Introduction

This book is an edition of medieval Nordic poems, interspersed with short passages of prose, in their original Old Norse-Icelandic language,¹ together with facing-page translations into modern English. These texts treat north-western European mythological and heroic subjects, including the creation, destruction and rebirth of the world, the deeds of Norse deities such as Óðinn, Þórr and Loki (the first two now more familiar to English speakers as Odin and Thor), and the tragedy surrounding legendary humans such as Sigurðr, Brynhildr and Guðrún.²

Collectively, these anonymous works have come to be known as the Poetic Edda or the Elder Edda. This collection is closely connected with, but distinct from, the Prose Edda or Younger Edda (c. 1220–30)³ of the Icelander Snorri Sturluson, to which the term edda was first applied by the end of the thirteenth century.⁴ Snorri’s euhemeristic work has three main parts, the first two of which, Gylfaginning ‘The Beguiling of Gylfi’ (SnEGylf) and Skáldskaparmál ‘The Language of Poetry’ (SnESkáld), draw on versions of poems of the Poetic Edda. The notes in this edition refer frequently to SnEGylf and SnESkáld, because, as prime sources for our understanding of Norse mythology, they offer valuable insights into the meanings of many of the poems of the Poetic Edda.⁵ These works, the Poetic Edda and many prose sagas are enduring testaments to the flowering of Icelandic literature in the thirteenth century.⁶

Most of the poems in this edition survive in a single, fragmentary manuscript—it is missing one gathering of sixteen leaves—dated c. 1270, from Iceland. It is a copy of an earlier, lost original. The surviving manuscript, which probably comes from the country’s west or north, was, in 1643, in the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, bishop of Skálholt, who, in 1662, sent it as a gift to the king of Denmark. It is traditionally called the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, this ‘Royal Codex’ having long been kept in Copenhagen’s Royal Library. Now, though, following its return to Iceland in 1971, the codex is officially Gammel kongelig Samling (GkS) 2365 4^to of the Árni Magnússson Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík. Henceforth in this edition it is referred to as R.⁷ Although the Edd(a)ic poems of R have each been edited and translated many times before, they have not previously all been published together in a single volume containing both new editions of the Old Norse texts and new facing-page English translations.⁸

Six of the poems also survive, in whole or part, in a related, fragmentary manuscript of the early fourteenth century, AM 748 I a 4^to of the Arnamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark (A).⁹ These poems are Grímnismál ‘The Sayings¹⁰ of (or ‘about’)¹¹ Grímnir’ (Grm.), Hymiskviða ‘The Lay of Hymir’ (Hym.), Fǫr Skírnis ‘Skírnir’s Journey’ (FSk.),¹² Hárbarðsljóð ‘The Song of Hárbarðr’ (Hrbl.), Vafþrúðnismál ‘The Sayings of Vafþrúðnir’ (Vm.) and Vǫlundarkviða ‘The Lay of Vǫlundr’ (Vkv.). In addition, this Icelandic manuscript preserves the only extant text of another Eddic poem, Baldrs draumar ‘Baldr’s Dreams’ (BDr.), which is also included in the present edition. A second version of Vǫluspá ‘The Prophecy of the Seeress’ (Vsp.), the first and most admired poem in R, appears in the fourteenth-century AM 544 4^to (alias Hauksbók ‘Haukr’s Book’,¹³ and henceforth referenced as H); since it is substantially different from that of R, it appears separately in this edition.

Additionally, modern editors often append other poems, known only from other manuscripts, to those of R, A and H, because they similarly treat mythological and heroic subjects in ‘Eddic’ metres. Decisions vary about which of these poems to include. This edition includes three, for the second and third of which modern texts and translations may not be readily accessible to many English-speaking readers: Rígsþula ‘Rígr’s List’ (Rþ.), Hyndluljóð ‘The Song of Hyndla’ (Hdl.) and Svipdagsmál ‘The Lay of Svipdagr’, the latter comprising Gróugaldr ‘Gróa’s Incantation’ (Gg.) and Fjǫlsvinnsmál ‘The Sayings of Fjǫlsvinnr’ (Fj.).¹⁴

It is uncertain where in the early North the poems of the Poetic Edda were composed. Many probably originated—as did many prose sagas—from Iceland, where the surviving manuscripts were created. Two of the heroic poems, Atlakviða ‘The Lay of Atli’ (Akv.) and Atlamál ‘The Sayings of Atli’ (Am.), claim to be Greenlandic, though the former is thought to be older than the Norse settlement of Greenland. Others may stem ultimately from Norway, Denmark, Sweden or areas of Anglo-Scandinavian England. German traditions inform some of the heroic texts. Undoubtedly, many of the myths and legends treated in the Poetic Edda were known, in some form, outside Iceland in the early medieval North.

Also uncertain are the poems’ original dates of composition,¹⁵ although these obviously must be at least as old as the earliest manuscripts in which the poems were written down.¹⁶ Many of the poems may well have existed, in one form or other, centuries earlier than the surviving thirteenth- and fourteenth-century manuscripts, having been composed during the Viking Age using oral techniques.¹⁷ This likelihood is indicated, for example, by carvings of scenes apparently depicting aspects of a version of ragna rǫk ‘Ragnarok’ (literally the ‘doom/fate/end of the ruling powers’), the Norse mythological apocalypse, on a tenth-century cross in a churchyard in Gosforth, Cumbria, England; these seem likely to have been inspired by Eddic poems such as Vsp.¹⁸ It can at least be said that, judging from references in earlier non-Eddic poetry and visual art, many of the stories told and characters described in these poems—some of which are explicitly called ‘old’ or ‘ancient’,¹⁹ and all of whose authors are, significantly, unnamed—would have been known earlier, in some form, to the Scandinavians often now called vikings.²⁰ The transmission process most likely involved a mixture of memorization (in the main), recomposition with deliberate variation, interpolation and accretion, omission, and various forms of scribal alteration and error. This means that many of the poems probably changed to a greater or lesser extent through time and, therefore, that their fixed presentation in this edition may well be more or less unrepresentative of their prior forms.

