Edda

( lit . grandmother), the name given to two collections of legends illustrative of the Scand in avian mythology: the Elder, or Poetic, Edda, collected in the 11th century by Sæmund Sigfu on, an early Christian priest, "with perhaps a lingering fondne for paganism," and the Younger, or Prose, Edda, collected in the next century by Snorri Sturleson, an Icelandic gentleman (1178-1241), "educated by Sæmund's grandson, the latter a work constructed with great ingenuity and native talent, what one might call unconscious art, altogether a perspicuous, clear work, pleasant reading still."