Poetic Edda
Foreword by Thomas Rowsell, 2020
Annotations by Tristan Powers, 2022
Translated by Henry Adams Bellows
First published by the American Scandianvian Foundation, 1923
Western Canon Series, Published by Imperium Press, 2022
Hearing I ask from the holy races,
From Heimdall's sons, both high and low;
Thou wilt, Valfather, that well I relate
Old tales I remember of men long ago.
The Poetic Edda is our main source for the myths of the Norse gods and
heroes. Written down in medieval Iceland, this "original storehouse of
Germanic mythology" collects 35 narrative poems recounting most of
what we know about the religious beliefs of the ancient Northmen.
Henry Adams Bellows' 1923 translation has long been recognized as
one of the most aesthetically faithful, being rendered in the original
alliterative meters of the Norse poems. This revised edition updates
it according to modern scholarship, adding a foreword by historian
Thomas Rowsell, dozens of beautiful illustrations, and facing Old Norse
text. Each poem has been newly introduced by Tristan Powers, writing
from the perspective of a living practitioner of the Norse religion, giving
us deeper insight into the worldview and religious spirit that animates them.
This edition corrects the flaws and retains the strengths of the 1923
edition. The result is the ultimate edition of the Poetic Edda both for
serious students of Norse myth, and for lovers of poetry.
(The text above comes from the back of the book)