A Handbook to Eddic Poetry

Myths and Legends of Early Scandinavia

Carolyne Larrington editor Judy Quinn editor Brittany Schorn editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:19th Aug '16

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A Handbook to Eddic Poetry cover

A comprehensive introduction to Old Norse-Icelandic eddic poetry, presenting the latest research on medieval Scandinavian myths, legend and poetics.

A comprehensive introduction to Old Norse-Icelandic eddic poetry, written in accessible terms and featuring the latest research on poetics. It foregrounds the poetry's role in transmitting Scandinavian myths from the Viking Age and its value in the study of pre-Christian religions, as well as the poetry's influence on later writers.This is the first comprehensive and accessible survey in English of Old Norse eddic poetry: a remarkable body of literature rooted in the Viking Age, which is a critical source for the study of early Scandinavian myths, poetics, culture and society. Dramatically recreating the voices of the legendary past, eddic poems distil moments of high emotion as human heroes and supernatural beings alike grapple with betrayal, loyalty, mortality and love. These poems relate the most famous deeds of gods such as Óðinn and Þórr with their adversaries the giants; they bring to life the often fraught interactions between kings, queens and heroes as well as their encounters with valkyries, elves, dragons and dwarfs. Written by leading international scholars, the chapters in this volume showcase the poetic riches of the eddic corpus, and reveal its relevance to the history of poetics, gender studies, pre-Christian religions, art history and archaeology.

'Once again, Larrington has stepped up to the plate, with her co-editors Judy Quinn and Brittany Schorn, to provide this very welcome compendium of scholarly commentary, not on the whole of the mythology, but on the medieval Icelandic poetry in which it is recorded - poetry of the kind that was used by Snorri as the basis for his first in the line of many prose retellings … The volume as a whole will encourage many readers in a renewed engagement with these wonderful poems, preferably in the original language, and make them realize how much deeper and richer these 'sources' are than even the best modern retelling.' Judith Jesch, The Times Literary Supplement
'… a skillfully edited book that will serve the intended purpose to present a wide range of contemporary eddic studies to researchers and students. It is interesting to read such diverse approaches to a single area of Old Norse studies, and it is fascinating to see proponents of oral theory juxtaposed with advocates of New Philology in a single book.' Lukas Rösli, Scandinavian Studies
'Calling into question previously established categorizations, including the binary classification system of Old Norse poems into either skaldic or Eddic, the book provides the opportunity to discuss poems that have rarely been thought of as Eddic alongside those that are standard exemplars.' J. Sundquist, Choice

ISBN: 9781107135444

Dimensions: 235mm x 157mm x 27mm

Weight: 740g

424 pages