The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems [Paperback]

Henry Adams Bellows (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 2004

The vibrant Old Norse poems in this 13th-century collection recapture the ancient oral traditions of the Norsemen. These mythological poems include the Voluspo, one of the broadest literary conceptions of the world's creation and ultimate destruction; the Lokasenna, a comedy bursting with vivid characterizations; and more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (July 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486437108
• ISBN-13: 978-0486437101
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, enjoyable, and informative, December 24, 2004

By 

J. W. Kennedy "in statu uiae et meriti" (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems (Paperback)

A Dover reprint of the Mythological section (The Lays of the Gods) from the poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems compiled in the 1200s from older oral traditions. First published by the American-Scandinavian Foundation in 1923. It's a slow read, primarily because almost every page is crammed with footnotes. The translation seems pretty good - it attempts to imitate the form of the Old Norse poetry, and the language at times is very moving with vivid imagery and sonic resonance. The abundant footnotes bog down the reading, but they are necessary since the Eddic poems were originally composed for an audience already familiar with Norse mythology. I went into this book knowing nothing about the subject, and by the time I had finished, with the help of Mr. Bellows' notes along the way, I had developed a real thirst for more. Somewhat difficult reading, but for somebody with a literary bent this is an excellent introduction to the world of Norse legendry. It certainly begs a second reading, ignoring the footnotes and just enjoying the poetry.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best translation, December 27, 2005

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samael775 (RI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems (Paperback)

the poetic edda is one of the greatest collections of poetry of all times. it contains the beautifully vivid "volupso", the norse apocalypse poem, the comedic ballads, the "wrangling of Loki" and "Lay of Thrmy", the proverbial wisdom of the "sayings of har" and the mournful lays of the larger-than-heroes, the volsungs and niflungs. the edda is better written than Beowulf, the more popular northern epic, and the rhythmic verse gives it more aesthetic appeal than most epic poems. the meter, based on alliteration and caesura, whether rhythmic fornyrdislag or lilting ljodahattr, is much more pleasing to the ear than classical blank verse, which has sticter syllable stress patterns. unfortunately, the edda is not in very good condition. their are gaps in the manuscripts, and there are numerous places where it appears a scribe covered up a gap with extraneous material. the poems vary greatly in quality, and you need a good understanting of norse myths to understand what is going on (i recommend Norse Stories: Retold from the Eddas by Hamilton Mabie). none the less, the edda is a wonderful read for fans of poetry, epics, or norse mythology.

Bellows translation does a very good job at preserving the metric rhythm of the norse poems, and a fairly good job of preserving the alliteration, while avoiding the archaism of Hollander. his grammer and word choice is a little "olde", but it is still far more aesthetically pleasing the Larrington's translation, and much more accessible than Hollander's. Dronke's translation is also excellent, but only one of five parts of it is currently in print, and it is absurdly priced, but see if you can find it at your library. unfortunately, thus far Dover has only reprinted half of Bellows' translation, this volume contains only the "mythological" lays, so we can only hope they will publish the heroic poems soon, but anyone serious about reading the edda will want to get more than one translation anyway.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Only half the Edda, September 6, 2006

By 

Joseph Naylor - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems (Paperback)

This is an excellent translation from Henry Bellows, easy to understand and with many footnotes. This is the version I use when I read the poems aloud.

The spelling he chose for transliterated names doesn't follow the common style, Voluspo is usually Voluspa, Hovamol is usually Havamal, etc, but these differences are minor and easy to get used to. The print is a facsmile (typical of this publisher) but clear and easy to read, and the binding is good quality (unlike products from some similar companies).

Unfortunately Dover only published half of the book, the section referred to to as the "Mythological Lays", and have omitted the "Heroic Lays", assuming I suppose that we'd only want to read the poems referring directly to the gods. They do clearly admit the omission at the beginning of the book. Much of the ancient scandinavian works we have are regarding heroes related to the gods, so to focus completely on the gods themselves is to miss pieces of the whole picture. Some researchers (in the minority) even suggest that the "Heroic Lays" are actually stories about the gods under different names, which was a very common practice (as you'll see when you read the poems that are included). So I consider the omission very unfortunate.

Despite that complaint I think this book is worth the cost. Unless you want to print your own (the Bellows translation is in the public domain), this book is an excellent choice for what it does have. Just be aware of what you're missing.

Edit: Dover has recently announced that they will finally release the second half of the book, The Poetic Edda: The Heroic Poems (Dover Value Editions)