{xxiii} What Is Included in This Translation
This translation includes all the poems and prose material from the Codex Regius manuscript, with one exception. One of the heroic poems, Atlamal, has been excluded, since its story is redundant with the superior, and much older, Atlakvitha. As one of the longest poems in the Codex Regius manuscript, too much space would have been devoted to Atlamal to justify the inclusion of a poem that casual readers would probably find the least interesting.
As in most other translations of the Poetic Edda, four poems about the gods that do not appear in the Codex Regius, but which are found in other medieval Icelandic manuscripts, have been included because of their similarity in metrical form and content to the poems of the Codex Regius. These are Baldrs draumar, Rigsthula, Voluspa en skamma (or Hyndluljoth), and Grottasongr.
Further Reading
The following books are recommended for readers who wish to become more closely acquainted with the Eddic poems, Norse myth or literature more broadly, or the Old Norse language.
Barnes, Michael. A New Introduction to Old Norse. 3 vols. Viking Society for Northern Research, 2008.
The most accessible and complete resource for anyone who wants to learn the Old Norse language.
Cook, Robert (translator). Njal’s Saga. Penguin Classics, 2002.
The most famous of the Icelandic sagas. Its action takes place in Viking Age Iceland and Norway, the same culture that produced the Poetic Edda.
Edwards, Cyril (translator). The Nibelungenlied. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 2010.
The Nibelungenlied is an epic poem in Middle High German that relates a very different version of the story of the heroes of the Volsung and Gjukung families from the latter half of the Poetic Edda.
{xxiv} Edwards, Paul, and Hermann Palsson (translators). Seven Viking Romances. Penguin Classics, 1986.
A collection of adventure stories, written in medieval Iceland but set in the Viking Age and earlier. These sagas (especially Arrow-Odd’s Saga and Gautrek’s Saga) have many mythical elements in common with the Poetic Edda, and even some of the gods take part in the action.
Faulkes, Anthony (translator). Edda. Everyman’s Library, 1995.
A translation not of the Poetic Edda but of the Prose Edda, a work by Snorri Sturluson (1178–1241) that summarizes many of the same mythological traditions. This particular translation is very highly recommended.
Finch, R. G. (translator). Volsunga saga. Nelson, 1965.
This is the best available translation of Volsunga saga, an Old Norse saga that retells the story of the Volsungs that is related in the hero-poems of the Poetic Edda.
Haymes, Edward R. (translator). The Saga of Thidrek of Bern. Garland, 1988.
A sprawling, medieval Norse saga, which includes many alternative versions of the myths related in the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda.
Kellogg, Robert, Jane Smiley, et al. (editors). The Sagas of Icelanders. Penguin Classics, 2001.
A collection of Icelandic sagas set in Viking Age Scandinavia. Egil’s Saga is particularly recommended for its sweeping plot and in-depth look inside medieval Norse culture.
Ringler, Dick (translator). Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery. Hackett, 2007.
A remarkably well-done translation of Beowulf, an Old English poem that relates a traditional story distantly related to the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda.
Turville-Petre, E. O. G. Myth and Religion of the North. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964.
Not an easy book to find outside of large university libraries, but the most useful and complete secondary resource available in English.
{1} POEMS ABOUT GODS AND ELVES
Voluspa (The Prophecy of Ragnarok)
Voluspa (literally “The Witch’s Prophecy”) is told through the person of a deceased witch or soothsayer (volva), awakened by the god Odin and interviewed for information on the beginning and end of the world. The poem contains the somewhat infamous “Catalogue of the Dwarves” (st. 10–16), a list purporting to name all these creatures, which was mined by J. R. R. Tolkien for the names of characters in his imaginary world. Two versions of Voluspa are preserved, one in the Codex Regius alongside the bulk of the remainder of the Eddic poems, and one in isolated context in Hauksbok, a later manuscript. The poem is also quoted extensively in Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, and occasionally the text in the other manuscripts can be corrected from that source. The following translation follows the text of Codex Regius, and does not include the additional stanzas from Hauksbok, which are likely to be later interpolations.
The poem is highly allusive, and the witch often refers to stories that she does not tell in their entirety. In particular, the story of the first war (st. 21–24) is told in only the vaguest detail, but seems to have involved fighting between the Aesir gods and the Vanir gods. In stanzas 25–26, we also see an allusion to a story that is told more fully in the Prose Edda (see translation by Faulkes under “Further Reading” in the Introduction), of a giant who built a wall around Asgard but demanded Odin’s wife as his price. The gods accepted his service, but cheated him out of his prize; in stanza 26 Thor seems to reject their deceitfulness and calls for a straight fight.
