In the Prose Edda section Gylfaginning, King Gylfi questions the gods in disguise.
Gylfi is introduced as a legendary king of Sweden. After being intrigued by the power and knowledge associated with the Æsir, he travels to their hall under the assumed name Gangleri. There he asks three principal questioners—High, Just-as-High, and Third—about the creation of the world, the gods, the giants, and Ragnarök.
The questioning structure lets Snorri Sturluson present a long sequence of mythological explanations as a dialogue. It also creates a frame in which the apparently supernatural hall and its speakers later receive a deceptive or illusion-based interpretation. That ending is a distinctive feature of Gylfaginning’s literary design.
Gylfaginning is the first major section of Snorri’s Prose Edda. It is not a saga about an ordinary historical monarch; Gylfi functions as the human visitor whose questions organize the mythological narrative.