The Poetic Edda by Carolyne Larrington

Trade paperback format.

'She sees, coming up a second time,
Earth from the ocean, eternally green;
the waterfalls plunge, an eagle soars above them,
over the mountain hunting fish.'

After the terrible conflagration of Ragnarok, the earth rises serenely again from the ocean, and life is renewed. The Poetic Edda begins with The Seeress's Prophecy which 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-poem The Lay of Svipdag and The Waking of Angantyr, in which a girl faces down her dead father to retrieve his sword.

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

• A new edition of the famous collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry known as the Poetic Edda, with fully revised translations and updated introduction and notes.
• Includes three new poems and revised translations drawing on the latest scholarship.
• Expanded introduction provides an informative overview of the poems and an outline of Norse myth and heroic legend as well as the poems' later reception and influence on writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien and Alan Garner, and on popular culture, including film and television.
• Up-to-date bibliography.
• Appendix including an alternative version of 'The Seeress's Prophecy'.
• Revised Explanatory Notes.
• Genealogies of gods, giants, and heroes.
• Annoted Index of Names.