The Poetic Edda

The most compelling original source material for the Norse myths is a collection of anonymous poems known as the Poetic Edda. Based on a 13th-century Icelandic transcription of ancient oral legends, the Poetic Edda includes the creation myths of the Ash Tree and the Frost Giants, the adventures of Thor and Loki, and many other lesser-known Norse tales. Jackson Crawford’s translation manages the difficult task of making the stories understandable while capturing the rhythm and beauty of the original poems.

The stories of the Norse gods and heroes were passed down orally in long, traditional poems during the Viking Age. While none of these were written down before the conversion, linguistic evidence suggests that the roughly 30 poems contained in the Poetic Edda--written down in the 1200s in Iceland--were mostly composed before 1000, and thus represent the closest remaining thing to an undiluted source from the Viking Age. Here we read ancient and enigmatic poems of the creation of the realms and the ultimate death of the gods, such as Vǫluspá and Vafþrúðnismál. There are humorous tales of the exploits… show more.