Gylfaginning

Gylfaginning, meaning "The Fooling of Gylfi" or "Gylfi's Deception," is the opening section of the Prose Edda, a 13th-century Icelandic handbook on Norse myth and poetics attributed to Snorri Sturluson. The work presents a frame narrative in which the Swedish king Gylfi travels to Asgard and is welcomed by three figures who call themselves High, Just-As-High, and Third. Through a long dialogue they recount the creation of the world, the deeds and characteristics of the gods of the Æsir, and the fate of the cosmos, including the events of Ragnarok and the renewal of the world. The narratives cover cosmology (the nine worlds and the world tree Yggdrasil), the origins of humans, the names and functions of the major deities, and explanatory myths that serve as a guide for poets and learned readers.

The text is a late medieval synthesis that draws on older skaldic poetry, folklore, and traditional myths. Snorri wrote it with the stated aim of preserving and organizing Norse myth for contemporary Christian readers and for the education of poets in the rules of classical diction and skaldic technique. The Prose Edda as a whole is structured into three parts: Gylfaginning; Skáldskaparmál; and Háttatal.

Manuscripts of the Prose Edda survive in several Icelandic codices, with the best known being Codex Regius and related late copies. The work has had a lasting influence on Scandinavian literature, medieval scholarship, and modern retellings of Norse myth, and it remains a principal source for expectations about the Norse pantheon and eschatology.