Abstract
This chapter follows up Magnus Magnusson’s statement that Snorri’s prose Edda ‘is not a saga, as such’ by drawing attention to differences between this Edda and the family sagas in respect of narrative structure, the treatment of the supernatural, and the use of verses. With account taken of the arguments of Jónas Kristjánsson and Gísli Sigurðsson on the one hand, and Theodore M. Andersson on the other, in relation to the emergence of the family saga genre, the question is raised of whether Snorriʼs Edda may be seen as composed in preparation for the writing of the first family saga, or alternatively, as a comment on early manifestations of the genre. The difficulty of answering this question is emphasised by reference to the uncertainty of the order of composition of the parts of the prose Edda in relation to that of the family sagas.
