Gylfaginning

Gylfaginning (

The second part of the Prose Edda is the Skáldskaparmál and the third Háttatal. The work is often attributed to or considered to have been compiled by Snorri Sturluson.

Summary

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The Gylfaginning tells the story of

Gangleri is then challenged to show his wisdom by asking questions, as is the custom in many sagas. Each question made to High, Just-As-High, and Third is about an aspect of the Norse mythology or its gods, and also about the creation and destruction of the world (Ragnarök). In the end, the palace and its people vanish, presumably as they were illusions to begin with. Gylfi is left standing on empty ground. Gylfi then returns to his nation and retells the tales he was told.

It can be argued ^{[by whom?]} that the author used this narrative device as a means of being able to safely document a vanishing and largely oral tradition within a Christian context. In the same way, a line continues the idea raised in the Prologue that Asgard is another name for the city of Troy, another way to make stories of the Norse gods acceptable as describing a lost ancient history rather than rival deities to the Christian god. The very final section of the Gylfaginning is also related to the Trojan connection to the Æsir, but is discarded as a later addition written by a separate author than the rest of the work by some scholars. According to this final section, the human descendants of the Trojans took on the same names told in the stories that had been told to Gylfi, presumably to endow themselves with additional authority.

The work as a whole is around 20,000 words.

References

Bibliography

• ISBN 978-0-19-983969-8
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• ISBN 978-0-304-34520-5
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• The full text of The Prose Edda: Gylfaginning at Wikisource, 1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur
• Guðni Jónsson (ed.), Eddukvaeði, Íslendingasagnaútgáfan (1954) (heimskringla.no), Old Norse edition
• Text of all original manuscripts
• The text with modern Icelandic spelling