From the Publisher

Prose Edda is a work without predecessor or parallel. SnorriSturluson feared that the traditional techniques of Norse poetics, the pagankennings, and the allusions to mythology would be forgotten with theintroduction of new verse forms from Europe. Prose Edda was designed asa handbook for poets to compose in the style of the skalds of the Viking ages.It is an exposition of the rule of poetic diction with many examples,applications, and retellings of myths and legends. The present selectionincludes the whole of Gylfaginning (The deluding of Gylfi)--a guide tomythology that forms one of the great storybooks of the Middle Ages--and thelonger heroic tales and legends of Skáldskaparmál (Poetic diction).Snorri Sturluson was a master storyteller, and this translation in modernidiom of the inimitable tales of the gods and heroes of the Scandinavianpeoples brings them to life again.