The great uncertainty surrounding these poems extends still further, to how, why, by whom and for whom they were performed (assuming they were). However, it is immediately obvious that any audience must have been knowledgeable about the characters and events of Norse mythology and heroic legend. Encouraged especially by the alternating speakers of some poems, such as FSk. and Lokasenna ‘Loki’s Flyting’ (Ls.), which are often accompanied by speech directions in the margins of R,²¹ some scholars detect indications of an early form, or forms, of drama in the contents of the Poetic Edda.²² It is certainly essential to emphasize that Eddic poems, like most medieval verse, were presumably originally intended for some form of recitation—which is to say performance—by one or more persons to an audience familiar with oral traditions, rather than for lone, silent reading from parchment. One scholar has observed that ‘static printed versions of the eddic poems are about as close to the nature of the “living” works as they were conceived by the “original” poets and performers as sheet music is to a performed symphony at the Last Night of the Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall’,²³ and, more starkly, ‘the book and the original eddic poem are worlds apart’.²⁴

However it was performed, Eddic poetry was composed in two main metres, both stanzaic, stress-based and structurally alliterative.²⁵ They are called fornyrðislag ‘old story metre’ and ljóðaháttr ‘metre of songs’.

Fornyrðislag normally comprises four four-stress ‘long lines’, each divided into two ‘half-lines’ which are linked by alliteration across a notional caesura.²⁶ This metre was used mostly for narrative verse; it appears in Vsp., for example.

Ljóðaháttr comprises two conjoined sets of the following: a ‘long line’ followed by a ‘full verse’ distinctive as a metrical entity for containing between two and four alliterating syllables. This metre was used mainly for dialogue- or wisdom-verse, as seen, for example, in Ls.

A less common, extended form of ljóðaháttr, called galdralag ‘metre of incantations’, is associated with verbal magic. It features one or more additional full verses, as, for example, in Ls. 62.²⁷

A fourth Eddic metre, málaháttr ‘metre of speeches’, features half-lines characterized by having at least five metrical positions or syllables, as seen, most prominently, in Am.

Modern scholars often broadly distinguish poetry in these Eddic metres from what they call ‘skaldic’ verse.²⁸ The latter term denotes the kinds of exacting poetic form, used from the late ninth century, by the court poets (‘skalds’; ON skáld) of Norwegian kings, but also later adopted by poets in Iceland and other Norse-speaking areas. The court poets composed frequently encomiastic verse in a complex eight-line dróttkvætt ‘court metre’, which, although probably a development from fornyrðislag, imposed, unlike Eddic prosody, extremely demanding requirements for alliteration, syllable count and rhyme, and often featured complex, fractured syntax.²⁹ That these poets, who, unlike Eddic poets, are usually named, often used complex ‘kennings’—abstruse periphrases involving two or more nouns—increases the difficulty of interpreting their verses. The distinction between ‘Eddic’ and ‘skaldic’ verse (and possibly poets) is, however, far from absolute—Eddic poems also contain kennings, for example, albeit usually comparatively simple ones,³⁰ and some seem to have been influenced by skaldic verse. Nevertheless, whereas the meaning of skaldic poetry is typically rather, and sometimes very, opaque, Eddic poetry is, by contrast, usually fairly transparent. Also, whereas skaldic verse normally deals with the contemporary and immediate, the older, Eddic verse forms generally address the past and distant.

The poems of R, which form the primary basis for this edition, fall into two main groups according to subject matter. First come what scholars traditionally classify as ‘mythological’ poems about the Norse gods. Second, starting with a large rubricated capital Á on fol. 20r, come ‘heroic’ poems about legendary humans. However, this is another blurred distinction,³¹ given firstly that gods sometimes appear in poems principally about humans, and vice versa, and secondly that a medieval Christian audience might well have interpreted the former group euhemeristically—that is, they may have viewed the gods and their actions as having originated in historical personages and events.

Below I give very brief summaries of the events of each poem.³² Readers who wish to avoid spoilers of the poems’ contents may therefore wish to skip much of the rest of this Introduction.

The first, mythological group comprises the poems from Vsp. to Alvíssmál ‘The Sayings of Alvíss’ (Alv.).³³ These concern Norse deities such as Óðinn, Þórr, Freyr, Freyja and Loki, along with an elven smith called Vǫlundr, monsters such as the wolf Fenrir and Miðgarðsormr (‘Snake of Miðgarðr’, Miðgarðr being a mythological place-name often anglicized as ‘Midgard’), various formidable giants and a knowledgeable but unwary dwarf called Alvíss.³⁴

In this group, the first four poems feature the god Óðinn prominently. Vsp. is spoken by a seeress, who, in response to a request by Óðinn, tells of the world’s creation, events leading to its destruction, the apocalypse of Ragnarok itself, and the world’s subsequent rebirth from the sea. This poem is the highlight of the collection in terms of scope and poetic accomplishment. It is considered one of the treasures of early Northern literature.

Hávamál ‘The Sayings of Hávi (an alias of Óðinn)’ (Háv.), the longest poem in the collection, is an altogether different and obviously composite work, but still another highlight. It offers a memorable blend of, on the one hand, commonsense, practical wisdom about how a man should act in order to survive in a harsh world and, on the other, glimpses of the doings—both sublime and ridiculous—of Óðinn. His deeds include the acquisition of the mead of poetry from the giants and, while hanging from a tree as a sacrifice to himself, his learning of runes.

