Edda

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A collection of Old Norse poems, called the Elder or Poetic Edda, assembled in the early 13th century.
2. n. A manual of Icelandic poetry, called the Younger or Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A book written (in prose) by Snorri Sturluson (born about 1178, died by assassination 1241), containing the old mythological lore of Scandinavia and the old artificial rules for verse-making; also, a collection of ancient Icelandic poems. The name Edda, by whom given is not known, occurs for the first time in the inscription to one of the manuscripts of the work, written fifty or sixty years after Snorri's death. Snorri's Edda (Edda Snorra Sturlusonar) consists of five parts: Formāli (Preface), the Gylfaginning (Delusion of Gylfi), Braga-radhur (Sayings of Bragi), Skāldskapar-māl (Art of Poetry), and Hāttatal (Number of Meters), to which are added in some manuscripts Thulur, or a rhymed glossary of synonyms, lists of poets, etc. As the Skāldskapar-māl, or Art of Poetry, forms the chief part of the Edda (including several long poems), the work became a sort of handbook of poets, and so Edda came gradually to mean the old artificial poetry as opposed to the modern plain poetry contained in hymns and sacred poems. About the year 1643 the Icelandic bishop Brynjulf Sveinsson discovered a collection of the old mythological poems, which is erroneously ascribed to Sæmund Sigfussen (born about 1055, died 1133), and hence called after him Sæmundar Edda hins Frōdha, the Edda of Sæmund the Learned. The poems that compose this Edda are supposed to have been collected about the middle of the thirteenth century, but were composed probably in the eighth and ninth centuries. Hence the name now given to the collection, the Elder or Poetic Edda, in distinction from the Younger or Prose Edda of Snorri, to which alone the name Edda previously belonged. The most ancient of the poems in the Elder Edda is the Völuspa, the Prophecy of the Volva or sibyl.

Wiktionary

1. n. A collection of Old Norse poems and tales from two medieval manuscripts found in Iceland.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The religious or mythological book of the old Scandinavian tribes of German origin, containing two collections of Sagas (legends, myths) of the old northern gods and heroes.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. either of two distinct works in Old Icelandic dating from the late 13th century and consisting of 34 mythological and heroic ballads composed between 800 and 1200; the primary source for Scandinavian mythology
2. n. tropical starchy tuberous root