Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Lieder-Edda
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love myth, fantasy and early literature, and want the source behind Thor, Odin and Sigurd, or are curious about Viking-age beliefs.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Poetic Edda is a collection of anonymous poems from the old Norse world. Most of them survive in one Icelandic manuscript, the Codex Regius, written down around 1270. The poems themselves are older, and they were shaped by generations of spoken performance before anyone wrote them on calfskin. Nobody knows who composed them. They tell of Odin, Thor, Loki and the other gods, and of heroes such as Sigurd, Brynhild and Gudrun.
The collection matters because it is our closest source for Norse myth in the words of the people who told it. Later writers, including the Icelander Snorri Sturluson in his Prose Edda, drew on these poems. In about fifteen minutes you will learn how the collection is arranged, what its great poems say, and how to read them today. You will meet a prophetess who sees the whole life of the world, a god who gives rules for living, quarrelling gods, and a family of heroes caught in a chain of vengeance. First, let us see how this book came to us.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1One Icelandic manuscript holds nearly everythingFree
- 2A seeress sees the whole life of the world
- 3Odin offers rules for living and a hard-won secret
- 4The gods quarrel, joke and cross the giants
- 5Sigurd and Brynhild: heroes bound by oaths and love
- 6Gudrun, Atli and the weight of vengeance
Punkt 1 von 6
One Icelandic manuscript holds nearly everything
The Poetic Edda is not a single poem or a book by one author. It is a modern name for a group of Old Norse poems, most of them found in the Codex Regius, a small manuscript written in Iceland in the second half of the thirteenth century. The name Edda was first given to Snorri's prose handbook for poets. When an Icelandic bishop, Brynjólfur Sveinsson, found the poetic manuscript in 1643, scholars came to call its contents the Poetic or Elder Edda.
The bishop believed the poems had been gathered by an earlier learned priest, Sæmundr. Scholars today do not accept that. The poems have no known author, and they were probably composed at different times and in different places across the Norse world. Some may go back to the Viking Age or earlier, and others may be later. Dating them is hard, because they lived in memory before they lived on the page.
The manuscript was sent to Denmark in the seventeenth century as a gift to the king. It stayed there for about three hundred years. In 1971 it was returned to Iceland, where it is kept today. Without this one book, much of what we know of Norse myth would be lost, for no other source gives so many of the poems whole.
The collection falls into two broad groups. The first holds poems about the gods, such as Völuspá, Hávamál, Grímnismál and Þrymskviða. The second holds poems about heroes, and most of these belong to the story of Sigurd and the family tied to him. A few related poems, like Hyndluljóð, come from other manuscripts and are often printed with the rest. Knowing this plan helps you find your way.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Odin
- Odin is chief of the gods, a seeker of wisdom who questions the seeress and offers counsel.
- Thor
- Thor is the thunder god, whose stolen hammer brings him into conflict with the giant Þrymr.
- Loki
- Loki is a cunning companion of the gods who accompanies Thor during the attempt to recover his hammer.
- Sigurd
- Sigurd is a young warrior of the Völsung family, central to the heroic poems involving Brynhild and Gudrun.
- Brynhild
- Brynhild is a warrior woman whose relationship with Sigurd places her among the collection's central heroic figures.
- Gudrun
- Gudrun is a princess of the Burgundian royal family, whose relationship with Sigurd connects the central heroic poems.
- Freyja
- Freyja is a goddess whom Þrymr demands as his bride in exchange for returning Thor's stolen hammer.
- Þrymr
- Þrymr is the giant who steals Thor's hammer and demands marriage to Freyja as the price of its return.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 156,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 10 h 25 min
- Listening time17 h 20 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Lieder-Edda
What is the Poetic Edda about?
It is a collection of Old Norse poems about the gods, such as Odin, Thor and Loki, and about heroes such as Sigurd and Gudrun. It covers the making and end of the world, wisdom sayings, and tales of vengeance.
What is the difference between the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda?
The Poetic Edda is a set of anonymous poems, mostly in the Codex Regius. The Prose Edda was written by Snorri Sturluson, about 1220, as a handbook for poets that retells myths in prose and often quotes the poems.
Who wrote the Poetic Edda and when?
No one knows. The poems are anonymous and were probably composed over several centuries, then passed on by speech. The main manuscript, the Codex Regius, was written in Iceland around 1270.
What is Völuspá in the Poetic Edda?
Völuspá is the opening poem of the Codex Regius. A seeress tells Odin of the creation of the world, the gods' history, and the coming doom, so it works as an outline of Norse myth.
Is the Poetic Edda hard to read?
The comic poems like Þrymskviða are a good place to begin, since the story is quick and funny. Each poem is a separate piece, so you can read them one at a time.