Poetic Edda

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English-language translations of
Poetic Edda
attr. Sæmundr Sigfússon

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The Poetic Edda, also known as the Sæmundar Edda, or the Elder Edda, is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.

Codex Regius was written in the 13th century, but nothing is known of its whereabouts until 1643, when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then Bishop of Skálholt. At that time versions of Snorri's Edda were well known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was another Edda, an Elder Edda, which contained the pagan poems which Snorri quotes in his book. When Codex Regius was discovered it seemed that this speculation had been proven correct. Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to Sæmundr the Learned, a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest. While this attribution is rejected by modern scholars, the name Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes encountered.

Bishop Brynjólfur sent Codex Regius as a present to the Danish king, hence the name. For centuries it was stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, but in 1971 it was returned to Iceland.

3762914Poetic Edda — attr. Sæmundr Sigfússon

English-language translations of Poetic Edda include:

Icelandic Poetry or The Edda of Saemund, tr. Amos Simon Cottle (1797)
The Edda of Sæmund the Learned, from the Old Norse or Icelandic, tr. Benjamin Thorpe (1866) (external scan)
- Reprinted in The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson and the Younger Edda of Snorre Sturleson (1907)
Corpus Poeticum Boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue, tr. Guðbrandur Vigfússon and Frederick York Powel (1883)
The Elder or Poetic Edda, tr. Olive Bray (1908)
The Poetic Edda, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1936).