The use of a spear made from the mistletoe “tree” to kill the god Balder (st. 31–32) has been interpreted in various ways; most scholars have seen it as evidence that this poem was composed {2} in Iceland (where there are few trees, and mistletoe might be mistakenly thought to be a tree).
Large bold capitals have been inserted at the beginning of stanzas when the witch abruptly changes subject.
Voluspa
[1] HEED MY WORDS,
all classes of men,
you greater and lesser
children of Heimdall.
You summoned me, Odin,
to tell what I recall
of the oldest deeds
of gods and men.
[2] I remember the giants
born so long ago;
in those ancient days
they raised me.
I remember nine worlds,
nine giantesses,
and the seed
from which Yggdrasil sprang.
[3] It was at the very beginning,
it was Ymir’s time,
there was no sand, no sea,
no cooling waves,
no earth,
no sky,
no grass,
just Ginnungagap.
[4] But Odin and his brothers
created the earth,
it was they
who made Midgard.
The sun shone from the south
upon the stones of their hall,
{3} and the land turned green
with growing plant-life.
[5] The sun, companion of the moon,
shone from the south,
as the heavenly horses
pulled it east to west.
The sun did not yet know
where it rested at evening,
the stars did not yet know
their places in the sky,
the moon did not yet know
what kind of power it had.
[6] Then all the gods
went to their thrones,
those holy, holy gods,
and came to a decision:
they named
the night and the hours,
the morning,
the midday,
the afternoon and evening,
so they could tell the time.
[7] The gods had their meeting
at Ithavoll,
where they built
temples and high shrines;
they made workshops,
they made treasures,
they made tongs
and other tools.
[8] They played in the grass,
they were cheerful;
they had no
lack of gold,
till three
giantesses came,
&nb
sp; fiendish giantesses
{4} [9] Then all the gods
went to their thrones,
those holy, holy gods,
and came to a decision:
they would make
the lord of the dwarves
out of Ymir’s blood
and his rotting limbs.
[10] Then they made Motsognir,
he was the lord
of all the dwarves,
and next they made Durin.
They made many
man-like little creatures,
dwarves of the earth,
and Durin named them:
[11] Nyi and Nithi,
Northri and Suthri,
Austri and Vestri,
Althjof, Dvalin,
Bivor, Bavor,
Bombur, Nori,
An and Anar,
Ai, Mjothvitnir,
[12] Veig and Gandalf,
Vindalf, Thrain,
Thekk and Thorin,
Thror, Vit, and Lit,
Nar and Nyrath,
Regin and Rathsvith,
now I’ve named
the dwarves correctly;
[13] Fili, Kili,
Fundin, Nali,
Hepti, Vili,
Hannar, Sviur,
Frar, Hornbori,
{5} Fraeg and Loni,
Aurvang, Jari,
Oakenshield.
[14] Now the names
of Dvalin’s family,
the dwarves descended
from Lofar, as men tell:
The ones who left
their stone halls
for a home
on Joruvoll:
[15] These were Draupnir
and Dolgthrasir,
Har, Haugspori,
Hlevang, Gloi,
Skirfir, Virfir,
Skafith, Ai,
[16] Alf and Yngvi,
Oakenshield,
Fjalar and Frosti,
Fith and Ginnar.
The names of these dwarves,
the descendants of Lofar,
will be famous
as long as the world exists.
[17] THREE GODS,
powerful and passionate,
left Asgard
for Midgard.
They found Ask and Embla,
weak,
fateless,
in that land.
{6} [18] They had no breath,
no soul,
no hair, no voice,
they looked inhuman.
Odin gave them breath,
Honir gave them souls,
Loth gave them hair
and human faces.
[19] I know an ash tree,
named Yggdrasil,
a high tree, speckled
with white clay;
dewdrops fall from it
upon the valleys;
it stands, forever green,
above Urth’s well.
[20] Three wise women
live there,
by that well
under that tree.
Urth is named one,
another is Verthandi,
the third is named Skuld.
They carve men’s fates,
they determine destiny’s laws,
they choose the lifespan
of every human child,
and how each life will end.
[21] I remember the first murder
ever in the world,
when Gullveig
was pierced by spears
and burned
in Odin’s hall.
They burned her three times,
she was reborn three times;
often killed—not a few times!—
still she would live again.