In Vm., Óðinn, against the wishes of his wife, Frigg, engages (apparently incognito) in a deadly contest of knowledge with the eponymous giant Vafþrúðnir. Ultimately, the giant is found wanting.

Grm. sees Óðinn again in dispute with his wife, an argument which results in his capture by a certain Geirrøðr, who tortures the disguised god between two fires. As he suffers, Óðinn, who calls himself Grímnir ‘Masked One’, reveals divine wisdom to Geirrøðr’s son, Agnarr, who has refreshed him with a drink. Ultimately, Óðinn reveals his true identity to Geirrøðr, who promptly slips and impales himself on his sword, leaving Agnarr to rule the kingdom.

In FSk. the focus shifts temporarily from Óðinn to the god Freyr. He has fallen deeply in love with a radiant giantess called Gerðr, whom he saw from afar. Freyr’s servant, Skírnir, undertakes to travel to giantland to acquire Gerðr for his lord, a task in which he eventually succeeds, though only by threatening the resistant giantess with rune-magic.

Hrbl. is another antagonistic dialogue involving Óðinn. This time, however, his disputant is the mighty Þórr, who requests passage across a stretch of water from a ferryman on the other side. Unknown to Þórr, the ferryman, who calls himself Hárbarðr ‘Grey Beard’, is Óðinn in disguise. Hárbarðr refuses Þórr passage and has the last word in their verbal duel, leaving his opponent to take the long road home by foot. This is the first of four consecutive poems to feature Þórr more or less prominently.

In Hym., Þórr goes fishing with the giant Hymir, only to hook Miðgarðsormr, the world-encircling snake, which he strikes on the head with his hammer, Mjǫllnir. Back at the giant’s home, Þórr makes off with a huge cauldron in which the sea-giant, Ægir, was to brew ale for all the gods. Hymir and his giant companions pursue Þórr, who promptly slays them all.

Ls. is set in Ægir’s home, where he had brewed ale and arranged a feast to which many of the gods came. At the feast Loki accuses each of the gods of disreputable behaviour, before finally being driven away by Þórr. A concluding prose passage describes how the gods punished Loki, according to other sources for his part in the slaying of the innocent god Baldr.

With Þrymskviða ‘The Lay of Þrymr’ (Þrk.), the collection’s tone lightens with burlesque comedy. Þórr’s hammer has been stolen by the giant Þrymr, who demands the beautiful goddess Freyja in exchange for its return. Þórr sets out for the land of giants disguised as Freyja in bridalwear, with Loki as handmaiden. The poem’s climax is no less entertaining for being predictably violent.

Vkv. concerns the capture and hamstringing of an elven smith by a Swedish king called Níðuðr. It culminates in the captive’s savage vengeance and marvellous airborne escape.

Alv. is another dialogue-poem, this time between Þórr and the eponymous dwarf Alvíss ‘All-Wise’. The dwarf has come to take home a bride, but most unwisely without asking the permission of Þórr, who claims to be the only god with the right to give her away. Surprisingly, instead of simply smashing the dwarf’s skull, Þórr keeps Alvíss talking above ground until dawn, when, we may infer, the first rays of the sun destroy him, probably by petrification.

The second, heroic group of poems in R runs from Helgakviða Hundingsbana in fyrri ‘The Earlier Lay of Helgi Hundingsbani’ (HH. I) to Hamðismál ‘The Lay of Hamðir’ (Hm.), all of which survive only in this manuscript. These poems mainly concern legendary human beings, although some also refer to gods, other supernatural beings and mythological events such as Ragnarok.³⁵ Together, with the exception of Helgakviða Hjǫrvarðssonar ‘The Lay of Helgi Hjǫrvarðsson’ (HHv.), they comprise the Eddic Vǫlsung-Niflung cycle. This series of poems takes its name partly from the character Vǫlsungr (whose descendants are Vǫlsungar) and partly from the etymologically obscure Old Norse term (H)niflungar for members of the ancient Burgundian royalty.

Some of the characters in these poems have vestigial links to correspondingly named, but shadowy, historical figures of the Germanic past from the fourth to seventh centuries. Most notably, Gunnarr, Atli and Jǫrmunrekkr are reflexes of, respectively, a fifth-century Burgundian king called Gundaharius, Attila the Hun (d. 453) and an Ostrogothic king called Ermanaric who died in the 370s. The imperious figure of the valkyrie Brynhildr possibly stems from a Visigothic princess called Brunchildis (d. 613) who married a Frankish king named Sigibert (d. 575; cf. Sigurðr).³⁶ Additionally, Þjóðrekr, who plays a minor part in this cycle, probably stems from the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great (454–526).

Other, often substantially different, accounts of events recounted in these heroic poems appear in other major medieval Germanic compositions. These are the Old English poem Beowulf (c. 700?);37 the Middle High German poem the Nibelungenlied ‘The Lay of the Nibelungs’ (c. 1200), which exists in multiple versions, and an associated poem called Die Klage ‘The Lament’;³⁸ the mid-thirteenth-century Norse (probably Norwegian) Þiðreks saga af Bern ‘Saga of Þiðrekr of Bern (Verona)’,³⁹ which draws on German traditions; and the thirteenth-century Icelandic Vǫlsunga saga ‘Saga of the Vǫlsungar’ (VS), for which Eddic poems were a major source.⁴⁰ Furthermore, scenes from the cycle are frequently depicted in early medieval art from Scandinavia and England.⁴¹ There are also Scandinavian ballads, as well as a continuing tradition of Faroese balladry.⁴²

