Sæmund the wise or Sæmund Fróði in icelandic (1056-1133) was an Icelander and Christian priest, who studied in Paris. He founded a long-lived school in Oddi .
The authorship of the Elder Edda, or, more plausibly, just the editor's role in the compilation, have traditionally been attributed to him but is nowadays doubted. This idea dates back the discovery in 1643 of the Codex Regius manuscript. Somehow the Codex Regius got into the hands of the bishop Brynjolf Sveinsson, who presented it to the Danish king in 1643, hence the name "Codex Regius". The bishop called this collection of heathen poems the "Elder Edda" associating it with Snorri Sturluson's Edda, now called the "Younger Edda".