{7} [22] They named her Heith
when she came into their homes,
a sorceress who foresaw good things.
She knew magic,
she knew witchcraft,
she practiced witchcraft.
She was the pride
of an evil family.
[23] Then all the gods
went to their thrones,
those holy, holy gods,
and came to a decision,
about whether they should endure
Gullveig’s depradations
or whether they
should seek revenge.
[24] Odin let a spear fly
and shot it into the fray;
that was the first war
ever in the world.
The outer wall
of Asgard was broken.
The Vanir knew war-magic,
they trampled the valleys.
[25] Then all the gods
went to their thrones,
those holy, holy gods,
and came to a decision:
all the air would be poisoned
with their deceit,
or Odin’s wife
would have to be married to a giant.
[26] Thor alone
was in the mood to fight;
he does not take it lightly
when he hears of such things:
broken promises,
{8} broken oaths and vows,
such false speech
as even the gods had uttered.
[27] I KNOW WHERE HEIMDALL
hid his ear
under the heaven-bright
holy branches of Yggdrasil.
I see a river that feeds
the muddy waterfall
where Odin’s eye hides.
Have you learned enough yet, Allfather?
[28] I sat alone
when that ancient one came to me,
Odin of the Aesir,
and he looked into my eye.
What do you seek from me, Odin?
Why do you seek me, Odin?
Odin, I know
where you hid your eye
in the shining waters
of the well of Mimir.
But Mimir can drink every morning
from those waters
where your own eye drowns.
Have you learned enough yet, Allfather?
[29] Odin opened my eyes
to rings and necklaces,
in exchange he got wisdom
and prophecy.
I saw more and more,
looking out over all the worlds.
[30] I saw Valkyries
come from far away,
ready to ride
to the homes of the gods.
{9} Skuld held a shield,
and Skogul another,
Gunn, Hild, Gondul,
and Geirskogul.
Now the Valkyries
are counted,
ready to ride
to the earth, the Valkyries.
[31] I saw Balder,
the bloodied victim,
Odin’s son,
resigned to his fate.
There stood
the mistletoe,
growing slender and fair,
high above the plain.
[32] That tree,
which seemed harmless,
when Hoth took a shot.
Balder’s brother
was born soon thereafter,
he was Odin’s son; he took vengeance
while still just one night old.
[33] He had never washed his hands
nor combed his hair
when he put Balder’s killer
on the funeral pyre.
Frigg wept
in Fensalir
for the woe of Valhalla.
Have you learned enough yet, Allfather?
[34] I saw a prisoner
lying in a certain wood,
the liar himself,
none other than Loki.
There sits Sigyn, his wife,
{10} although she finds no glee
in her husband.
Have you
learned enough yet, Allfather?
[35] A river falls from the east,
full of daggers and swords,
through valleys of poison.
It is named Slith.
[36] There stands
north of the dark valleys
a golden hall
of the kin of Sindri,
and another stands
at Okolnir,
the beer-hall of a giant
named Brimir.
[37] I saw a hall that stood
far from the sun
on the beaches of corpses;
the doors face north.
Drops of poison
fall through the roof;
its walls are encircled
by serpents.
[38] I saw oathbreakers
wading in
those thick streams,
and murderers,
and those who seduce
others’ lovers.
There Nithhogg
sucks the corpses of the fallen,
snaps them in his jaws.
Have you learned enough yet, Allfather?
[39] In the east sat an aged giantess,
in Ironwood,
and there she raised
Fenrir’s brood.
{11} Among them
is a certain one
who bites the moon
in a troll’s shape.
[40] Dead men
are filled with life,
the home of the gods
turns red with gore,
the sun shines black
through the summers,
the weather is never cheerful.
Have you learned enough yet, Allfather?
[41] A giant, a herder by trade,
sits there on a burial mound,
striking a harp,
he is the cheerful Eggther.
A bright red rooster
named Fjalar
sings near him
in Birdwood.
[42] Near the Aesir
sings the rooster named Golden-Comb,
he wakes the men
who fight for Odin, Lord of Battle.
But another sings
below the earth,
a soot-red rooster
in the halls of Hel.
[43] Fenrir howls terribly
before the doors to Hel;
the wolf will break its bonds
and run.
I know much wisdom,
I see deep in the future,
all the way to Ragnarok,
a dark day for the gods.
{12} [44] Brothers will fight one another
and kill one another,
cousins will break peace
with one another,
the world will be a hard place to live in.
It will be an age of adultery,