The poetic Edda : $b Translated from the Icelandic with an introduction and notes

THE
                              POETIC EDDA

                     TRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC
                     WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES


                                   BY
                          HENRY ADAMS BELLOWS


                           TWO VOLUMES IN ONE


                                NEW YORK
                  THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION

                        LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
                        OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

                                  1923








    This series of Scandinavian Classics is published by The American-
    Scandinavian Foundation in the belief that greater familiarity with
    the chief literary monuments of the North will help Americans to a
    better understanding of Scandinavians, and thus serve to stimulate
    their sympathetic coöperation to good ends.








                       To George Lyman Kittredge








                         SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS
                          VOLUMES XXI AND XXII

                            THE POETIC EDDA








                      ESTABLISHED BY NIELS POULSON

    THIS VOLUME IS ENDOWED IN PART BY CHARLES S. PETERSON OF CHICAGO








CONTENTS [1]


    General Introduction                        xi

    Lays of the Gods

        Voluspo                                  1
        Hovamol                                 28
        Vafthruthnismol                         68
        Grimnismol                              84
        Skirnismol                             107
        Harbarthsljoth                         121
        Hymiskvitha                            138
        Lokasenna                              151
        Thrymskvitha                           174
        Alvissmol                              183
        Baldrs Draumar                         195
        Rigsthula                              201
        Hyndluljoth                            217
        Svipdagsmol                            234

    Lays of the Heroes

        Völundarkvitha                         252
        Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar            269
        Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I             290
        Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II            309
        Fra Dautha Sinfjotla                   332
        Gripisspo                              337
        Reginsmol                              356
        Fafnismol                              370
        Sigrdrifumol                           386
        Brot af Sigurtharkvithu                402
        Guthrunarkvitha I                      411
        Sigurtharkvitha en Skamma              420
        Helreith Brynhildar                    442
        Drap Niflunga                          447
        Guthrunarkvitha II, en Forna           450
        Guthrunarkvitha III                    465
        Oddrunargratr                          469
        Atlakvitha en Grönlenzka               480
        Atlamol en Grönlenzku                  499
        Guthrunarhvot                          536
        Hamthesmol                             545




NOTE

[1] For the phonetic spellings of the proper names see the Pronouncing
Index.








ACKNOWLEDGEMENT


The General Introduction mentions many of the scholars to whose work
this translation owes a special debt. Particular reference, however,
should here be made to the late William Henry Schofield, Professor of
Comparative Literature in Harvard University and President of The
American-Scandinavian Foundation, under whose guidance this translation
was begun; to Henry Goddard Leach, for many years Secretary of The
American-Scandinavian Foundation, and to William Witherle Lawrence,
Professor of English in Columbia University and Chairman of the
Foundation’s Committee on Publications, for their assistance with the
manuscript and the proofs; and to Hanna Astrup Larsen, the Foundation’s
literary secretary, for her efficient management of the complex details
of publication.








GENERAL INTRODUCTION


There is scarcely any literary work of great importance which has been
less readily available for the general reader, or even for the serious
student of literature, than the Poetic Edda. Translations have been far
from numerous, and only in Germany has the complete work of translation
been done in the full light of recent scholarship. In English the only
versions were long the conspicuously inadequate one made by Thorpe, and
published about half a century ago, and the unsatisfactory prose
translations in Vigfusson and Powell’s Corpus Poeticum Boreale,
reprinted in the Norrœna collection. An excellent translation of the
poems dealing with the gods, in verse and with critical and explanatory
notes, made by Olive Bray, was, however, published by the Viking Club
of London in 1908. In French there exist only partial translations,
chief among them being those made by Bergmann many years ago.