The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems

The second half of the 20th Century has seen a rise in popularity of Norse mythology through various pop culture entities even though the number of sources were few and knowledge of them not widespread. The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems is half of a collection of anonymously written poems arranged soon after the Christianization of Scandinavia that focuses on the Norse pantheon and translated in the early 20th Century by Henry Adam Bellows.

The mythological poems range from the creation of the world to the twilight of the gods to everything in between about the Norse gods most notably Odin, Thor, and Loki. The opening poem “Voluspo” gives a timeline of Norse cosmology that many with barely a hint of Norse beliefs will guess. show more The cosmology of the Norse was further expounded in “Vafthruthnismol”, “Grimnismol”, and “Alvissmol” through various devices. One of the surprising poems is how much Thor is made fun of by everyone via insult like in “Harbarthsljoth” or put in hilarious situations like in “Thyrmskvitha” which features Thor in drag before getting his revenge, though Thor isn’t a complete fool as will be found in the aforementioned “Alvissmol”. Loki is one of the prime characters in “Thyrmskvitha” and “Lokasenna” though he plays a significant part at the end of the Norse cosmology with himself and his children.

Unfortunately, how much Christianization creeped into these poems by the time they were written down or changed as they were written down is unknown and thus 100% authenticity is not known. Bellows’ translation reads very well, and his footnotes are excellent, the only thing that a 21st Century reader might have an issue with is that instead of spelling Odin as we do now Bellows spells it Othin and there are other words where it seems this is the case as well.

Overall, this is a fantastic translated collection of mythological poems that gives the reader a very good overview of Norse cosmology. show less

[This rating and review refers to the Bellows translation, volume 1.]
I was so pleasantly surprised by this book - I think I had overlooked it heretofore because I obtained it late and it's a Dover edition, split into two volumes. But of all the translations of the Edda that I have (and I've comparatively read all six over the last couple of weeks) this is my new favorite. It reads easiest of all, scans wonderfully in mostly modern English and is wonderfully annotated. If you really want to understand the Poetic Edda, start here.