Who wrote the Prose Edda, the major medieval Icelandic handbook of Norse mythology?

The Prose Edda was written by Snorri Sturluson. Snorri was an Icelandic poet, historian, lawspeaker, and political figure who lived from about 1179 to 1241. His work is one of the most important surviving sources for Norse mythology.

The Prose Edda has four main sections, including the Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál, and Háttatal. Gylfaginning presents mythological stories, while Skáldskaparmál explains poetic language and many mythological kennings. Háttatal examines poetic metres.

Snorri wrote in Christian Iceland several centuries after Iceland’s conversion, so the book is not a pagan-era transcript. It preserves older traditions while arranging them into a structured literary work. Scholars therefore compare it with poems in the Poetic Edda and other medieval sources.

A common mix-up is confusing Snorri’s Prose Edda with the anonymously compiled Poetic Edda. The two works are related sources, but they were created differently and are not by the same known author.