Snorra Edda

The Snorra Edda (Old Norse 'Snorri's Edda') is a didactic work about the art of skaldic poetry written around 1220 by Snorri Sturluson. The three sections of the work are:

• Gylfaginning - a presentation of pagan mythology
• Skáldskaparmál - a book teaching about kenningar
• Háttatal - a list of 102 stanzas in 100 different forms with metrical commentary

The Snorra Edda is also known as Prose Edda or Younger Edda as opposed to the Poetic Edda.

The meaning of edda is uncertain. Theories include:

1) From Old Norse edda = 'great grandmother'

2) From Old Norse óðr = 'poetry, poem'

3) From Old Norse edda = 'book from Oddi' (the farm where Sæmundr, the supposed author of the Poetic Edda, lived and where Snorri spent his youth

4) From Latin edo = 'I declare'

5) From Proto-Norse *eddr = 'honoured' (less likely)