The Poetic Edda

After the terrible conflagration of Ragnarok, the earth rises serenely again from the ocean, and life is renewed.The Poetic Eddabegins withThe Seeresss Prophecywhich recounts the creation of the world, and looks forward to its destruction and rebirth. In this great collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry, the exploits of gods and humans are related. The one-eyed Odin, red-bearded Thor, Loki the trickster, the lovely goddesses and the giants who are their enemies walk beside the heroic Helgi, Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer, Brynhild the shield-maiden, and the implacable Gudrun. New in this revised translation are the quest-poemThe Lay of SvipdagandThe Wakingof Angantyr, in which a girl faces down her dead father to retrieve his sword.

Comic, tragic, instructive, grandiose, witty and profound, the poems of theEddahave influenced artists from Wagner to Tolkien and a new generation of video-game and film makers.