Additionally, heroic (and mythological) Eddic poems, along with Snorri’s Prose Edda, were fundamental sources for Richard Wagner’s nineteenth-century cycle of music dramas, Der Ring des Nibelungen.⁴³ They were also major influences on J. R. R. Tolkien, twentieth-century author of The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings,⁴⁴ and George R. R. Martin, author of the recent series of novels collectively called A Song of Ice and Fire.⁴⁵

VS, which draws heavily on versions of many of the heroic poems in R,⁴⁶ is a valuable guide to these poems’ interpretation, although readers will find inconsistencies of narrative and characterization between their accounts of events. This is the case even within R, as, although some of its poems might have been adapted to suit the purposes of the unknown compiler of this collection, they (unlike at least some of the prose passages and possibly Grp.) should not be imagined to have been composed for this collection, let alone in sequence for it. Each poem should be appreciated principally on its own terms, as a separate work.

R’s heroic texts begin with three poems about warriors called Helgi ‘Holy One’. The first poem, now customarily known as Helgakviða Hundingsbana in fyrri, is actually headed Vǫlsungakviða ‘Poem of the Vǫlsungar’ in R. It begins with a vivid description of auspicious events at the birth of the eponymous hero, who goes on to slay a king called Hundingr and his vengeful sons. Subsequently, Helgi wins the hand of the valkyrie Sigrún by killing Hǫðbroddr, a king to whom she had been betrothed unwillingly.

The first part of the next poem, HHv.—a text named after an ostensibly different Helgi—concerns a king called Hjǫrvarðr and his efforts to win the hand of the beautiful Sigrlinn, which, thanks to an earl called Atli (distinct from Atli/Attila the Hun), eventually succeed. The pair have a son, whom a valkyrie names Helgi. With Atli’s help, Helgi avenges his maternal grandfather and kills a giant. A flyting between the giant’s daughter and Atli ensues, which ends when Helgi tells the giantess to look east—the first rays of morning, we understand, petrify her. Subsequently, Helgi is betrothed to Sváva, a valkyrie whom his brother, Heðinn, having been cursed by a troll-woman, swears to marry—an oath he immediately regrets bitterly. Helgi forgives him as he expects to die shortly in a duel. He does, indeed, receive a mortal wound, and requests that Sváva love Heðinn, who sets out to avenge his brother.

Helgakviða Hundingsbana ǫnnur ‘The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbani’ (HH. II) begins by describing how Helgi Hundingsbani (the hero of HH. I) secretly visited the court of Hundingr, who then sought him. Helgi, however, escapes Hundingr’s men by dressing up as a serving-maid. He goes on to kill Hundingr and win Sigrún by killing Hǫðbroddr, but is himself killed by Sigrún’s brother. Subsequently, the dead Helgi is seen riding to his burial-mound. Sigrún enters the mound, too, and falls asleep in his arms. Finally, Sigrún dies from grief, but she and Helgi are said to have been reborn.

A prose passage headed Frá dauða Sinfjǫtla ‘About the death of Sinfjǫtli’ introduces the sons of Sigmundr, son of Vǫlsungr. Of these, the youngest, Sigurðr—the half-brother of Helgi Hundingsbani—became the foremost hero of medieval Germanic tradition and the basis for Wagner’s Siegfried.

Grípisspá ‘The Prophecy of Grípir’ (Grp.) summarizes, in rather uninspired fashion, the events of Sigurðr’s life, which subsequent poems in R treat more rewardingly. Sigurðr learns from his maternal uncle, Grípir, that, among other things, he will slay his foster-father, Reginn, and the dragon Fáfnir, and that he will take that monster’s treasure. He will fall in love with, and become betrothed to, the valkyrie Brynhildr, but subsequently forget her (under malign magical influence). He will exchange appearances with Gunnarr, son of Gjúki, and sleep (without sexual intercourse) beside Brynhildr in Gunnarr’s form, thus binding Gunnarr and Brynhildr to each other. He himself will marry Guðrún, Gunnarr’s sister, while Gunnarr will marry Brynhildr. Ultimately, Brynhildr, aggrieved by this shape-changing trickery, will incite Guðrún’s brothers to murder Sigurðr.

Reginsmál ‘The Sayings of Reginn’ (Rm.), introduces Sigurðr’s foster-father, Reginn, son of Hreiðmarr. He tells Sigurðr how Loki killed Reginn’s brother, Otr, and subsequently took gold from a dwarf, who cursed it. Loki used the gold to pay compensation for Otr, but Hreiðmarr withheld it from both Reginn and his surviving brother, Fáfnir. Consequently, Fáfnir slew his father and took all the gold for himself. The text goes on to record how Sigurðr avenged his father by killing the sons of Hundingr, and how Reginn incited Sigurðr to kill Fáfnir, who had become a monstrous snake hoarding the gold.

In Fáfnismál ‘The Sayings of Fáfnir’ (Fm.) Sigurðr stabs Fáfnir, but before Fáfnir dies, the two converse. During their discourse, the snake speaks, among other things, of Sigurðr’s demise, warns him about Reginn and reveals mythological lore, including details of Ragnarok. Subsequently, Sigurðr cooks Fáfnir’s heart. In doing so, he burns his thumb and puts it in his mouth, whereupon he understands the language of nearby nuthatches, which advise him, among other things, to eat Fáfnir’s heart himself, kill Reginn and keep the gold—which he does.

