Ancient text
The Prose Edda
EvidenceDocumentedA primary record or a faithful public-domain copy of one. This page says what the file is and where it comes from; it does not say every claim in it is true.
What this means
Primary records exist: an original document, a published text, an official file or a dated report. We link to them. This level says the record exists and what it says, not that every claim in it is true.
Snorri Sturluson wrote this in Iceland about 1220 as a handbook for poets, and it became our main source for Norse myth. It tells of Odin, Thor and the end of the gods.
Public domain copy
Where this comes from
This is a public-domain copy. The line below says where the file comes from and why we may host it.
Why we can share it: Published 1916, before 1931, so public domain in the US (reasoning; archive metadata for this item states no copyright status).
Read the story behind it
BeingYmirIn Norse myth, the world was built from a butchered giant: his flesh became earth, his blood the sea, his skull the sky. The story says the gods themselves descend from giants. How did a cow, a flood of blood and a lone survivor get the cosmos started? Read what the old poems and Snorri tell.PlaceGinnungagapBefore anything existed, the Norse sources describe a yawning void with fire at one end and ice at the other, and life began where they met. Later, Icelandic geographers reportedly reused the name for a real stretch of sea. What did the name actually mean, and why do scholars still argue about it?PlaceBifrostThe Norse bridge to the gods is said to be partly made of burning fire, to keep giants out. Its guard can hear grass grow and see a hundred leagues at night. The poems say it will break when the enemy rides across at the end of the world. Who built it, and what is it really?ObjectSkidbladnirSnorri describes a ship big enough to carry every Norse god with their weapons, one that always catches a fair wind and folds up like a napkin to fit in a pouch. Dwarves forged it in the same workshop as Odin's spear. Is it engineering fantasy or something older? See what the texts say.
Advertisement
Updated