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EDDA

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 923 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EDDA , the See also:

title given to two very remarkable collections of old Icelandic literature. Of these only one bears that title from antiquity; the other is called Edda by a comparatively See also:modern misnomer. The word is unknown to any See also:ancient See also:northern See also:language, and is first met with in Rigspula, a fragmentary poem at the end of Codex Wormianus, dated about 1200, where it is introduced as the name or title of a See also:great-grandmother. From the 14th to the 17th See also:century, this word—but no one has formed a reasonable conjecture why—was used to signify the technical See also:laws of Icelandic See also:court See also:metre, Eddu See also:regla, and " Never to have seen Edda " was a modest See also:apology for See also:ignorance of the highest poetic See also:art. The only See also:work known by this name to the ancients was the See also:miscellaneous See also:group of writings put together by Snorri Sturlason (q.v.; 1178-1241), the greatest name in old Scandinavian literature. It is believed that the Edda, as he See also:left it, was completed about 1222. Whether he gave this name to the work is doubtful; the title first occurs in the See also:Upsala Codex, transcribed about fifty years after his See also:death. The collectionof Snorri is now known as the See also:Prose or Younger Edda, the title of the See also:Elder Edda being given to a See also:book of ancient mythological poems, discovered by the Icelandic See also:bishop of Skalaholt, Brynjulf Sveinsson, in 1643, and erroneously named by him the Edda of Saemund. r. The Prose Edda, properly known as Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, was arranged and modified by Snorri, but actually composed, as has been conjectured, between the years 1140 and 116o. It is divided into five parts, the See also:Preface or Formdli, Gylfaginning, Bragarae6ur, Skdldskaparmdl and Hdttatal. The preface bears a very modern See also:character, and simply gives a See also:history of the See also:world from See also:Adam and See also:Eve, in accordance with the See also:Christian tradition.

Gylfaginning, or the Delusion of Gylfi, on the other See also:

hand, is the most See also:precious compendium which we possess of the mythological See also:system of the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia. Commencing with the adventures of a mythical See also:king Gylfi and the giantess Gefion, and the miraculous formation of the See also:island of See also:Zealand, it tells us that the Aesir, led by See also:Odin, invaded Svithjod or See also:Sweden, the See also:land of Gylfi, and settled there. It is from the Ynglingasaga and from the Gylfaginning that we gain all the See also:information we possess about the conquering deities or heroes who set their See also:stamp upon the See also:religion of the See also:North. Advancing from the See also:Black See also:Sea northwards through See also:Russia, and westward through See also:Esthonia, the Aesir seem to have overrun the See also:south lands of Scandinavia, not as a See also:horde but as an immigrant See also:aristocracy. The Eddaic version, however, of the history of the gods is not so circumstantial as that in the Ynglingasaga; it is, on the other hand, distinguished by an exquisite simplicity and archaic force of See also:style, which give an entirely classical character to its mythical legends of Odin and of Loki. The Gylfaginning is written in prose, with brief poetic insertions. The BragaraeNtr, or sayings of See also:Bragi, are further legends of the deities, attributed to Bragi, the See also:god of See also:poetry, or to a poet of the same name. The Skdldskaparmdl, or Art of Poetry, commonly called Skdlda, contains the instructions given by Bragi to Aegir, and consists of the rules and theories of ancient See also:verse, exemplified in copious extracts from Eyvindr Skaldaspillir and other eminent Icelandic poets. The word Skdldskapr refers to the See also:form rather than the substance of verse, and this See also:treatise is almost solely technical in character. It is by far the largest of the sections of the Edda of Snorri, and comprises not only extracts but some See also:long poems, notably the Thorsdrapa of Eilifr Gu5runarson and the Haustlaung of Thj666lf r. The fifth See also:section of the Edda, the Hdttatal, or Number of Metres, is a See also:running technical commentary on the See also:text of Snorri's three poems written in See also:honour of See also:Haakon, king of See also:Norway. Affixed to some MS. of the Younger Edda are a See also:list of poets, and a number of philological See also:treatises and grammatical studies.