Sigrdrífumál ‘The Sayings of Sigrdrífa’ (Sd.) centres on the runes and advice imparted to Sigurðr by the eponymous valkyrie (Sigrdrífa ‘Victory Driver’, or perhaps ‘Victory Snowdrift’ [i.e., ‘Battle’], seems to be another name for, and perhaps was once an appellative of, Brynhildr), after he awakened her from a sleep induced magically by Óðinn as punishment for disobedience. This poem is incomplete in R, due to the ‘great lacuna’: the loss from R of what is thought to be eight leaves—room for about 260 stanzas, although some prose may well have been included—which contained the end of Sd. Fortunately, the missing stanzas of Sd. are recoverable mainly from paper manuscripts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the full text having apparently been copied before the loss occurred.

The missing leaves presumably also contained the first part (perhaps roughly half) of R’s Brot af Sigurðarkviðu ‘Fragment of a Lay of Sigurðr’ (Br.). What else they contained, between the end of Sd. and the start of Br. is uncertain, but VS, which draws heavily on poems of the Poetic Edda, probably supplies a few of the doubtless many missing stanzas from R from a poem (or poems) about Sigurðr and related characters, as well as a likely guide to its (or their) basic story. Largely on this basis, scholars have argued for the former presence in R of a ‘Falcon Lay’, a ‘Dream Lay’ and/or *Sigurðarkviða in meira ‘The Longer Lay of Sigurðr’.47

What remains of Br. includes discussion between Gunnarr and his brother Hǫgni (probably) about the killing of Sigurðr. The conflicting responses of Brynhildr and Guðrún to Sigurðr’s death are also recorded, as are Brynhildr’s foreboding words to Gunnarr. A concluding prose passage describes differing accounts of Sigurðr’s death, thus testifying to the varied, fluid nature of Northern heroic legend.

Guðrúnarkviða in fyrsta ‘The First Lay of Guðrún’ (Gðr. I) describes Guðrún’s pent-up grief at Sigurðr’s death, which a succession of visitors attempt to release. The third of these, Guðrún’s sister Gullrǫnd, succeeds by exposing his corpse. Guðrún then praises her dead husband and condemns his murderers. Brynhildr curses Gullrǫnd, and, to defend herself against Gullrǫnd’s consequent verbal attack, blames her own brother, Atli (Attila the Hun), for all the evil that has been done. A concluding prose passage records that Guðrún went away to Denmark, and that Brynhildr committed suicide because she did not want to live after Sigurðr.

Sigurðarkviða in skamma ‘The Short Lay of Sigurðr’ (Sg.) begins with a brief account of Sigurðr’s swearing of oaths with Gunnarr and Hǫgni, his betrothal to Guðrún, and his deception of Brynhildr on behalf of Gunnarr. Next comes a description of Brynhildr’s icy distress at this deception, and her determination to leave Gunnarr unless he kills Sigurðr. A disturbed Gunnarr consults Hǫgni and decides to request that his third brother, Guthormr, do the killing, since Guthormr had not sworn oaths to Sigurðr. Guthormr does so. The rest of the poem includes the dying Sigurðr’s words to Guðrún, but focuses on the response of Brynhildr, which includes prophecies of doom and a cool determinedness to commit suicide, for which she details elaborate preparations. The poem, which is more about Brynhildr than Sigurðr, ends with her final words in life.

Helreið Brynhildar ‘Brynhildr’s Hel-Ride’ (Hlr.) describes the dead Brynhildr’s words to a hostile giantess whom she met while riding to Hel, land of the dead. Brynhildr recounts key aspects of her life, including details of her disobedience to Óðinn.

Dráp Niflunga ‘The Slaying of the Niflungar’ (Dr.) is a short prose passage describing how Guðrún was married to Atli, Brynhildr’s brother, and how he killed Gunnarr and Hǫgni, whom he blamed for his sister’s death. Hǫgni’s heart was torn out and Gunnarr was killed by an adder in a snake-pit. Subsequent poems in R also treat these events.

In Guðrúnarkviða ǫnnur ‘The Second Lay of Guðrún’ (Gðr. II) Guðrún reflects sorrowfully on Sigurðr’s murder and the responses of Gunnarr and Hǫgni. She records how she then went to Denmark, where her mother, Grímildr, requested that Gunnarr and Hǫgni recompense Guðrún for the killing of her husband and son. After bringing Guðrún a magical drink intended to make her forget Sigurðr, Grímildr eventually succeeded—the drink’s effect perhaps having been delayed—in persuading Guðrún to accept Atli in marriage, though not before Guðrún prophesied that he would kill her brothers and that she would kill him. Guðrún then describes her journey to Atli’s home, and concludes with her account of how she gave Atli reassuring—though, to us, evidently misleading—interpretations of his violent dreams.

In Guðrúnarkviða in þriðja ‘The Third Lay of Guðrún’ (Gðr. III) Guðrún, now married to Atli, is accused by one of his handmaidens of having slept with King Þjóðrekr, but Guðrún says the pair merely embraced once. She calls for her brothers, who may, however, already be dead. Forced to undergo ordeal by boiling water, Guðrún proves her innocence—unlike the accusing handmaiden, who is led away to be drowned in a bog.

Oddrúnargrátr ‘Oddrún’s Lament’ (Od.) tells of a woman called Borgný who, though long in labour, cannot give birth. Oddrún, Atli’s sister, visits her and recites incantations which enable her to bear a boy and a girl. Oddrún explains that she helped in fulfilment of a promise (obscure to us). She goes on to tell of her past, in which her dying father had commanded that she be married to Gunnarr, something to which Atli was implacably opposed because of the trickery which had led to the death of his other sister, Brynhildr. After discovering that Oddrún and Gunnarr had shared a bed, Atli had his men cut out Hǫgni’s heart and throw Gunnarr into a snake-pit. Oddrún sailed to save Gunnarr, but arrived too late to prevent Atli’s ophidian mother biting his heart. Oddrún wonders how she continues to live after Gunnarr.

