The Poetic Edda

Summary

The Poetic Edda is the collection of anonymous Old Norse poems about the gods and heroes of the North, preserved chiefly in the Icelandic manuscript known as the Codex Regius, written about 1270. The library text is the complete translation by Henry Adams Bellows, published in 1923 by the American-Scandinavian Foundation, which renders thirty-five poems in alliterative verse and adds a general introduction, an introductory note to each poem and extensive notes. The Lays of the Gods open with Voluspo, the Prophecy of the Seeress, in which a wise woman summoned by Othin recounts the making of the world from the void, the ash tree Yggdrasil, the first war among the gods, the death of Baldr, the binding of Loki, and the last battle in which the sun turns black and the earth sinks in the sea, before a green earth rises again. Hovamol, the Ballad of the High One, gathers Othin's sayings on hospitality, moderation, friendship and fame, then tells how he hung nine nights on the windy tree to win the runes. In Vafthruthnismol Othin matches lore with a giant to the death; in Grimnismol, tormented between two fires by King Geirröth, he reveals the halls of the gods. Skirnismol tells of Freyr's longing for the giant-maiden Gerth; Harbarthsljoth is a boasting match between Thor and a ferryman who is Othin in disguise; Hymiskvitha sends Thor fishing for the World Serpent. In Lokasenna Loki insults every god at Ægir's feast until Thor drives him out. Thrymskvitha, the comic Lay of Thrym, has Thor dressed as the bride Freyja to win back his stolen hammer. Alvissmol, Baldrs Draumar, Rigsthula, Hyndluljoth and Svipdagsmol complete the mythological poems. The Lays of the Heroes begin with Völund the smith, lamed and imprisoned by King Nithuth, who takes revenge and flies away. Three Helgi lays tell of a hero and the Valkyrie Sigrun, who goes down to his burial mound after his death. The longest cycle follows the Volsungs and Niflungs: Gripir's prophecy to Sigurth, the cursed gold of Andvari, Sigurth's slaying of the dragon Fafnir, his waking of the Valkyrie Sigrdrifa and her rune-lore, his betrothal to Guthrun, his death through Brynhild's jealousy, and Brynhild's own death on his pyre. The Atli poems tell how Guthrun's brothers Gunnar and Hogni die at the court of her second husband Atli, Gunnar refusing to reveal the Rhine gold, and how Guthrun takes a terrible revenge. Guthrunarhvot and Hamthesmol close the cycle as her last sons ride to avenge their half-sister Svanhild, Sigurth's daughter, and fall.

Top Lessons

• Fame that outlives the herd

  Hovamol 77-78 sets the deaths of cattle, kinsmen and oneself against the one thing that does not die, a good name and the memory of a man's deeds. The heroic lays then test this ideal: Gunnar and Hogni die horribly but are remembered for their steadfastness. The poems teach what an honour culture hoped for in the face of death, and leave open whether fame is enough.

• Ordinary wisdom in the High One's sayings

  Much of Hovamol is practical counsel: be wary entering a strange hall, drink ale in moderation, keep faith with friends, rise early if you have few workers, do not be ashamed of poor clothes. Its sayings resemble the wisdom literature of other peoples, rooted in the hard life of a Norse farmstead and its hospitality.

• The seeress sees the end

  Voluspo moves from creation through the gods' oath-breaking and Baldr's death to a final battle no god can prevent, and then to a renewed earth and a hall thatched with gold. The poem joins a strong sense of fate with moral cause: the gods' broken oaths and the brothers who kill each other help bring the end.

• The curse on Andvari's gold

  From the otter's ransom onward, the dwarf Andvari's gold carries a curse that brings death to Hreithmar, Fafnir, Regin, Sigurth and the Gjukungs in turn. The Sigurth poems show how greed for a treasure can bind generations to violence, while Gunnar's refusal to surrender it becomes, oddly, an act of loyalty.

• Women's grief in the heroic lays

  Guthrun cannot weep over Sigurth until his body is uncovered; Brynhild rides to Hel defending her deeds; Oddrun laments her love for Gunnar. These poems give the heroic legend through the voices of the women who survive it, and their sorrow carries much of the cycle's power.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The poems are not medical, but they record how a pre-modern northern society spoke about drink, injury, childbirth and healing. Hovamol's warnings about ale, and Othin's admission that he was dead-drunk at Fjalar's, are among the earliest Germanic reflections on intoxication and loss of self-command. The same poem insists that the lame, the handless and the deaf still have their uses, a striking view of disability in a warrior culture. Healing is imagined through charms and runes: Othin knows a song for sorrow, pain and sickness and another for leechcraft (Hovamol 147-148), Sigrdrifa teaches birth-runes to help a mother in labour, and Svipdagsmol names a Hill of Healing for sick women. Baldr's ominous dreams and the laments of Guthrun belong to the history of dreams and grief. Bellows's notes are careful philology; medical interpretations of individual episodes remain speculative.

• Hovamol, stanzas 11-14

  Warnings that ale weakens a man's mastery of his mind, followed by Othin's confession of drunkenness in Gunnloth's house and the heron of forgetfulness.

• Hovamol, stanzas 68-71

  Sayings on health, sickness and the usefulness of the maimed: the lame man rides, the handless herds, the deaf fight.

• Hovamol, stanzas 147-148

  Othin's first charms: one that helps in sorrow, pain and sickness, and one needed by those who practise leechcraft (the second stanza survives only in part).

• Sigrdrifumol, stanza 8

  Sigrdrifa teaches birth-runes, written on the palms and around the joints, to help bring a child from its mother.

• Svipdagsmol (Fjolsvinnsmol), stanza 52

  Lyfjaberg, the Hill of Healing, is said to cure any woman who climbs it, however long she has been sick.

• Baldrs Draumar

  Baldr's evil dreams send Othin riding to Hel to wake a dead seeress and learn his son's fate.

• Guthrunarkvitha I

  Guthrun sits dry-eyed beside Sigurth's body while other women tell their sorrows, until his face is uncovered and she weeps.