the poetic edda stories of the norse gods and heroes

The general introduction and the introductions to the individual poems are clear and informative as they locate the works in a mythos that is unfamiliar to many. As a bonus, he translates one of the poems into ‘cowboy-style’ English. Jackson Crawford, who translated, introduces, and reads the text, also brings a knowledge of correct pronunciation, which will be unfamiliar to most. Its tales of strife and death form a repository, in poetic form, of Norse mythology and heroic lore, embodying both the ethical views and the cultural life of the North during the late heathen and early Christian times.

If all you know about the Norse gods comes from Marvel, it will be a revelation. The Poetic Edda comprises a treasure trove of mythic and spiritual verse holding an important place in Nordic culture, literature, and heritage. “If you have an interest in classic Norse literature, this audiobook is required listening. With their individual headnotes and complementary general introduction, they supply today’s readers with most of what they need to know in order to understand and appreciate the beliefs, motivations, and values of the Vikings.”-Dick Ringler, Professor Emeritus of English and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Jackson Crawford’s modern versions of these poems are authoritative and fluent and often very gripping.

These amazing texts from a thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological, and literary importance, containing the lion’s share of information that survives today about the gods and heroes of pre-Christian Scandinavians, their unique vision of the beginning and end of the world, etc. These are, respectively, Scandinavian, German, and Gothic in origin. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!) and well worth the wait. The heroic lays are to be seen as a whole in the Edda, but they consist of three layers: the story of Helgi Hundingsbani, the story of the Nibelungs, and the story of Jörmunrekkr, king of the Goths. “The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a Modern English translation that would do them justice.

The poetic edda stories of the norse gods and heroes