Akv., in full Atlakviða in grœnlenzka ‘The Greenlandic Lay of Atli’, is one of the best and probably oldest poems in R; it perhaps dates from the ninth century, but appears to include some folk-tradition stemming ultimately from the fifth. It tells how Gunnarr and Hǫgni accepted Atli’s invitation to visit him, despite a warning from their sister, Guðrún, now Atli’s wife.⁴⁸ Gunnarr is taken captive and Atli has Hǫgni’s heart cut out, a mistake which ensures that the whereabouts of Gunnarr’s treasure (taken from Sigurðr) are now known to Gunnarr alone. Gunnarr is placed in a snake-pit, where he dies. Guðrún takes revenge by feeding Atli his own sons, stabbing him to death, and incinerating his hall, along with everyone inside.

Am., in full Atlamál in grœnlenzku ‘The Greenlandic Sayings/Poem of Atli’, tells a version of the same events, but at considerably greater length—it is the second-longest poem in R—and with many differences of detail. Not least of these is an alternative demise for Atli, whom Guðrún does not burn within his hall but lays to rest in a ship-burial. This poem is especially notable for its use of málaháttr.

A prose passage preceding Guðrúnarhvǫt ‘Guðrún’s Whetting’ (Ghv.) describes how Guðrún, having failed to commit suicide after killing Atli, drifted over the sea to the land of King Jónakr, who married her. They had three sons: Sǫrli, Erpr and Hamðir (the inclusion of Erpr in this list contradicts the next poem, Hm.). Also raised there was Guðrún’s daughter by Sigurðr, Svanhildr, who married King Jǫrmunrekkr. She reportedly had an affair with the king’s son, Randvér, for which Jǫrmunrekkr had him hanged and her trodden to death by horses. Ghv. records Guðrún’s recollection of her sorrows and incitement of her sons to avenge their sister. This poem also draws on folk-tradition stemming from apparently historical events of the fourth century.

Hm. concludes R’s heroic cycle on a savage high. In this poem, which R identifies as ‘ancient’ and may indeed be among the collection’s oldest compositions, Guðrún goads Sǫrli and Hamðir into undertaking to avenge Svanhildr. Along the way, the pair foolishly insult and kill Erpr, who here is only their half-brother. In Jǫrmunrekkr’s hall they sever the king’s arms and legs, but not his head, thus unwisely enabling him to command that they be stoned, since iron weapons would not harm them. As a result, they fall valiantly.

Finally, we come to the poems outside R that, in addition to H’s version of Vsp., are included in this edition.

BDr., from A, records how Óðinn, in an attempt to explain why his son Baldr was having bad dreams, rode to Hel. There, once past an aggressive hellhound, Óðinn—incognito as so often—raises a seeress from the grave and asks her for whom the hall of Hel is prepared. She replies that it is for Baldr, and gives associated details, before, having identified her questioner as Óðinn, reminding him of the impending doom of Ragnarok.

Rþ. is an incomplete poem from Codex Wormianus (AM 242 fol.), a fourteenth-century manuscript which also includes a text of the Prose Edda.⁴⁹ According to a brief prose introduction, the poem tells of how the god Heimdallr went travelling as Rígr ‘King’. At each of three households of ascending social standing, he fathers a child representative of the corresponding class of people—slaves, freemen and nobles—each of which goes on to have offspring of the same class. The offspring of the third union, Jarl ‘Earl’, receives instruction from Rígr (whose name he also comes to bear) and goes on to have twelve sons, the youngest of whom, Konr ungr ‘Young Konr’ (a pun on ON konungr ‘king’), himself gains the title of Rígr. Although the end of the poem is lost, he presumably became a model king.

Hdl. survives complete in the late-fourteenth-century Icelandic Flateyjarbók ‘Book of Flatey’.⁵⁰ It records a tense dialogue between the goddess Freyja and a giantess called Hyndla, whom Freyja awakens at the dead of night. Hyndla refuses to ride with Freyja, so the two converse on the spot about the lineage of a man called Óttarr, whom Freyja is riding in the form of a boar. Hyndla recounts his illustrious lineage, and the dialogue ends acrimoniously (though rather obscurely) with insulting words and fire.

Svipdagsmál is the modern title for two separate poems, Gg. and Fj., which appear to be narratively linked and are found in numerous seventeenth-century manuscripts. In Gg., the hero, Svipdagr, having been set the ‘impossible’ task of visiting a woman called Menglǫð, visits the grave of his mother, Gróa. She awakens and recites to him nine helpful incantations. Fj., which includes much obscure mythological lore, tells of how Svipdagr accomplished this task.

This edition of the Poetic Edda is intended mainly for beginning students of Old Norse, students of other medieval Germanic literatures, and interested academics in other fields, rather than advanced students and scholars of Old Norse. I hope, however, that all those interested in ancient Northern myth and legend may derive some value from the publication of original texts and modern translations of these poems, along with commentary, in a single, easily accessible volume aimed at English-speaking readers.

