The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda
rhetorical portion of the Younger Edda, and its date can therefore
safely be put at about 1250. The author of the treatise on the alphabet
is not known, but Professor Keyser thinks it must have been written, its
first chapter, about the year 1150, and its second chapter about the
year 1200. The forewords and afterwords are evidently also from another
pen. Their author is unknown, but they are thought to have been written
about the year 1300. To sum up, then, we arrive at this conclusion: The
mythological material of the Younger Edda is as old as the Teutonic
race. Parts of it are written by authors unknown to fame. A small
portion is the work of Olaf Thordsson. The most important portion is
written, or perhaps better, compiled, by Snorre Sturleson, and the whole
is finally edited and furnished with forewords and afterwords, early in
the fourteenth century,--according to Keyser, about 1320-1330.
About the name Edda there has also been much learned discussion. Some
have suggested that it may be a mutilated form of the word Odde, the
home of Sæmund the Wise, who was long supposed to be the compiler of the
Elder Edda. In this connection, it has been argued that possibly Sæmund
had begun the writing of the Younger Edda, too. Others derive the word
from _óðr_ (mind, soul), which in poetical usage also means song,
poetry. Others, again, connect Edda with the Sanscrit word Veda, which
is supposed to mean knowledge. Finally, others adopt the meaning which
the word has where it is actually used in the Elder Edda, and where it
means great-grandmother. Vigfusson adopts this definition, and it is
certainly both scientific and poetical. What can be more beautiful than
the idea that our great ancestress teaches her descendants the sacred
traditions, the concentrated wisdom, of the race? To sum up, then,
we say the Younger, or Prose, or Snorre’s Edda has been produced at
different times by various hands, and the object of its authors has been
to produce a manual for the skalds. In addition to the forewords and
afterwords, it contains two books, one greater (Gylfaginning) and one
lesser (Brage’s Speech), giving a tolerably full account of Norse
mythology. Then follows Skaldskaparmal, wherein is an analysis of the
various circumlocutions practiced by the skalds, all illustrated by
copious quotations from the poets. How much of these three parts is
written by Snorre is not certain, but on the other hand, there is no
doubt that he is the author of Hattatal (Clavis Metrica), which gives an
enumeration of metres. To these four treatises are added four chapters
on grammar and rhetoric. The writer of the oldest grammatical treatise
is thought to be one Thorodd Runemaster, who lived in the middle of the
twelfth century; and the third treatise is evidently written by Olaf
Thordsson Hvitaskald, the nephew of Snorre, a scholar who spent some
time at the court of the Danish king, Valdemar the Victorious.
The Younger Edda contains the systematized theogony and cosmogony of our
forefathers, while the Elder Edda presents the Odinic faith in a series
of lays or rhapsodies. The Elder Edda is poetry, while the Younger Edda
is mainly prose. The Younger Edda may in one sense be regarded as the
sequel or commentary of the Elder Edda. Both complement each other, and
both must be studied in connection with the sagas and all the Teutonic
traditions and folk-lore in order to get a comprehensive idea of the
asa-faith. The two Eddas constitute, as it were, the Odinic Bible. The
Elder Edda is the Old Testament, the Younger Edda the New. Like the Old
Testament, the Elder Edda is in poetry. It is prophetic and enigmatical.
Like the New Testament, the Younger Edda is in prose; it is lucid, and
gives a clue to the obscure passages in the Elder Edda. Nay, in many
respects do the two Eddas correspond with the two Testaments of the
Christian Bible.
It is a deplorable fact that the religion of our forefathers seems to be
but little cared for in this country. The mythologies of other nations
every student manifests an interest for. He reads with the greatest zeal
all the legends of Rome and Greece, of India and China. He is familiar
with every room in the labyrinth of Crete, while when he is introduced
to the shining halls of Valhal and Gladsheim he gropes his way like a
blind man. He does not know that Idun, with her beautiful apples, might,
if applied to, render even greater services than Ariadne with her
wonderful thread. When we inquire whom Tuesday and Wednesday and
Thursday and Friday are named after, and press questions in reference to
Tyr, Odin, Thor and Freyja, we get at best but a wise and knowing look.
Are we, then, as a nation, like the ancient Jews, and do we bend the
knee before the gods of foreign nations and forsake the altars of our
own gods? What if we then should suffer the fate of that unhappy
people--be scattered over all the world and lose our fatherland? In
these Eddas our fathers have bequeathed unto us all their profoundest,
all their sublimest, all their best thought. They are the concentrated
result of their greatest intellectual and spiritual effort, and it
behooves us to cherish this treasure and make it the fountain at which
the whole American branch of the Ygdrasil ash may imbibe a united
national sentiment. It is not enough to brush the dust off these gods
and goddesses of our ancestors and put them up on pedestals as ornaments
in our museums and libraries. These coins of the past are not to be laid
away in numismatic collections. The grandson must use what he has
inherited from his grandfather. If the coin is not intelligible, then it
will have to be sent to the mint and stamped anew, in order that it may
circulate freely. Our ancestral deities want a place in our hearts and
in our songs.
