The great poetic tradition of pre-Christian Scandinavia is known to us almost exclusively though the
Poetic Edda
. The poems originated in Iceland, Norway, and Greenland between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, when they were compiled in a unique manuscript known as the
Codex Regius
.
The poems are primarily lyrical rather than narrative. Terry's readable translation includes the magnificent cosmological poem
Völuspá
("The Sibyl's Prophecy"), didactic poems concerned with mythology and the everyday conduct of life, and heroic poems, of which an important group is concerned with the story of Sigurd and Brynhild.
Poems of the Elder Edda
will appeal to students of Old Norse, Icelandic, and Medieval literature, as well as to general readers of poetry.