Editing and Translating Snorra Edda: Some Observations on the Editorial History of Snorri’s Ars Poetica

The paper represents a survey of the editorial history of Snorra Edda, a seminal work for the interpretation of the Scandinavian past, which exists in a number of manuscript versions characterised by a high degree of variation. This variance within the textual tradition of the work strongly affects the overall understanding of Snorri’s text. The structure of the individual witnesses of the work have proved to be particularly resistant to adaptation to the requirements of the modern printed book and the codification of literary genres. Cipolla explores the ways in which Snorra Edda has been understood over the centuries.