This is an introduction and brief analysis of the ancient Edda texts written by Snorri Sturlusson in the 12th century. It is the major source of our knowledge regarding pre-Christian Germanic and Norse religion.

Originally codified in the 8th century, the ancient Edda texts are the foremost significant documentations of the pre-Christian, pan-Germanic culture, religion, and its mythology. Much like the Judeo-Christian Old Testament and the Muslim al-Qur'
n, the Edda were an assemblage of ancient oral legends and traditions which had permeated throughout the Germanic peoples and were likely old when Khufu's pyramids were young. They were codified and documented by Icelandic Skalds before Christianization in 34 "kenning" poems as the so-called "Elder Edda", and were reformed to a more general style of literacy as the "Younger Edda" by lawmaker and scholar Snorri Sturlusson (1179-1241). The Edda texts reveal the foundations of the historic religious doctrines and faith of the pre-Christian Danes, Norwegians, Anglo-Saxons, Icelanders, Germans, Dutch, Swedes, and arguably also the Germanized Scots and Finns. The Edda contain a large number of myths and blatant fantasies, but, in contrast to the Holy Bible, it was not presented as canon scripture nor Holy Word, but merely the preservation of pre-Christian cultural faith and values of the Germans and their descending groups.

The spiritual, ethical, moral, and ritual standards of the Germanic peoples are conveyed in these texts by primarily following the stories and life of Woden (Odin), the universally Germanic "Allfather" and etymological source of "Wednesday". The stories occur in a variety of locations --supernatural or earthly -- from the hells of Niflheim to the canopy of the World Tree in Valhalla. The largely-mythological poems are effectively portrayed as sentiments of wisdom to which Vikings and Saxons adhered. It was likely that these once-divine texts were not treated as religious and monastic scripture, also largely because literacy was low. As the poetic Skalds of ancient Scandinavia viewed Odin euhemeristically as the relative father of Germanic civilizations, his ethics and rituals were recorded here to transmit and define Germanic cultural and historic identity. In the chapter Havamal (The Words of the High One), the Allfather Odin learns to control the supernatural Rune symbols, effectively setting forth the written scripture and divine symbology for all future descendants. Historically this may imply that an actual historical German or Scandinavian king developed the writing system of Runic from the 2nd century onward, when the Runic writing first began to appear throughout the Germanic world. These Runic symbols became a mainstay of Nordic ritual and social practices, establishing a hierarchy of religious institutions, including the Völva (pronounced wool-wah), equivalent of a Runic shaman or a seer. For example, the Sowil Rune (later used by the Third Reich and especially in the Schutzstaffel military divisions) would be carved into walrus ivory or wood and used in ceremonious divination to summon the defense of the blood by Tyr, the Germanic god of war. Pan-Germanic reverence and worship of this god is evident in the weekday "Tuesday" via an Anglo-Saxon spelling change of the name. In the Edda, we see the use of a ritual probably with Thörn (the "t" Rune, which became "th" in English, and later the modern letter "t"):

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