The North, like England and the Continent, felt the religious fervor of the Crusades, passed from potential anarchy into union and national consciousness, experienced a literary and spiritual revival, and suffered the fury of persecution and of fratricidal war. Not less than the rest of Europe, Scandinavia shared in the bitter conflict between the law of the spirit and the law of the members. THE life of Snorri Sturluson fell in a great but contradictory age, when all that was noble and spiritual in men seemed to promise social regeneration, and when bloody crimes and sordid ambitions gave this hope the lie. It is also notable because it contains fragments of a number of manusripts which Snorri had access to, but which are now lost. Hence the Prose Edda is of interest because it contains one of the first attempts to devise a rational explanation for mythological and legendary events. To this end, Snorri created a quasi-historical backstory for the Norse Gods. Although Snorri was a Christian, he treated the ancient Pagan mythology with great respect. The text is of interest to modern readers because it contains consistent narratives of many of the plot lines of Norse mythology. The Prose Edda contains a wide variety of lore which a Skald (poet) of the time would need to know. The Prose Edda is a text on Old Norse Poetics, written about 1200 by the Norwegian poet and politican Snorri Sturlson, who also wrote the Heimskringla.
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