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Poems of the Elder Edda
Bruce Van Deventer, contributor
(Audiobook)
Thor, Odin, Loki, Brynhild, the Valkyries – the gods and heroes of old Norse mythology live on today in popular culture. But where did they come from? Much of what we know of the myths of the Norsemen comes from two collections: the Prose Edda, a collection of oral histories compiled in the thirteenth century by the historian Snorri Sturluson, and the Elder Edda, a collection of poems compiled by anonymous scholars and contained in a single surviving manuscript, the Codex Regius.
Patricia Terry’s clear and vivid verse translation of the Poems of the Elder Edda provides us a rare window into the world of the Vikings. It is a world in which gods and men alike face an ultimate mortality. Odin may be all-powerful, but, like men, cannot change the fate that the Norns have ordained. And for mortals, fame, honor, and loyalty are more precious than gold.