Ana Belén Piñera Álvarez

From its earliest transmission in the 14th century to modern editorial practice, the textual corpus of the Prose Edda has been characterised by two tendencies: variance and canonisation. This applies both to the textual level and to the arrangement of the texts in individual text witnesses. While the tradition in the late Middle Ages and early modern period is still clearly characterised by an attitude of rearrangement and reworking, the advent of historical-critical editorial practice in the 19th century – at the latest – marked the beginning of a veritable canonisation of the text and the textual constitution of the Prose Edda. These canonisation processes carry the danger that important connections within individual textual witnesses and transmission networks are marginalised or even concealed in both research discourse and teaching. The dissertation project aims to contribute to a reflection on the extent to which a conscious examination of the reception history of the textual corpus of the Prose Edda can uncover these connections. This is to be achieved by shedding light on the contexts of transmission and their traces in editorial practice. The study concentrates on the arrangement of the individual texts in selected milestones of the late medieval and early modern manuscript tradition as well as on the editorial practice from the 17th century onwards.