THE TRIBUTE OF
THIS BOOK
INTRODUCTION
ix
PROLOGUE
1
GYLFAGINNING
11
SKåLDSKAPARMAL
87
INDEX
243
INTRODUCTION
THE life of Snorri Sturluson fell in a great but contradictory age, when all that was noble and
spiritual in men seemed to promise social regeneration, and when bloody crimes and sordid
ambitions gave this hope the lie. Not less than the rest of Europe, Scandinavia shared in the bitter
conflict between the law of the spirit and the law of the members. The North, like England and
the Continent, felt the religious fervor of the Crusades, passed from potential anarchy into union
and national consciousness, experienced a literary and spiritual revival, and suffered the fury of
persecution and of fratricidal war. No greater error could be committed than to think of the
Northern lands as cut off by barriers of distance, tongue, and custom from the heart of the
Continent, and in consequence as countries where men's thoughts and deeds were more
unrestrained and uncivilized. Even as England, France, and Germany acted and reacted upon one
another in politics, in social growth, in art, and in literature, so all three acted upon Scandinavia,
and felt the reaction of her influence.
Nearly thirty years before Snorri's birth, the Danish kingdom had been the plaything of a German
prince, Henry the Lion, who set up or pulled down her rulers as he saw fit; and during Snorri's
boyhood, one of these rulers, Valdamarr I, contributed to Henry's political destruction. In
Norway, Sverrir Sigurdarson had swept away the old social order, and replaced it with one more
highly centralized; had challenged the power of Rome without, and that of his own nobles
within, like Henry II of England and Frederick Barbarossa. After Sverrir's death, an interregnum
followed; but at last there came to the throne a monarch
{p. x}
both powerful and enlightened, who extended the reforms of Sverrir, and having brought about
unity and peace, quickened the intellectual life of Norway with the fructifying influence of
French and English literary models. Under the patronage of this ruler, Hkon Hkonarson, the
great romances, notably those of Chrtien de Troyes, were translated into Norse, some of them
passing over into Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic. Somewhat later, Matthew Paris, the great
scholar and author, who represented the culture both of England and of France, spent eighteen
months in Norway, though not until after Snorri's death.
Iceland itself, in part through Norway, in part directly, drew from the life of the Continent:
S½mundr the Learned, who had studied in Paris, founded a school at Oddi; Sturla Sigvatsson,
Snorri's nephew, made a pilgrimage to Rome, and visited Germany; and Snorri himself shows, in
the opening pages of his Heimskringla, or History of the Kings of Norway, the influence of that
great romantic cycle, the Matter of Troy.
Snorri Sturluson was in the fullest sense a product of his time. The son of a turbulent and
ambitious chieftain, Sturla Thrdsson, of Hvamm in western Iceland, he was born to a heritage
of strife and avarice. The history of the Sturlung house, like that of Douglas in Scotland, is a long
and perplexed chronicle of intrigue, treachery, and assassination, in all of which Snorri played an
active part. But even as among the Douglases there was one who, however deep in treason and
intrigue, yet loved learning and poetry, and was distinguished in each, so Snorri, involved by
sordid political chicanery, found time not only to compose original verse which was admired by
his contemporaries, but also to record the myths and legends, the history
{p. xi}
and poetry, of his race, in a prose that is one of the glories of the age.
The perplexing story of Snorri's life, told by his nephew, Sturla Thrdsson,[1] may well be
omitted from this brief discussion. A careful and scholarly account of it by Eirkr Magnsson[1]
will be found in the introduction to the sixth volume of
The Saga Library
. From Snorri's
marriage in 1199 to his assassination at the hands of his son-in-law, Gizurr Thrvaldsson, in
1241, there was little in his life which his biographer could relate with satisfaction. His friends,
his relatives, his very children, Snorri sacrificed to his insatiate ambition. As chief and as
lawman, he gave venal decisions and perverted justice; he purposed at any cost to become the
most powerful man in Iceland. There is even ground for belief that he deliberately undertook to
betray the republic to Hkon of Norway, and that only his lack of courage prevented him from
subverting his country's liberty. Failure brought about his death, for Snorri, who had been a
favorite at the Norwegian court, incurred the King's suspicion after fifteen years had passed with
no accomplishment; and daring to leave Norway against Hkon's command, he fell under the
royal displeasure. Gizurr, his murderer, proved to have been acting at the express order of the
King.
Eirkr Magnsson, in the admirable biography to which I have referred, attempts to apologize for
Snorri's faults on the ground that be "really compares very favorably with the leading
contemporary
godar
[chieftains] of the land." It is true that he made no overt attempt to keep his
treasonable
[1.
Sturlunga Saga
, edited by G. Vigfsson, Oxford, 1878.
2.
The Saga Library
, edited by William Morris and Eirkr Magnsson, vol. vi;
Heimskringla
, vol. iv, London, 1905.]
{p. xii}
promise to Norway, but I think it by no means certain that repentance stayed his hand. Indeed,
familiar as he was with the hopelessly anarchical conditions of his native land, its devastating
feuds, its plethora of lawless, unscrupulous chiefs, all striving for wealth and influence, none
inspired with a genuine affection for the commonwealth, nor understanding the fundamental
principles of democracy, Snorri may well have felt that it were far better to endure a foreign ruler
who could compel union and peace. If this was the motive underlying his self-abasement at the
Norwegian court and his promises to Hkon, then weakness alone is sufficient to account for his
failure; if he had no such purpose, he must be regarded as both weak and treacherous.
It is with relief that we turn to Snorri's works, to find in them, at least, traces of genuine nobility
of spirit. The unscrupulous politician kept sound and pure some corner of his heart in which to
enshrine his love for his people's glorious past, for the myths of their ancient gods, half grotesque
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]