Page:The Prose Edda (1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur).pdf/28

 different theories regarding it need not be re-stated here. It is the translator's personal opinion that Magnússon's etymology, if not established, is at least the most satisfactory one likely to be offered. Magnússon points out that Snorri passed the interval between his third and nineteenth years at Oddi, under the fostering of the grandson of Sæmundr the Learned; that Sæmundr, who had studied at Paris, had founded a school at Oddi; that Snorri became the author of a book which was called Edda; and that this book contains, in its first section, a prose paraphrase of many of the songs from the Elder or Poetic Edda, together with a number of quotations from that work. Now the Poetic Edda was ascribed by its earliest recorded possessor, Bishop Brynjólf Sveinsson, to Sæmundr; and while it is improbable that Sæmundr composed the poem, it is highly probable that it once formed part of his library at Oddi. There Snorri may have learned to know it; and we may assume that he gave the prose edition the, name of its poetical original. That original, "the mother MS.," he thinks would naturally have been called "the book of, or at Oddi," which would be expressed, in Icelandic, either as "Oddabók," or as "Edda," following, in the latter case, accepted linguistic laws.

Snorri's familiarity with the Elder or Poetic Edda is demonstrated by his frequent quotations from Völuspá, Hávamál, Grímnismál, Vafthrúdnismál, Alsvinnsmál or Alvissmál, and Grottasöngr. He knew Lokasenna as well, but confused three stanzas, apparently failing to remember the order