Poetic Edda

(also Saemund’s Edda, Elder Edda, or simply Edda), a collection of ancient Icelandic lays. The Poetic Edda survives in a 13th-century manuscript; its compiler is unknown. The lays long existed only in oral form, and the date of their composition remains in dispute. Several have been preserved in other ancient manuscripts.

Some of the lays are cast in the form of prophecies, apothegms, or theatrical presentations based on mythology; others are simple narratives. The mythological lays, of which Völuspa (The Seeress’ Prophecy) is the most important, are the only source of their kind on pagan mythology. Many of the heroic lays derive from south Germanic folk legends. Although the lays show the influence of different periods, their ideology and style indicate that the Poetic Edda antedates the ancient Germanic epics.