These belong, however, to a later See also:

period than the See also:life of Snorri Sturlason. The three See also:oldest See also:MSS. of the prose Edda all belong to the beginning of the 14th century. The Wurm MS. was sent to Ole Wurm in 1628; the Codex Regius was discovered by the indefatigable bishop Brynjulf Sveinsson in 1640. The most important, however, of these MSS. is the Upsala Codex, an See also:octavo See also:volume written probably about the See also:year 1300. There have been several See also:good See also:editions of the Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, of which perhaps the best is that published by the See also:Arne-Magnaean Society in See also:Copenhagen in 1848-1852, in two vols., edited by a group of scholars under the direction of Jon Sigurdsson. There are See also:English See also:translations by T. See also:Percy, Northern Antiquities, from the See also:French by P. H. See also:Mallet (1770); by G. See also:Webbe See also:Dasent (See also:Stockholm, 1842) ; by R. B. See also:Anderson (See also:Chicago, 188o).

2. The Elder Edda, Poetic Edda or Saemundar Edda loins fro5a was entirely unknown until about 1643, when it came into the hands of Brynjulf Sveinsson, who, puzzled to classify it, gave it the title of Edda Saemundi multiscii. Saemund Sigfusson, who was thus credited with the collection of these poems, was a See also:

scion of the royal See also:house of Norway, and lived from about 1055 to 1132 in See also:Iceland. The poems themselves date in all See also:probability from the loth and 1th centuries, and are many of them only fragments of longer heroic chants now otherwise entirely lost. They treat of mythical and religious legends of an See also:early Scandinavian See also:civilization, and are composed in the simplest and most archaic forms of Icelandic verse. The author of no one of them is mentioned. It is evident that they were collected from oral tradition; and the fact that the same See also:story is occasionally repeated, in varied form, and that some of the poems themselves See also:bear See also:internal See also:evidence of being more ancient than otners, proves that the See also:present collection is only a gathering made early in the See also:middle ages, long after the See also:composition of the pieces, and in no See also:critical spirit. Sophus See also:Bugge, indeed, one of the greatest authorities, absolutely rejects the name of Saemund, and is of See also:opinion that the poetic Edda, as we at present hold it, See also:dates from about 1240. There is no doubt that it was collected in Iceland, and by an Icelander. The most remarkable and the most ancient of the poems in this priceless collection is that with which it commences, the Voluspd, or prophecy of the Vulva or Sibyl. In this See also:chant we listen to an inspired prophetess, " seated on her high seat, and addressing Odin, while the gods listen to her words." She sings of the world before the gods were made, of the coming and the See also:meeting of the Aesir, of the origin of the giants, dwarfs and men, of the happy beginning of all things, and the sad ending that shall be in the See also:chaos of Ragnarok. The latter See also:part of the poem is understood to be a See also:kind of necromancy—according to See also:Vigfusson, " the raising of a dead vulva "; but the mystical language of the whole, its abrupt transitions and terse condensations, and above all the See also:extinct and mysterious cosmology, an acquaintance with which it presupposes, make the exact See also:interpretation of the Voluspd extremely difficult.

The See also:

charm and See also:solemn beauty of the style, however, are irresistible, and we are constrained to listen and See also:revere as if we were the auditors of some fugual See also:music devised in honour of a primal and long-buried deity. The melodies of this earliest Icelandic verse, elaborate in their extreme and severe simplicity, are wholly rhythmical and alliterative, and return upon themselves like a solemn See also:incantation. Hdvamdl, the See also:Lesson of the High One, or Odin, follows next; this contains See also:proverbs and See also:wise saws, and a See also:series of stories, some of them comical, told by Odin against himself. The Vafprul5nismdl, or Lesson of Vafprf.t6nir, is written in the same mystical vein as Voluspd; in it the See also:giant who gives his name to the poem is visited by Odin in disguise, and is questioned by him about the See also:cosmogony and See also:chronology of the Norse religion. Grimnismdl, or the Sayings of The Hooded One, which is partly in prose, is a story of Odin's imprisonment and See also:torture by King Geirrod. For Skirnis, or the See also:Journey of Skirnir, Harbari5'sli6ii, or the See also:Lay of Hoarbeard, Hymiskvi6a, or the See also:Song of Hymir, and Aegisdrekka, or the See also:Brewing of Aegir, are poems, frequently composed as See also:dialogue, containing legends of the gods, some of which are so ludicrous that it has been suggested that they were intentionally See also:burlesque. Thrymskvi5a, or the Song of Thrym, possesses far more poetic See also:interest; it recounts in language of singular force and directness how See also:Thor lost his See also:hammer, stolen by Thrym the giant, how the latter refused to give it up unless the goddess See also:Freyia was given him in See also:marriage, and how Thor, dressed in See also:women's raiment, personated Freyia, and, slaying Thrym, recovered his hammer. Alvissmdl, or the See also:Wisdom of Allwise, is actually a philological exercise under the semblance of a dialogue between Thor and Alvis the See also:dwarf. In Vegtamskvil a, or the Song of Vegtam, Odin questions a vulva with regard to the meaning of the sinister dreams of See also:Balder. Rigsmdl, or more properly Rigspula, records how the god Heimdall, disguised as a See also:man called Rig, wandered by the sea-See also:shore, where he met the See also:original dwarf pair, Ai and Edda, to whom he gave the See also:power of See also:child-bearing, and thence sprung the whole See also:race of thralls; then he went on and met with Afi and Amma, and, made them the parents of the race of churls; then he proceeded until he came to See also:Fair and Moo'ir, to whom he gave Jarl, the first of See also:free men, whom he himself brought up, teaching him to shoot and snare, and to use the See also:sword and See also:runes. It is much to be lamented that of this most characteristic and picturesque poem we possess only a fragment. In HyndlulP5, the Lay of Hyndla, the goddess Freyia rides to question the vulva Hyndla with regard to the ancestry of her See also:young paramour Ottar; a very See also:fine See also:quarrel ensues between the prophetess and her visitor.

With this poem, the first or wholly mythological portion of the collection closes. What follows is heroic and pseudo-historic. The Volundarkvii5'a, or Song of Volundr, isengaged with the adventures of Volundr, the See also:

smith-king, during his stay with Nidud, king of Sweden. Volundr, identical with the Anglo-Saxon Weland and the See also:German See also:Wieland (O.H.G. Wiolant), is sometimes confused with Odin, the See also:master-smith. This poem contains the beautiful figure of Svanhvft, the See also:swan-See also:maiden, who stays seven winters with Volundr, and then, yearning for her fatherland, flies away See also:home through the dark See also:forest. Helgakvioa, Hiorvar5s sonar, the Song of Helgi, the Son of Hiorvar6, which is largely in prose, celebrates the wooing by Helgi of Svava, who, like See also:Atalanta, ends by loving the man with whom she has fought in See also:battle. Two Songs of Helgi the Hunding's Bane, Helgakviii'a Hundingsbana, open the long and very important series of See also:lays See also:relating to the two heroic families of the Volsungs and the Niblungs. Including the poems just mentioned, there are about twenty distinct pieces in the poetic Edda which See also:deal more or less directly with this See also:chain of stories. It is hardly necessary to give the titles of these poems here in detail, especially as they are, in their present form, manifestly only fragments of a great poetic See also:saga, possibly the earliest coherent form of the story so universal among the See also:Teutonic peoples. We happily possess a somewhat later prose version of this lost poem in the Volsungasaga, where the story is completely worked out. In many places the prose of the Volsungasaga follows the verse of the Eddaic fragments with the greatest precision, often making use of the very same expressions.