Some may wish that my commentary were more detailed. Much more could undoubtedly be said, but my wish to contain the poems within a single set of covers has necessitated brevity, sometimes silence.51 My remarks attempt to furnish readers with enough information to understand and appreciate the poems as literature, but those who have prior familiarity with at least the basics of Old Norse mythology and heroic legend will undoubtedly enjoy them more. Such knowledge can be gained, for mythology, by consulting the works (listed in the Further Reading section below) by Gabriel Turville-Petre, Rudolf Simek, H. R. E. Davidson and Christopher Abram; and, for the heroic Vǫlsung-Niflung cycle, those by Theodore Andersson, Francis G. Gentry et al., and Edward R. Haymes and Susann T. Samples.⁵² Readers who want more detailed commentary will find further information in the works listed in the Further Reading sections to each poem; these listings, though not always especially short, are nevertheless highly selective, being limited mainly to works in English in order to avoid inaccessibility to most of this book’s intended audience. Serious students should consult the multivolume Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda by Klaus von See et al.,⁵³ for its commentaries, texts, translations and bibliographies, as well as the modern Icelandic edition of Eddic poems by Jónas Kristjánsson and Vésteinn Ólason in the Íslenzk fornrit series. Readers wishing to understand and appreciate the poems in their original language will, having learnt the basics of Old Norse grammar and pronunciation,⁵⁴ find invaluable the Glossary to the Poetic Edda by Beatrice La Farge and John Tucker.⁵⁵

With two exceptions, the Old Norse texts in this edition derive from my examination of photographic facsimiles of the original manuscripts, supplemented by consultation of major prior editions.⁵⁶ This edition is based primarily on R whenever it is a source for a poem. The order of poems follows R from Vsp. to Hm. Appended are the H text of Vsp., followed by BDr., Rþ., Hdl. and Svipdagsmál (Gg. and Fj.), which survive only in other manuscripts. Where readings for poems attested in R are taken from A, H or elsewhere, this is noted in the textual apparatus, which also records manuscript readings when these have been emended in the text; only select variants (normally excluding orthographical differences) are recorded therein. Emendations are also indicated by italics within the Old Norse texts facing the English translations (not elsewhere). This convention extends to titles, which are italicized within the Old Norse texts when they do not appear in the manuscript on which the edition is primarily based—some titles are post-medieval (see also the textual apparatus). By contrast, italics in the translations denote emphasis or untranslated Old Norse words; elsewhere, italics simply distinguish Old Norse from modern English. Manuscript abbreviations are silently expanded within the Old Norse texts, but the larger or more unusual ones are noted in the textual apparatus.⁵⁷ In keeping with the usual practice for reading editions of Old Norse texts, the spelling of the manuscripts has been largely normalized (although not to the farthest extent possible), except in the manuscript readings recorded in the textual apparatus (although even these are somewhat normalized due to typographical limitations).⁵⁸

Punctuation is supplied editorially to assist comprehension, at the risk of occasional disambiguation or more serious misinterpretation. In particular, the placement of quotation marks to indicate a person’s speech may sometimes be questioned, as it is not always clear who is speaking a particular stanza or stanzas. I have put framing quotation marks around poems which have an explicit first-person speaker, with the exception of Háv., a composite poem in which the speaker attribution is especially unclear. Also wholly editorial is the stanza numbering, which sometimes differs from that of earlier editions of these poems, often due to differences of opinion about where some stanzas end and others begin, or about their correct order.⁵⁹ The centralized presentation of the Old Norse poetry on the page has no basis in the manuscripts, in which both poetry and prose are presented as ‘prose’, but merely reflects my desire to present a visually attractive edition that encourages appreciation of at least the poetry as works of art.

My translations endeavour to reflect both the meaning and at least something of the poetic spirit of the Old Norse originals in simple, unarchaistic English verse. To try to convey meaning without spirit—even if these attributes could be dissociated—in verse form would be to do a disservice both to the Old Norse poets and to modern readers unable to read the texts in the original language. Accordingly, I have tried to reflect something of the original’s character by giving the translation a lightly alliterative flavour, although the overriding importance (in my view) of fidelity to the meaning of the Old Norse has often thwarted this ambition; in such cases, a degree of euphony was aspired to, but again not always attained. My attempt to reflect the meaning of the original words is itself often undermined by the inherent ambiguity of poetry and by cases in which modern English simply has no equivalent for an Old Norse term.⁶⁰ I have not attempted to recast the Old Norse verse forms into English equivalents. Nor have I adhered especially closely to the order of the Old Norse words, as to do so would often prevent fluent translation.

I translate most of the poems’ Old Norse proper nouns in the notes (often only on their first appearance in the collection), because these may contain clues to the nature of their bearers and the events in which they participate, though many are etymological senses, not immediately appreciable meanings.⁶¹ Suggestions for alternative translations of proper names and of other words and phrases are selective.

Readers may wish to compare my translations of the poems in this book with other English renderings, of which there are many.⁶²

Further Reading

Acker, P., and C. Larrington, ed., Revisiting the Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Heroic Legend (New York: Routledge, 2013), https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203098608

Andersson, T. M., The Legend of Brynhild (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980).

Bailey, R. N., Viking Age Sculpture in Northern England (London: Collins, 1980).

Bowra, C. M., Heroic Poetry (London: Macmillan, 1961).

Brink, S., and N. Price, ed., The Viking World (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203412770

Bugge, S., ed., Norrœn fornkvæði (Christiania: P.T. Malling, 1867, rpt. 1965).

Byock, J. L., Viking Age Iceland (London: Penguin, 2001).

Clover, C. J., and J. Lindow, ed., Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985).

Clunies Ross, M., Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Northern Society, 2 vols. (Odense: Odense University Press, 1994–98).

Clunies Ross, M., A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2005).

Davidson, H. R. E., Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (London: Penguin, 1964).

De Vries, J., Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, 2nd edn, 2 vols. (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1956–57).

Dronke, U., ed. and trans., The Poetic Edda, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969–2011).

