The Sources of Myths, Part 2

He left behind a rich literary output concerning both history, and the culture of the past period. One of his most famous works is a three-part treatise intended as a textbook on poetics, commonly known as Edda the Younger. This name comes from the inscription on the oldest known manuscript - "This book is called Edda”. The very origin of the word Edda is as yet unclear. In the literature on the subject, three most probable versions are usually given. According to the first, it would come from the Oddi estate, in which Snorri Sturluson grew up and took his first lessons. Other scholars derive its etymology from Old Irish. Some, however, associate this name with the name of the mythical great-grandmother of humanity Edda. Edda was intended as a poetics textbook. It consisted of three parts. In the first, Snorri Sturluson concluded, and probably also literally transformed, the main threads of Scandinavian mythology known to them. The second part explains a very extensive one, especially in poems, and requiring a perfect knowledge of the mythical world, the poetic language of the skalds. The third one is only the actual textbook written in the form of a poem, containing 102 examples of the time signature used. Edd Sturluson was the first deliberate attempt to collect and systematize the main threads of Norse mythology. Science has repeatedly questioned its source value, accusing the author, that the myths he presents are mostly a literary product based on an authentic prototype, but peculiar, absolutely any interpretation. This sentence was confirmed by a fact, that Edda the younger shows numerous Christian influences. Source database, on which the author could rely, she was already very uncertain.