Poems of the Elder Edda

The great poetic tradition of pre-Christian Scandinavia is known to us almost exclusively though the Poetic Edda. The poems originated in Iceland, Norway, and Greenland between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, when they were compiled in a unique manuscript known as the Codex Regius.The poems are primarily lyrical rather than narrative. Terry's readable translation includes the magnificent cosmological poem Völuspá ("The Sibyl's Prophecy"), didactic poems concerned with mythology and the everyday conduct of life, and heroic poems, of which an important group is concerned with the story of Sigurd and Brynhild.Poems of the Elder Edda will appeal to students of Old Norse, Icelandic, and Medieval literature, as well as to general readers of poetry.

Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface to the Revised Edition --; Preface to the 1969 Edition --; Introduction --; Völuspá --; Sayings of the High One --; The Lay of Vafthrudnir --; The Lay of Grimnir --; Skirnir's Journey --; The Lay of Harbard --; The Lay of Hymir --; The Insolence of Loki --; The Lay of Thrym --; The Lay of Alvis --; The Lay of Volund --; The Lay of Helgi Hjorvard's Son --; The First Lay of Helgi Hunding's Bane --; The Second Lay of Helgi Hunding's Bane --; The Prophecy of Gripir --; The Lay of Regin --; The Lay of Fafnir --; The Lay of Sigrdrifa --; Fragment of a Sigurd Lay --; The Grief of Gudrun --; The Short Lay of Sigurd --; Brynhild's Journey to Hel --; The Second Lay of Gudrun --; The Third Lay of Gudrun --; Oddrun's Lament O --; The Lay of Atli --; The Greenland Lay of Atli --; Gudrun's Chain of Woes --; The Lay of Hamdir --; Balder's Dreams --; The Mill Song --; The Waking of Angantyr --; Glossary and Index of Proper Names --; Bibliography of Works Cited 269