The Edda Manuscript

These two pages are taken from the main manuscript of the Poetic Edda, called the Codex Regius, written around 1270. This manuscript is a collection of 29 poems in Old Icelandic, whose authors are unknown. Ten poems evoke the powers (or gods) and can be described as mythical, and nineteen concern Germanic heroes. The text also contains a few prose passages, which are either informative or serve as fictional framing.
This collection was found in 1643 by Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson who mistakenly attributed its writing to Saemund the Wise, an Icelandic scholar who lived at the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. He gave it the name Edda, referring to the work of Snorri Sturluson.