August 2026: Seventeenth-Century Definitions of the Edda

During my research on the concept of Norse Mythology, I came across multiple theories on the origin and meaning of the term ‘Edda’ from seventeenth-century manuscripts and printed books. Some of these theories are still considered as plausible by scholars today, while others range from the improbable to the absurd.

Magnús Ólafsson (c. 1573–1636) offers an interpretation of the Edda’s meaning and cultural significance, as well as an etymology of the term, in AM 758 4to, his 1609 manuscript of what is now known as the Laufás Edda:

Edda er ein jþrött af forndicktudum frodra manna dæmisogum; og margfundnum heitum hlutanna kennandj Norrænan skalldskap fyreralþijdu mirkkuedinn, enn fyrervitrum monnum listkuedinn ad yrkia: huor jþrott sem oþriotandj vatzbrunnr, færer fornar kenningar og fæder ætijd nyar til kvedskaparins ollum merkis skälldum er hana vilia med jdni grunda, oggegniliga vid hafa / huar af hun eirnen sitt nafn hlotid hefur, þui Edda dregst af ordj Latinsku Edo eg yrki eða dickta. (AM 758 4to, 1r2–9)

Edda is an art of stories of learned men composed in ancient times; and much-used names of things teaching Norse poetry, which to ordinary people is obscurely composed, but to wise men artfully composed. This art, like an inexhaustible well, transmits ancient kennings and gives birth to ever-new expressions for all distinguished poets who wish to have a foundation for their art and to have it thoroughly. As from this it has received its name, since Edda is derived from the Latin word edo, I compose or dictate.*

In his Edda Islandorum, a Latin translation of the Laufás Edda published in Copenhagen in 1665, Peder Hansen Resen adopts a threefold interpretation of the term ‘Edda’, which he attributes to Guðmundur Andrésson:

1. Aviam majorem seu proaviam videtur significare; veluti ex Synonymis Eddicis Snorronis Sturlæ probatur, ubi ita habetur: Moder heitir Eida / Ønner Amma / Edda enn thridja [id est] mater (poëtice) vocatur Eida (forsan ab Eva); deinde Amma [id est] secunda mater, mater major sc[ilicet] Avia; tertiò Edda [id est] Avia major, Proavia vel Abavia. Idem ferè in Eddæ Sæmundi Rigsthætt occurrit, nimirum Jöd öl Edda [id est] partum enixa est Edda [id est] (sc[ilicet] servilis prosapiæ) Abavia.

2. Nomen libri peculiaris, qvi Mythologiam Arctoæ Gentis vel Nationis Poëticam in lingvâ Islandicâ tradit: ita dicta qvasi matrix & origo Poëseos, atque prima Mater vel Atavia verborum copiæ & paraphrasium. Hæc significatio est hujus loci.

3. Nomen proprium Mulieris seu Virginis Amazoniæ, veluti ex historia Sigvardi Ring / Sveonum Regis, constat: Etsi qvidam scriptores, inter qvos est Saxo Grammaticus, eam Hetham malint vocare. Hanc qvidam scriptores in fabulis Mythologicis insigniter peritam fuisse asserunt, adeoque ejusmodi fabulas post se reliqvisse plurimas. Præterea in Holsatiâ, Prussiâ & Pomeraniâ Mulieres sic proprio nomine appellari autor est Helvaderus in Onomat. Etymol. (Resen 1665, Præfatio ad Lectorem)

1. It appears to mean the great-grandmother or great-great-grandmother; as is proved from Snorri Sturluson’s Eddic Synonyms Moder heitir Eida / Ønner Amma / Edda enn thridja [that is] the mother (poetically) is called Eida (perhaps from Eve); then Amma [that is] second mother, the elder mother [of course] Grandmother; thirdly Edda [that is] elder Grandmother, Great-Grandmother.

2. The name of a particular book, which in the Icelandic language transmits the Mythology of the Northern People or the Poetic Nation, so called as if a source and origin of Poetry, and the first Mother or Ancestress of the abundance of words and paraphrases. This is the meaning of this passage.

3. The proper name of an Amazonian woman or virgin, as is clear from the historia of Sigvard “Ring”/King of the Swedes, although some writers, among them Saxo Grammaticus, prefer to call her Hetha. Some writers assert that she was remarkably skilled in mythological fabulae, and that consequently, she left behind a great many such stories. Later women were called by this proper name in Holstein, Prussia and Pomerania, [according to] the author Helvaderus in [his] Onomat-Etymologicon.