At the same See also:

time there are poems in the Edda which the author of the saga does not seem to have seen. But if we compare the central portions of the myth, namely See also:Sigurd's conversation with See also:Fafnir, the death of Regin, the speech of the birds and the meeting with the Valkyrje, we are struck with the extreme fidelity of the prose romancer to his poetic precursors in the Siguroarkvil5a Fafnisbana; in passing on to the death of Sigurd, we perceive that the version in the Volsungasaga must be based upon a poem now entirely lost. Of the origin of the myth and its See also:independent development in See also:medieval See also:Germany, this is not the See also:place for discussion (see See also:NIBELUNGENLIED). Suffice to say that in no modernized or Germanized form does the See also:legend attain such an exquisite colouring of heroic poetry as in these earliest fragments of Icelandic song. A very curious poem, in some MSS. attributed directly to Saemund, is the Song of the See also:Sun, S6larliOo', which forms a kind of appendix to the poetic Edda. In this the spirit of a dead See also:father addresses his living son; and exhorts him, with See also:maxims that resemble those of Hdvamdl, to righteousness of life. The See also:tone of the poem is strangely confused between See also:Christianity and Paganism, and it has been assumed to be the composition of a writer in the See also:act of transition between the old creed and the new. It may, however, not impossibly, be altogether See also:spurious as a poem of great antiquity, and may merely be the See also:production of some Icelandic See also:monk, anxious to imitate the Eddaic form and spirit. Finally Forspjallsljoi5, or the See also:Preamble, formerly known as the Song of Odin's See also:Raven, is an extremely obscure fragment, of which little is understood, although See also:infinite scholarship has been expended on it. With this the poetic Edda closes. The See also:principal MS. of this Edda is the Codex Regius in the royal library at Copenhagen, written continuously, without regard to prose or verse, on 45 vellum leaves. This is that found by Bishop Brynjulf.

Another valuable fragment exists in the Arne-Magnaean collection in the University of Copenhagen, consisting of four sheets, 22 leaves in all. These are the only MSS. older than the 17th century which contain a collection of the ancient mythico-heroic lays, but fragments occur in various other See also:

works, and especially in the Edda of Snorri. It is believed to have been written between 1260 and 1280. The poetic Edda was translated into English verse by See also:Amos Cottle in 1797; the poet See also:Gray produced a version of the Vegtamskvit'a; but the first good See also:translation of the whole was that published by See also:Benjamin See also:Thorpe in 1866. An excellent edition of the Icelandic text has been prepared by Th. See also:Mobius, but the See also:standard of the original See also:orthography will be found in the admirable edition of Sophus Bugge, Norroen Fornkvaei3'i, published at See also:Christiania in 1867. The Eddaic poems were rearranged, on a system of their own which differs entirely from that of the early MSS., by Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. See also:York See also:Powell, in their Corpus poeticum boreale (See also:Oxford, 1883). This is a collection, not of Edda only but of all existing fragments of the vast lyrical literature of ancient Iceland. It supplies a prose translation. (E. G.) 923 See also:political See also:agent, a treaty with the See also:raja of See also:Sikkim.

His success led to his being sent on a similar See also:

mission to See also:Bhutan in 1863; but, being unaccompanied by any armed force, his demands were rejected and he was forced under circumstances of See also:personal insult to come to an arrangement highly favourable to the Bhutias. The result was the repudiation of the treaty by the See also:Indian See also:government and the See also:declaration of See also:war against Bhutan. In 1871 See also:Eden became the first civilian See also:governor of See also:British See also:Burma, which See also:post he held until his See also:appointment in 1877 as See also:lieutenant-governor of See also:Bengal. In 1878 he was made a K.C.S.I., and in 1882 resigned the lieutenant-governorship and returned to See also:England on his appointment to the See also:council of the secretary of See also:state for See also:India, of which he remained a member till his death on the 8th of See also:July 1887. The success of his See also:administration of Bengal was attested by the statue erected in his honour at See also:Calcutta after his retirement.

End of Article: EDDA

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