Dronke Poetic Edda – serie

This volume presents a wholly new edition of five of the most brilliant and celebrated poems of the Poetic Edda: 'The Sibyl's Prophecy', 'The Rigmarole of Rigr', 'Wayland's Poem', 'Skirnir's Lay', and 'Loki's Quarrel'. New textual readings and interpretations are established. New light is shed on the Franks Casket and on King Alfred's interest in Wayland; new links are found between the Viking and Christian worlds. A close translation accompanies the text to give the non-specialist reader a transparent and rhythmic sense of the original. For each poem the sequence of ideas is traced in the introduction and the interpretation substantiated by a detailed commentary. Much consideration is given to the themes of the poems and the ancient ideas in which they are rooted: analogues come from many sources - Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Sanskrit, African, and Finnish. The excellence and variety of the poems give a rare insight into the genius of oral poets of the Viking age.

This volume presents four of the most intricate and fascinating mythological poems of the Poetic Edda, with parallel translations and individual introductions and commentaries. 'Hávamál', notable for its unforgettable flashes of beauty and despair, explores the nature of human knowledge. 'Hymiskviða' is the boisterous tale of the giant Hymir. 'Grímnismál', the lay of Grímnir, the Visored God, is a dramatic monologue spoken by Óðin. The final poem, 'Gróttasöngr', is the song of two girls kept as slaves by King Fróði to work at his magic grindstone. Ursula Dronke provides new and illuminating textual readings of these celebrated works.