Edda: A Collection of Essays

Barry J. Edwards was a librarian with the Metro Toronto Library.

The early literature of Iceland is distinguished by a body of anonymous heroic and mythological poetry traditionally called the Poetic, or Elder, Edda, in contrast to the Prose, or Younger, Edda composed by Snorri Sturluson. Together, the Poetic and Prose Edda constitute the richest source of information on the religion, culture, social customs, and literary traditions of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples of Northern Europe. While acknowledging the immense literary value of the Poetic Edda, in particular, scholars like Einar Haugen stress too “the shamanistic ecstasy that runs through these poems from one end to the other, the magic blessings that brought power to the kings, strength to the warriors, and fertility to the farmers.”

Eddie research has not yet conclusively resolved such moot points as the authorship or original purpose of the poems, the date of composition, their provenance, subject matter, Christian vs. pagan elements, Old Norse oral traditions, literary devices, and even the meaning of the term “Edda” itself. Conceived as an “international forum of Eddie scholarship,” the present volume contains twelve highly specialized essays on diverse aspects of Eddie poetry by scholars from Canada, the United States, France, Germany, England, and Sweden. This challenging and rewarding collection represents the current state of knowledge and opinion on classical Icelandic literature, and as such it can be recommended unreservedly to all university libraries.

Editors R.J. Glendinning and Haraldur Bessason are to be commended for the painstaking care they have taken in preparing these difficult texts for publication, and for ensuring the book’s overall accuracy. Each essay is followed by extensive philological and bibliographical notes. A general index is included.