The mythic stories in Gylfaginning rely to a large degree on eddic poetry. Some of these poems are now lost. For example, Gylfaginning, chapter 27, mentions Heimdall’s Chant (Heimdalargaldr), but this eddic poem no longer exists. Many eddic poems, however, survive in the Poetic Edda. Below is a list of the mythological eddic poems cited in Gylfaginning which are found in the Poetic Edda.
*The Lay of Fafnir* (*Fáfnismál*) *The Lay of Grimnir* (*Grímnismál*) *The Lay of Hyndla* (*Hyndluljóð*) *The Lay of Skirnir* (*Skírnismál*) *The Lay of Vafthrudnir* (*Vafprúðnismál*) *Loki’s Flyting* (*Lokasenna*) *The Sayings of the High One*(*Hávamál*) *The Shorter Sibyl’s Prophecy* (*Völuspá in skamma*) *The Sibyl’s Prophecy* (*Völuspá*)
At times, stanzas found in the Poetic Edda vary from their counterparts in the Prose Edda. This suggests that the author of the Edda may have known the eddic poems orally or in a different written form. In some instances the differences of wording between lines found in the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda can be significant, as is often the case with The Sibyl’s Prophecy. In the Poetic Edda the third stanza of The Sibyl’s Prophecy opens with the line: ‘Early of ages, when Ymir dwelled’. Yet the stanza in the Prose Edda mentions only a void and not the giant Ymir: ‘Early of ages, when nothing was’. This difference in wording changes the picture of the creation. So also the Edda and the Poetic Edda sometimes employ different terms. The Edda calls the final battle at the end of the world by the singular word Ragnarøkr, meaning ‘Twilight of the Gods’ or ‘Darkness of the Gods’. With the exception of Loki’s Flyting, eddic poems employ a different word, Ragnarök, meaning ‘End of the Gods’ or ‘Doom of the Gods’.