ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Prose Edda

Okay, so you know how sometimes people tell stories or read books? And those stories have things like heroes, magical creatures, gods, and monsters? Well, a very long time ago, before there were books like we have now, people would tell these stories to each other and they would pass them down from generation to generation.

One group of people who did this were the Norse people, who lived in places like Norway, Denmark, and Sweden a long, long time ago. Their stories were really cool and had all kinds of exciting adventures in them! But eventually, someone decided that it would be a good idea to write these stories down so they could be remembered exactly the same way every time they were told.

And that's how the Prose Edda was made! The Prose Edda is a book that was put together by a guy named Snorri Sturluson, who lived in Iceland over 800 years ago. It has a lot of Norse stories and legends, and it even includes some poems that people would sing as part of the stories.

So if you ever want to learn about Norse mythology and all the awesome things that happened in those stories, you can read the Prose Edda! It's like a big book of really exciting bedtime stories, but they're from a long time ago and they're all about people who were really strong and brave and could do amazing things!