Written in Iceland a century after the close of the Viking Age, it tells ancient stories of the Norse creation epic and recounts the battles that follow as gods, giants, dwarves and elves struggle for survival. It also preserves the oral memory of heroes, warrior kings and queens. In clear prose interspersed with powerful verse, the Edda provides unparalleled insight into the gods' tragic realisation that the future holds one final cataclysmic battle, Ragnarok, when the world will be destroyed. These tales from the pagan era have proved to be among the most influential of all myths and legends, inspiring modern works as diverse as Wagner's Ring Cycle and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.This new translation by Jesse Byock captures the strength and subtlety of the original, while his introduction sets the tales fully in the context of Norse mythology. This edition also includes detailed notes and appendices.

    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

    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 Skaldskaparmal, a book of poetic language, and the Hattatal, 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, he is often taken to be the author of Egils Saga. As a historian and mythographer, he is remarkable for proposing the theory that mythological gods begin as human war leaders and kings whose funeral sites develop cults. As a chief and statesman Snorre behaved exactly the opposite of the resolute and often heroic characters of the sagas, to such a degree that his authorship of them is sometimes questioned. His name is also spelt Snorri Sturlusson/Sturlson/Sturlason.

    It was composed in Latin in the second half of the twelfth century, perhaps in the Oslo area. Only the beginning of the work exists today, but it offers, among other things, a detailed report of a shamanic séance among the Sami as well as a unique early geographical description of Norway and the North Sea realm. Furthermore, we are presented with an early version of the Norwegian kings' genealogy, beginning with the mythical Yngling kings and ending, abruptly, with Olav Haraldsson's claim to the throne in 1015.This is the first critical edition of the Latin text since 1880, accompanied by a modern English translation by Peter Fisher. The introduction and full commentary in English take stock of previous scholarships and are new contributions to the interpretation of the text.

    The third and final volume of a new translation of Snorri Sturluson's history of the Norwegian kings, translated with introduction and notes.