"Edda" was the name of the Bible of the ancient Scandinavians. A saga is a book of instruction, generally, but not always, in the form of a tale,like a Welsh "mabinogi." In the "Edda" there are numerous sagas. As our Bible contains the history of the Jews, religious songs, moral proverbs, and religious stories, so the "Edda" contained the history of Norway, religious songs, a book of proverbs and numerous stories. The original "Edda" was compiled and edited by Saemun Sigfusson, an Icelandic priest and scald, in the eleventh century. It contains twenty-eight parts or books, all of which are in verse.

Two hundred years later, Snorro Sturleson, of Iceland, abridged, rearranged, and reduced to prose the "Edda," giving the various parts a kind of dramatic form, like the dialogues Of Plato. It then became needful to distinguish these two works; so the old poetical compilation is called the "Elder" or "Rhythmical Edda, "and sometimes the"Scenmnd Edda" while the more modern work is called the "Younger"or "Prose Edda" and some-times the "Snorro Edda." The "Younger Edda" is,however, partly original. Pt.i. is the old "Edda" reduced to prose, but pt. ii. is Sturleson's own collection. This part contains "The discourse of Bragi" (the scald of the gods) on the origin of poetry; and here, too, we find the famous story called by the Germans "Nibelungen Lied." Besides the sagas contained in the "Eddas," there are numerous others. Indeed, the whole saga literature extends over two hundred volumes.