Prologue (Prose Edda)
It is disputed whether the prologue of Snorri Sturluson by Snorra Edda itself was written. The function of the prologue is to integrate the Edda of Snorri in the medieval, learned Christian worldview.
The Prologue ( altisländ. formalized ) begins with a clear reference to the Old Testament story of creation. The ideas which prevail here are from the medieval church history as it has represented Isidor of Seville, for example. They focus on a natural religiosity of cultures, in which also the Nordic " paganism " in one supreme God believed as a Supreme Being without these present in a Christian sense.
Then the prologue of Snorra Edda to the most popular among the nobility in the Middle Ages Trojan fable follows on after the ancestors of the Western and Northern European aristocracy of displaced heroes from Troy, for example, Aeneas descended. Thor and Sibil - - For the Nordic scholarly prehistory aural affinity of Trór is Sif relevant, Snorri also in the Heimskringla introductory Ynglinga saga represents, in which he immigrant migrating from the East (Asia) Æsir ( Aesir = " Asia Men " ) describes and explains Óðinn and his family in the spirit of euhemeristischen thesis to worldly kings.
The prologue serves as genealogically connect the mythical narrated episodes of Gylfaginning etymologically with the ancient mythology of the Christian- ecclesiastical Europe meted a high priority. The anklingenden here euhemeristischen tendencies serve to Snorri, the pre-Christian gods to expose in the Gylfaginning as human rulers: also in that sense deception or deceit in the title of Snorri mythography.
Snorri it 's not just about writing an origin story of the Norse gods. He is concerned in the Snorra Edda especially to language, the language that once spoke Óðinn and his loud euhemeristischer immigration fable. This language, Old Icelandic Snorri perceives as ennobled by this descent. So he can put them on the same level as acknowledged by the church Hebrew, Greek and Latin - the language of scholars of medieval Europe. In Snorri's prologue states: " Thus, the language of the Asians became the state language in all these areas. People believed this to be able to recognize why, because the names of their forefathers were written. Because the names belonged to this language, and the Aesir have just brought here this language in the north to Norway and Sweden, Denmark and Saxony. "
Snorri's prologue, because if he comes from Snorri, serves the national legitimacy of Iceland and its culture in the face of increasing Christian, and thus continental, dominance. By 1200, the Dane Saxo Grammaticus has with his Gesta Danorum ( Danish history), and before him, and when Snorri's predecessor, the Icelandic historian Ari Þorgilsson ( 1068-1148 ) set similar impulses in Íslendingabók and Landnámabók. Snorri's special power is the attempt to Icelandic culture to put on a par with the Christian cultures of Europe ( for example, the Frankish ). He reaches back into its representation in the Snorra Edda on familiar forms and authorities of medieval Europe, which he connects with the Icelandic virtuous, he collected material.