Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological,
the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction, and to
deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion,
Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may also be considered,
but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the
introduction of Christianity into Iceland, it is uncertain how much in
them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten;
some also, especially in Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy
tale rather than myth.

Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda
is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic poetry
rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like
that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources; and that it began in
the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched
Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian poetry of England is, we look
in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive,
the suggestive character-drawing, the swift dramatic action, which
are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.

Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1)
Of a more or less comprehensive character, _Völuspa, Vafthrudnismal,
Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod_; (2) dealing with episodes,
_Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisför. Havamal_ is a collection
of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical
poems; _Alvissmal_, which, in the form of a dialogue between
Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of
mythologico-poetical glossary. Several of these poems are found
in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional
one, variously styled _Vegtamskvida_ or _Baldr's Dreams_; the great