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Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca

Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca · Chapter III: Heathenry & Runes

The Poetic Edda: Codex Regius, Völuspá and the Eddic Poems

The Poetic Edda explained: the Codex Regius manuscript, the mythological and heroic poems from Völuspá to the Sigurd lays, their dating, and use in Heathenry.

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The Poetic Edda, also called the Elder Edda, is a collection of anonymous Old Norse poems about the gods and heroes of Scandinavian tradition, preserved mainly in a single Icelandic manuscript of about 1270 known as the Codex Regius. It includes Völuspá, the seeress's vision of the creation and destruction of the world; Hávamál, the sayings of Odin; and the heroic lays of Sigurd the dragon-slayer. Together with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, it is the most important literary source for Norse mythology and the central text of modern Heathenry.

What the Poetic Edda Is: Name and Definition§

The word Edda was first used for Snorri Sturluson's handbook of poetic language and myth, written around 1220 and now called the Prose Edda or Snorra Edda. Its meaning is uncertain: suggestions include "great-grandmother", a word that appears in one Eddic poem; a derivation from Oddi, the farm where Snorri was raised; or a link with Old Norse óðr, poetry. When a manuscript of old mythological and heroic poems came to light in the seventeenth century, scholars applied the same name to it, and the poems became known as the Elder or Poetic Edda.

In scholarly usage "Eddic poetry" means poetry in the simple, mainly anonymous metres of these poems, as opposed to the elaborate court poetry of the named skalds. Besides the Codex Regius, a few Eddic poems survive in other manuscripts, among them Baldrs draumar ("Baldr's Dreams"), Rígsþula and Hyndluljóð, and modern editions usually include them. The Edda's place among the sources for Norse religion is surveyed in Norse and Germanic religion.

The Codex Regius: Manuscript, Discovery and Return to Iceland§

The Codex Regius (Copenhagen, Gl. kgl. sml. 2365 4to) is a small vellum book of forty-five leaves, written by one scribe in Iceland around 1270, probably copied from older written collections. A gathering of eight leaves has been lost from the middle of the heroic section, the so-called great lacuna, so that part of the story of Sigurd survives only in prose retellings such as the Völsunga saga.

Nothing is known of the manuscript's history until 1643, when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, Bishop of Skálholt, a keen collector of Icelandic antiquities. Brynjólfur believed the poems had been compiled by the learned priest Sæmundr Sigfússon (1056–1133), and for centuries the collection was known as Sæmundar Edda, an attribution no longer accepted. In 1662 he presented the manuscript to King Frederick III of Denmark, which is why it is called the Codex Regius, the "King's Book".

The manuscript remained in the Royal Library in Copenhagen for more than three centuries. After Iceland's independence, the return of medieval Icelandic manuscripts became a national cause, and in 1971 the Codex Regius was brought back to Reykjavík by Danish naval ship, together with Flateyjarbók, to an enthusiastic public welcome. It is now kept by the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies.

The Mythological Poems: Völuspá, Hávamál and the Lays of the Gods§

The first part of the Codex Regius contains poems about the gods:

  • Völuspá ("The Prophecy of the Seeress"): a völva addresses Odin and recounts the creation of the world from the void, the building of the gods' realm, the first war, the death of Baldr and the coming of Ragnarök, ending with a renewed green earth. A second version survives in the fourteenth-century Hauksbók. The seeress figure is discussed in seiðr.
  • Hávamál ("Sayings of the High One"): a composite poem of practical wisdom on hospitality, friendship, moderation and reputation, followed by Odin's account of hanging nine nights on the windswept tree to win the runes, and a list of eighteen charms. Its best-known lines, in Henry Adams Bellows's 1923 translation, begin "Cattle die, and kinsmen die, / And so one dies one's self".
  • Vafþrúðnismál and Grímnismál: contests and monologues of mythological knowledge, in which Odin tests a giant and reveals the structure of the cosmos.
  • Skírnismál, Hárbarðsljóð, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna and Þrymskviða: narrative and dramatic poems about Freyr's wooing of Gerðr, Thor's quarrels and journeys, Loki's insults to the gods at a feast, and the comic recovery of Thor's stolen hammer.
  • Alvíssmál: a dwarf questioned by Thor on the names of things in different worlds.

The god at the centre of many of these poems is described in Odin, and the runic passages of Hávamál in runes.

The Heroic Poems: Helgi, Sigurd and the Fall of the Burgundians§

The second and larger part of the manuscript contains heroic poetry, much of it rooted in the migration period of the fourth to sixth centuries, when Germanic peoples clashed with the Huns and with Rome. Völundarkviða, about the captive smith Völundr (Wayland), forms a bridge between the two sections.