Resen also quotes Magnús Ólafsson’s etymology of the word ‘Edda’ from the Latin, and offers an alternative one by Guðmundur Andrésson from the Greek: τήθη, which he translates into Latin as nutrix (Resen 1665, Præfatio ad Lectorem). Resen’s translation, however, is faulty: τήθη means grandmother in Greek, while nutrix means wet nurse in Latin. In the Lexicon Islandicum, a text written by Guðmundur Andrésson and published by Resen, a slightly different Greek term is offered as a source for the term ‘Edda’: τηθὶς, which seems even more unlikely than τήθη, as τηθὶς (or Tethys) is the name of one of the Titans, sister and wife of the Titan Oceanus and mother of the river gods and Oceanids. It seems likely that this was a misprint, as the definitions of ‘Edda’ in the Edda Islandorumand the Lexicon Islandicum are very similar. The Lexicon Islandicum’s three definitions are:

Edda / Avia major, seu Proavia, τηθὶς, veluti ex Synonis Snorri Sturlæ probabitur, ubi ita ait: Moder heitir eina Amma önnr / Edda en Þridia / id est. Mater (Poëticè) vocatur Eida / prima, secunda scil[icet] Avia. Tertia (superior) Edda. Idem in Apologo occurrit: Jöd / öl / Edda Jölu Vatne / etc. Ubi Fœminam intelligit Servilis Prosapia, AbaviamOldemoder.

2. Edda / Nomen Libri peculiaris, qvi Mythologiam poëticam, adeoqueversificandi fundamenta, ceu Matrices tradit in nostra Lingva, ita dicta, qvasi prima Mater, vel Attavia Verborum Copiæ ac Paraphrasium, de qvo Nomine copiosius in Prœmio istius Libri dicendum venit.

3. Edda / Proprium Nomen Mulieris, olim qvidem ex Amazonum Grege, in Historia Sigvardi Ringonis, etsi qvidam Scriptores hanc Hetham malunt vocare, Præterea in Holsatia & Flandria, seu Prussia Mulieres proprio nomine sic appellari, Author est Heldvaderus in Onomat. (Guðmundur Andrésson 1683, 57)

Edda / Great grandmother, or great-grandmother, Tethys, as will be proved from Snorri Sturluson’s Synonyms, where he says this: Moder heitir eina Amma önnr / Edda en Þridia that is, Mother (poetically) is called Eida; the first, the second, of course, Grandmother. The third (older) Edda. The same is found in the apologia: Jöd /öl / Edda Jölu Vatne / etc., where a woman of servile ancestry is understood, great-grandmother is oldemoder.

2. Edda / The name of a particular book, which recounts the poetic mythologia, as well as the fundamentals of writing verse, as sources in our language, so-called, as is the first Mother, or Great-grandmother, the abundance of words and paraphrases, on the name of which more will be said in the preface of this book.

3. Edda / The proper name of a woman, formerly indeed of the Company of Amazons, in the historia of Sigvard Ring, although some writers prefer to call her Hetha. Furthermore, in Holstein and Flanders, or Prussia, women are called by this proper name, [according to] the Author Helvaderus in [his] Onomat-Etymologicon.

The first definition of the term ‘Edda’, ‘great-grandmother’, corresponds with a list of ókennt heiti for women in the Codex Regius manuscript (GKS 2367 4to, 41r18–19). While this list is also found in the Codex Upsaliensis (DG 11 4to) and the Codex Wormianus (AM 242 fol.), this particular entry is not found in a medieval hand in either manuscript (it is present in the Codex Wormianus, but has been added by a seventeenth-century hand). The second definition of the term ‘Edda’ may have been based on the rubric at the top of the first folio of the Codex Upsaliensis, which states that this book is called ‘Edda’ and was compiled by Snorri Sturluson (DG 11 4to, 1r1). Like the Codex Upsaliensis, Guðmundur Andrésson’s definition, as printed both in the Edda Islandorum and the Lexicon Islandicum, refers to the Edda as a book, not as a text. The third definition is the furthest from what modern scholars might consider to be plausible; it is the only one that does not stem from a reference to a medieval manuscript of the Edda, and its connection to the term seems very tenuous.

References:

Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 242 fol.

Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, AM 758 4to.

Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, GKS 2367 4to.

Uppsala, Uppsala universitetsbibliotek, DG 11 4to.

Glauser, Jürg. 2011. Island – Eine Literaturgeschichte. Stuttgart: Springer-Verlag.

Guðmundur Andrésson. 1683. Lexicon Islandicum sive Gothicæ Runæ vel Lingvæ Septentrionalis Dictionarium. Copenhagen: Weringius.

Resen, Peder Hansen. 1665. Philosophia Antiquissima Norvego-Danica dicta Woluspa quae est pars Eddæ Sæmundi, Eddâ Snorronis non brevi antiquioris. Copenhagen: Gödianus.

*All translations are mine. The first translation, from the Laufás Edda, is informed by Jürg Glauser’s German translation (Glauser 2011, 82).