Faulkes, A., trans., Snorri Sturluson: ‘Edda’ (London: J. M. Dent, 1987), http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/EDDArestr.pdf

Faulkes, A., ed., Snorri Sturluson: Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning, 2^nd edn (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 2005), [SnEGylf], http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Edda-1.pdf

Faulkes, A. ed., Snorri Sturluson: Edda: Skáldskaparmál, 2 vols. (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1998) [SnESkáld], http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Edda-2a.pdf and http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Edda-2b.pdf

Faulkes, A., ed., Snorri Sturluson: Edda: Háttatal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).

Fidjestøl, B., The Dating of Eddic Poetry: A Historical Survey and Methodological Investigation (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel, 1999).

Gentry, F. G., W. McConnell, U. Müller and W. Wunderlich, ed., The Nibelungen Tradition: An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2002), https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203820438

Gillespie, G. T., Catalogue of Persons Named in German Heroic Literature, 700–1600: Including Named Animals and Objects and Ethnic Names (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973).

Gísli Sigurðsson, ed., Eddukvæði (Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1998).

Gísli Sigurðsson and Vésteinn Ólason, ed., The Manuscripts of Iceland (Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland, 2004).

Glendinning, R. J., and H. Bessason, ed., Edda: A Collection of Essays (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1983).

Gräslund, B., The Nordic Beowulf (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2022).

Gunnell, T., The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995).

Hallberg, P., Old Icelandic Poetry: Eddic Lay and Skaldic Verse (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975).

Haukur Þorgeirsson and Teresa Dröfn Njarðvík, ‘The Last Eddas on Vellum’, Scripta Islandica 68 (2017), 153–88.

Haymes, E. R., ‘The Germanic Heldenlied and the Poetic Edda: Speculations on Preliterary History’, Oral Tradition 19 (2004), 43–62,  https://doi.org/10.1353/ort.2004.0091 

Haymes, E. R., and S. T. Samples, Heroic Legends of the North: An Introduction to the Nibelung and Dietrich Cycles (New York: Garland, 1996).

Herschend, F., ‘Codex Regius 2365, 4to—Purposeful Collection and Conscious Composition’, ANF 117 (2002), 121–43.

Jón Karl Helgason, Echoes of Valhalla: The Afterlife of the Eddas and Sagas (London: Reaktion Books, 2017).

Jónas Kristjánsson, ‘Stages in the Composition of Eddic Poetry’, in T. Pàroli, ed., Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages (Spoleto: Presso la sede del Centro studi, 1990), pp. 145–60.

Jónas Kristjánsson, Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medieval Literature (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1997).

Jónas Kristjánsson and Vésteinn Ólason, ed., Eddukvæði, Íslenzk fornrit, 2 vols. (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 2014).

Kellogg, R., ‘The Prehistory of Eddic Poetry’, in T. Pàroli, ed., Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages (Spoleto: Presso la sede del Centro studi, 1990), pp. 187–99.

Kellogg, R. L., A Concordance to Eddic Poetry (East Lansing, MI: Colleagues Press, 1988).

Larrington, C., J. Quinn and B. Schorn, ed., A Handbook to Eddic Poetry: Myths and Legends of Early Scandinavia (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016), https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316471685

Leslie, H. F., ‘The Prose Contexts of Eddic Poetry, Primarily in the Fornaldarsǫgur’ (PhD thesis, University of Bergen, 2012).

Lindblad, G., Studier i codex regius av äldre eddan I-III (Lund: Gleerup, 1954) [includes English summary].

Lindblad, G., ‘Snorre Sturlasson och eddadiktningen’, Saga och sed (1978), 17–34.

Lindblad, G., ‘Poetiska eddans förhistoria och skrivskicket i Codex Regius’, ANF 95 (1980), 142–67.

Machan, T. W., ‘Alliteration and the Editing of Eddic Poetry’, SS 64 (1992), 216–27.

Margeson, S., ‘The Vǫlsung Legend in Medieval Art’, in F. G. Anderson et al., ed., Medieval Iconography and Narrative: A Symposium (Odense: Odense University Press, 1980), pp. 183–211.

McKinnell, J., Both One and Many: Essays on Change and Variety in Late Norse Heathenism (Rome: Il Calamo, 1994).

McKinnell, J., ‘Eddic Poetry in Anglo-Scandinavian Northern England’, in J. Graham-Campbell., R. Hall, J. Jesch and D. N. Parsons, ed., Vikings and the Danelaw: Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Thirteenth Viking Congress, Nottingham and York, 21–30 August 1997 (Oxford: Oxbow, 2001), pp. 327–44.

McKinnell, J., Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend (Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2005).

McTurk, R., ed., A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996867

Mellor, S. A., Analyzing Ten Poems from ‘The Poetic Edda’ (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2008).

Neckel, G., and H. Kuhn, ed., Edda: die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, vol. I Text, rev. 5^th edn (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1983) [NK].

Nerman, B., The Poetic Edda in the Light of Archaeology (Coventry: Curtis and Beamish, 1931).

O’Donoghue, H., Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004).

O’Donoghue, H., From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007), https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755696024

O’Donoghue, H., English Poetry and Old Norse Myth: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).

Price, N. S., The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (Oxford: Oxbow, 2019), https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvhhhgz3.16

Puhvel, J., Comparative Mythology (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).

Pulsiano, P., and K. Wolf, ed., Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 1993).

Sapp, C. D., Dating the Old Norse `Poetic Edda’: A Multifactorial Analysis of Linguistic Features (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2022), https://doi.org/10.1075/sigl.5

Simek, R., Dictionary of Northern Mythology (Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 1993).

Townend, M., Language and History in Viking Age England: Linguistic Relations between Speakers of Old Norse and Old English (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), https://doi.org/10.1484/m.sem-eb.5.106296

Turville-Petre, E. O. G., Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964).

Von See, K. et al., Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda, 7 vols. (vol. 1 in two parts) (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 1997–2019).