THE HIES OPEN LIBRARY
Henry Adams Bellows, trans. • 1923
Category: PRIMARY SOURCE
The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse mythological and heroic poems preserved primarily in medieval Icelandic manuscripts. Its poems are among the principal surviving sources for the study of Old Norse mythology, cosmology, wisdom traditions, heroic legend, ethics, fate, and cultural memory.
The collection includes works such as Völuspá, Hávamál, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, and a substantial body of heroic poetry.
This Open Library entry uses the 1923 English translation by Henry Adams Bellows. Bellows provides introductions, explanatory notes, and commentary intended to assist readers in understanding the poems, their manuscript context, and their place within the Old Norse literary tradition.
As with other historical translations and scholarship in the HIES Open Library, this edition should be read critically and in conversation with later scholarship and additional translations.
Mythology & Cosmology
Wisdom & Conduct
Gods & Divine Traditions
Heroic Literature
Fate & Mortality
Old Norse Poetics
Cultural Memory
Textual Interpretation
The Poetic Edda is a foundational source for the study of Eddic literature and the Old Norse religious and intellectual tradition at Hákonarætt Institute of Eddic Studies.
It is especially relevant to courses addressing Eddic literature, mythology and cosmology, Old Norse religion and worldview, textual interpretation, wisdom traditions, and the relationship between inherited literature and contemporary formation.
Inclusion in the Open Library does not mean that every poem or section is assigned in every HIES course. Specific required readings are identified within individual courses on the HIES Learning Platform.
Title: The Poetic Edda
Translator: Henry Adams Bellows
Publication Year: 1923
Resource Type: Primary Source / Translation
Language: English