The heroic poems include:

  • The Helgi poems, three lays about the hero Helgi and his valkyrie lover, who meet again after his death in his burial mound.
  • The Sigurd cycle: Grípisspá, Reginsmál, Fáfnismál and Sigrdrífumál tell how Sigurd killed the dragon Fáfnir, won its gold and woke the valkyrie Sigrdrífa, who teaches him rune lore and counsel.
  • The tragedy of Guðrún and Brynhildr: several poems, partly lost in the lacuna, on Sigurd's marriage to Guðrún, the jealousy of Brynhildr and Sigurd's murder.
  • The fall of the Burgundians: Atlakviða and Atlamál describe how Atli (Attila the Hun) lures Guðrún's brothers Gunnarr and Högni to their deaths, and Guðrún's revenge; Hamðismál ends the cycle with the deaths of her last sons.

These stories are close relatives of the German Nibelungenlied (around 1200) and supplied Richard Wagner with much of the material for Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Dating, Metre and Oral Tradition§

When the poems were composed is one of the great problems of Old Norse studies. The manuscript is from the thirteenth century, after more than two centuries of Christianity in Iceland, but the poems clearly drew on a long oral tradition. Scholars have proposed dates ranging from the ninth century to the time of writing, and often argue for different dates for different poems. Völuspá is commonly placed around the year 1000, near the conversion of Iceland, partly because some of its imagery seems to echo Christian ideas of the end of the world, though this too is debated. Poems such as Atlakviða are often thought to be among the oldest, while some heroic poems may be twelfth- or thirteenth-century compositions.

The poems use a small number of metres built on alliteration and stress rather than rhyme. Fornyrðislag, "old story metre", is used for narrative; ljóðaháttr, "song metre", for dialogue and wisdom poetry such as Hávamál; and málaháttr for some heroic poems. Because the texts were transmitted orally before being written down, they probably changed with each performer, and the written versions represent one moment in that process.

Scholars therefore approach the Edda cautiously as a source for pre-Christian religion. Its poets may have been Christians interested in old lore, or pagans whose work was recorded by Christians. Nonetheless, its myths often agree with images on Viking Age picture stones and with earlier sources, and most specialists consider it a precious if indirect witness to the old religion.

The Poetic Edda in Modern Heathenry and Culture§

For modern Heathens the Poetic Edda functions as something like a scriptural canon, though not an infallible one. Völuspá supplies a cosmology of the nine worlds and the world tree; Hávamál is widely read as an ethical guide stressing hospitality, honesty, self-reliance and good reputation; and the charms and rune lore of Hávamál and Sigrdrífumál inspire modern runic practice. Some groups recite Eddic verses in blót and sumbel, the rituals described in Heathenry and the runes, and the Icelandic Ásatrúarfélagið uses Eddic poetry in its ceremonies.

Heathens differ in how they read the texts. Reconstructionists emphasise historical scholarship and the limits of the evidence; others treat the poems as inspired myth to be interpreted personally. Many caution against using single verses as rules, since the poems themselves were never a fixed creed.

The Edda's influence beyond religion has been immense. Thomas Gray adapted Baldrs draumar as "The Descent of Odin" in 1768, Romantic scholars made the poems a foundation of Scandinavian national identity, and J. R. R. Tolkien took the names of his dwarves, and of Gandalf, from the list of dwarves in Völuspá. Translations have appeared in English since the late eighteenth century, from Henry Adams Bellows (1923) and Lee M. Hollander (1928) to Carolyne Larrington (1996) and Ursula Dronke's scholarly edition.

Frequently asked questions§

What is the difference between the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda?§

The Poetic Edda is a collection of anonymous Old Norse poems, preserved mainly in the Codex Regius of about 1270. The Prose Edda is a handbook written around 1220 by the Icelandic chieftain Snorri Sturluson, which retells the myths in prose and explains poetic language, often quoting Eddic poems.

How old is the Poetic Edda?§

The main manuscript dates from around 1270, but the poems are older. Scholars disagree about their dates; some may go back to the Viking Age of the ninth and tenth centuries, while others were probably composed in the twelfth or thirteenth century.

What is Völuspá about?§

Völuspá is a poem in which a seeress tells Odin the history of the world, from its creation out of the void to the death of Baldr, the final battle of Ragnarök and the rise of a new world. It is the most comprehensive mythological poem in Old Norse.

Is the Poetic Edda a religious text?§

It was not a scripture in Viking Age religion, which had no sacred book. It preserves myths and wisdom poetry of the old religion, filtered through Christian-era Iceland, and modern Heathens treat it as an important, though not infallible, religious source.

Sources and further reading§