On the European continent and in England the zeal of the priests in
propagating Christianity was so great that they sought to root out every
trace of the asa-faith. They left but unintelligible fragments of the
heathen religious structure. Our gods and goddesses and heroes were
consigned to oblivion, and all knowledge of the Odinic religion and of
the Niblung-story would have been well nigh totally obliterated had not
a more lucky star hovered over the destinies of Iceland. In this
remotest corner of the world the ancestral spirit was preserved like the
glowing embers of Hekla beneath the snow and ice of the glacier. From
the farthest Thule the spirit of our fathers rises and shines like an
aurora over all Teutondom. It was in the year 860 that Iceland was
discovered. In 874 the Teutonic spirit fled thither for refuge from
tyranny. Here a government based on the principles of old Teutonic
liberty was established. From here went forth daring vikings, who
discovered Greenland and Vinland, and showed Columbus the way to
America. From here the courts of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England and
Germany were supplied with skalds to sing their praises. Here was put in
writing the laws and sagas that give us a clue to the form of old
Teutonic institutions. Here was preserved the Old Norse language, and in
it a record of the customs, the institutions and the religion of our
fathers. Its literature does not belong to that island alone,--it
belongs to the whole Teutonic race! Iceland is for the Teutons what
Greece and Rome are for the south of Europe, and she accomplished her
mission with no less efficiency and success. Cato the Elder used to end
all his speeches with these words: _“Præterea censeo Carthaginem esse
delendam.”_ In these days, when so many worship at the shrine of
Romanism, we think it perfectly just to adopt Cato’s sentence in this
form: _Præterea censeo Romam esse delendam_.
FOREWORD.
1. In the beginning Almighty God created heaven and earth, and all
things that belong to them, and last he made two human beings, from whom
the races are descended (Adam and Eve), and their children multiplied
and spread over all the world. But in the course of time men became
unequal; some were good and right-believing, but many more turned them
after the lusts of the world and heeded not God’s laws; and for this
reason God drowned the world in the flood, and all that was quick in the
world, except those who were in the ark with Noah. After the flood of
Noah there lived eight men, who inhabited the world, and from them the
races are descended; and now, as before, they increased and filled the
world, and there were very many men who loved to covet wealth and power,
but turned away from obedience to God, and so much did they do this that
they would not name God. And who could then tell their sons of the
wonderful works of God? So it came to pass that they lost God’s name;
and in the wide world the man was not to be found who could tell of his
Maker. But, nevertheless, God gave them earthly-gifts, wealth and
happiness, that should be with them in the world; he also shared wisdom
among them, so that they understood all earthly things, and all kinds
that might be seen in the air and on the earth. This they thought upon,
and wondered at, how it could come to pass that the earth and the beasts
and the birds had the same nature in some things but still were unlike
in manners.
One evidence of this nature was that the earth might be dug into upon
high mountain-peaks and water would spring up there, and it was not
necessary to dig deeper for water there than in deep dales; thus, also,
in beasts and birds it is no farther to the blood in the head than in
the feet. Another proof of this nature is, that every year there grow on
the earth grass and flowers, and the same year it falls and withers;
thus, also, on beasts and birds do hair and feathers grow and fall off
each year. The third nature of the earth is, that when it is opened and
dug into, then grass grows on the mould which is uppermost on the earth.
Rocks and stones they explained to correspond to the teeth and bones of
living things. From these things they judged that the earth must be
quick and must have life in some way, and they knew that it was of a
wonderfully great age and of a mighty nature. It nourished all that was
quick and took to itself all that died. On this account they gave it a
name, and numbered their ancestors back to it This they also learned
from their old kinsmen, that when many hundred winters were numbered,
the course of the heavenly bodies was uneven; some had a longer course
than others. From such things they suspected that some one must be the
ruler of the heavenly bodies who could stay their course at his own
will, and he must be strong and mighty; and of him they thought that, if
he ruled the prime elements, he must also have been before the heavenly
bodies, and they saw that, if he ruled the course of the heavenly
bodies, he must rule the sunshine, and the dew of the heavens, and the
products of the earth that follow them; and thus, also, the winds of the
air and therewith the storms of the sea. They knew not where his realm
was, but they believed that he ruled over all things on the earth and in
the air, over the heavens and the heavenly bodies, the seas and the
weather. But in order that these things might be better told and
remembered, they gave him the same name with themselves, and this belief
has been changed in many ways, as the peoples have been separated and
the tongues have been divided.
2. In his old age Noah shared the world with his sons: for Ham he
intended the western region, for Japheth the northern region, but for
Shem the southern region, with those parts which will hereafter be
marked out in the division of the earth into three parts. In the time
that the sons of these men were in the world, then increased forthwith
the desire for riches and power, from the fact that they knew many