The Edda

by L. Winifred Faraday

The term Edda (Old Norse Edda, plural Eddur) applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age. The books are the main sources of medieval skaldic tradition in Iceland and Norse mythology.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology, Ebooks, History, Reference, Folklore

34 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

1872–1948

Reviews

[Lorellie]

"Yggdrasil's ash suffers more hardships than men know: the hart bites above, the side decays, and Nidhögg gnaws below.... Yggdrasil's ash is the best of trees.” (Voluspa)

Thought provoking and lacking bias, this was a truly fascinating essay. It will be great to have this information in mind, when I do read The Edda. Quick read too!

[Laura Jean]

I think I was expecting a translation of the Edda, however instead this read more like either the forward to a translation or a thesis/dissertation on the topic. Which was fine. Obviously it was well researched if somewhat dated. The author did include a translation of one of the stories in the appendix, which simply whet my appetite for more of these stories because it was simply hilarious.

And truly, I continued reading this even after I realized that the it was not simply a translation of the Norse Mythology, because I found the history and research conducted to determine the age of the different versions of these myths to be really fascinating.

So go into this knowing that it is not a mere translation and prepare yourself to enjoy it regardless.

[Krzysztof]

As far as texts on mythology go, this isn't particularly good, but you can get it for free on behalf of Project Gutenberg. It serves as a good primer on the Norse myths, and given it's over a 100 years old and still readable, that must count for something, yeah?

[Michael McCue]

Another book I downloaded and printed for the Odinist prisoners where I served as Protestant Chaplain. We had no literature to give them and rather than give them a source for complaining I got this. It is more of a thesis about the Edda than the Edda itself but there are long quotes. I learned about Norse mythology in reading it. It was too scholarly for most convicts but they were grateful to get anything. We had hundreds of donated Bibles but the Odinist community, if there was one, was not as generous.

[Evil Secret Ninja]

this was a short summary of the Edda and it was not what I thought it would be. I was expecting some Norse Mythology and there was not a lot of that just a summary and it did not give enough detail to make it worth reading. Thankfully it was free on Kindle.

[Joseph Carrabis]

I love myth and folklore, have studied some Norse works, and was greatly disappointed by this book. I think it's actually an appendix to a larger work. Nothing new or interesting here, except perhaps as a launching point for further study.

[Amanda Alexandre]

It's not the Edda in itself. It just speaks abou tthe Edda.

It's not freakin' finished.

[Stuart Ferguson]

Not the Edda itself

It was a good analysis of the Edda, and the two stars would have been 5 if it had said it wasn't the Edda in the title, but it only contained the Thrymnismal.