A Handbook to Eddic Poetry : Myths and Legends of Early Scandinavia

A comprehensive introduction to Old Norse-Icelandic eddic poetry, written in accessible terms and featuring the latest research on poetics. It foregrounds the poetry's role in transmitting Scandinavian myths from the Viking Age and its value in the study of pre-Christian religions, as well as the poetry's influence on later writers.

This is the first comprehensive and accessible survey in English of Old Norse eddic poetry: a remarkable body of literature rooted in the Viking Age, which is a critical source for the study of early Scandinavian myths, poetics, culture and society. Dramatically recreating the voices of the legendary past, eddic poems distil moments of high emotion as human heroes and supernatural beings alike grapple with betrayal, loyalty, mortality and love. These poems relate the most famous deeds of gods such as Óðinn and Þórr with their adversaries the giants; they bring to life the often fraught interactions between kings, queens and heroes as well as their encounters with valkyries, elves, dragons and dwarfs. Written by leading international scholars, the chapters in this volume showcase the poetic riches of the eddic corpus, and reveal its relevance to the history of poetics, gender studies, pre-Christian religions, art history and archaeology.