The Poetic Edda Index - sacred-texts.com

1 THE Poetic EDDA translated by HENRY ADAMS BELLOWS[1936]This text is in the public domain because it was not renewed in a timely fashion as requrired at the time by copyright law.( Copyright Office online records)Start Reading List of FilesMany of the texts at sacred - texts are of interest only to the specialist, somewhat like small art movies. Bycontrast The Poetic Eddas, the oral literature of Iceland which were finally written down from , are like big summer movies, full of gore, sex, revenge and apocalyptic translation of the Poetic Eddas is highly readable.

2 They are also a primary source for our knowledgeof ancient Norse poems are great tragic literature, with vivid descriptions of the emotional states of the protagonists,Gods and heroes alike. Women play a prominent role in the Eddic age, and many of them are delineatedas skilled impact of these sagas from a sparsely inhabited rocky island in the middle of the Atlantic on worldculture is wide-ranging. Wagners' operas are largely based on incidents from the Edda, via theNiebelungenlied. Tolkien also plundered the Eddas for atmosphere, plot material and the names ofmany characters in the Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings.

3 -- jbhTitle PageContentsGeneral IntroductionVoluspoHovamolVafthruthnismo lGrimnismolSkirnismolHarbarthsljothHymis kvithaLokasennaThrymskvithaAlvissmolBald rs DraumarRigsthulaHyndluljothThe Poetic Edda Indexfile:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/ sacred -t exts/neu/ (1 of 2) [4/8/2002 10:06:26 PM]SvipdagsmolV lundarkvithaHelgakvitha HjorvarthssonarHelgakvitha Hundingsbana IHelgakvitha Hundingsbana IIFra Dautha SinfjotlaGripisspoReginsmolFafnismolSigr drifumolBrot Af SigurtharkvithuGuthrunarkvitha ISigurtharkvitha En SkammaHelreith BrynhildarDrap NiflungaGuthrunarkvitha II, En FornaGuthrunarkvitha IIIO ddrunargratrAtlakvitha En Gr nlenzkaAtlamol En Gr nlenzkuGuthrunarhvotHamthesmolPronouncin g Index Of Proper NamesThe Poetic Edda Indexfile:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/ sacred -t exts/neu/ (2 of 2) [4/8/2002 10:06.]

4 26 PM] Index Next THE Poetic EDDATRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTESBYHENRY ADAMS BELLOWSTWO VOLUMES IN ONE1936 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS: PRINCETONAMERICAN SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATIONNEW YORK{scanned at , April-July 2001}{Note: I have indicated the 'caesura' (the break in the middle of the line) throughout this text by the vertical bar character'|'--jbh}Next: ContentsTitle Pagefile:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/ sacred -te xts/neu/ [4/8/2002 10:06:31 PM] Index Previous Next CONTENTS[*]General IntroductionxiLays of the Gods Voluspo1 Hovamol28 Vafthruthnismol68 Grimnismol84 Skirnismol107 Harbarthsljoth121 Hymiskvitha138 Lokasenna151 Thrymskvitha174 Alvissmol183 Baldrs Draumar195 Rigsthula201 Hyndluljoth217 Svipdagsmol234 Lays of the Heroes V lundarkvitha252 Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar269 Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I290 Contentsfile:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/sacre d- texts /neu/ (1 of 3) [4/8/2002 10:06.

5 34 PM] Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II309 Fra Dautha Sinfjotla332 Gripisspo337 Reginsmol356[* For the phonetic spellings of the proper names see the PronouncingIndex.]CONTENTS--ContinuedFaf nismol370 Sigrdrifumol386 Brot af Sigurtharkvithu402 Guthrunarkvitha I411 Sigurtharkvitha en Skamma420 Helreith Brynhildar442 Drap Niflunga447 Guthrunarkvitha II, en Forna450 Guthrunarkvitha III465 Oddrunargratr469 Atlakvitha en Gr nlenzka480 Atlamol en Gr nlenzku499 Guthrunarhvot536 Hamthesmol545 Contentsfile:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/sacre d- texts /neu/ (2 of 3) [4/8/2002 10:06:34 PM]ACKNOWLEDGEMENTThe General Introduction mentions many of the scholars to whose work this translation owes a specialdebt.

6 Particular reference, however, should here be made to the late William Henry Schofield, Professorof Comparative Literature in Harvard University and President of The American-ScandinavianFoundation, under whose guidance this translation was begun; to Henry Goddard Leach, for many yearsSecretary of The American-Scandinavian Foundation, and to William Witherle Lawrence, Professor ofEnglish in Columbia University and Chairman of the Foundation's Committee on Publications, for theirassistance with the manuscript and the proofs; and to Hanna Astrup Larsen, the Foundation's literarysecretary, for her efficient management of the complex details of publication.

7 {p. xi}Next: General IntroductionContentsfile:///C|/WINDOWS/D esktop/ sacred - texts /neu/ (3 of 3) [4/8/2002 10:06:34 PM] Index Previous Next GENERAL INTRODUCTIONTHERE is scarcely any literary work of great importance which has been less readily available for thegeneral reader, or even for the serious student of literature, than the Poetic Edda. Translations have beenfar from numerous, and only in Germany has the complete work of translation been done in the full lightof recent scholarship. In English the only versions were long the conspicuously inadequate one made byThorpe, and published about half a century ago, and the unsatisfactory prose translations in Vigfussonand Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale, reprinted in the Norr na collection.

8 An excellent translation ofthe poems dealing with the gods, in verse and with critical and explanatory notes, made by Olive Bray,was, however, published by the Viking Club of London in 1908. In French there exist only partialtranslations, chief among them being those made by Bergmann many years ago. Among the seven oreight German versions, those by the Brothers Grimm and by Karl Simrock, which had considerablehistorical importance because of their influence on nineteenth century German literature and art, andparticularly on the work of Richard Wagner, have been largely superseded by Hugo Gering's admirabletranslation, published in 1892, and by the recent two volume rendering by Genzmer, with excellent notesby Andreas Heusler, 194-1920.

9 There are competent translations in both Norwegian and Swedish. Thelack of any complete and adequately annotated English rendering in metrical form, based on a criticaltext, and profiting by the cumulative labors of such scholars as Mogk, Vigfusson,{p. xii}Finnur Jonsson, Grundtvig, Bugge, Gislason, Hildebrand, L ning, Sweet, Niedner, Ettm ller,M llenhoff, Edzardi, B. M. Olsen, Sievers, Sijmons, Detter, Heinzel, Falk, Neckel, Heusler, and Gering,has kept this extraordinary work practically out of the reach of those who have had neither time norinclination to master the intricacies of the original Old the importance of the material contained in the Poetic Edda it is here needless to dwell at any have inherited the Germanic traditions in our very speech, and the Poetic Edda is the originalstorehouse of Germanic mythology.

10 It is, indeed, in many ways the greatest literary monument preservedto us out of the antiquity of the kindred races which we call Germanic. Moreover, it has a literary valuealtogether apart from its historical significance. The mythological poems include, in the Voluspo, one ofthe vastest conceptions of the creation and ultimate destruction of the world ever crystallized in literaryform; in parts of the Hovamol, a collection of wise counsels that can bear comparison with most of theBiblical Book of Proverbs; in the Lokasenna, a comedy none the less full of vivid characterizationbecause its humor is often broad; and in the Thrymskvitha, one of the finest ballads in the world.