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The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes (Hackett Classics)

by Jackson Crawford (Author)
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 5,646 ratings
#1 Best Seller in Norse & Icelandic Sagas
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"The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a Modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!) and well worth the wait. These amazing texts from a 13th-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological and literary importance, containing the lion's share of information that survives today about the gods and heroes of pre-Christian Scandinavians, their unique vision of the beginning and end of the world, etc. Jackson Crawford's modern versions of these poems are authoritative and fluent and often very gripping.  With their individual headnotes and complementary general introduction, they supply today's readers with most of what they need to know in order to understand and appreciate the beliefs, motivations, and values of the Vikings."
—Dick Ringler, Professor Emeritus of English and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
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  1. ISBN-10
    1624663567
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1624663567
  3. Publisher
    Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
  4. Publication date
    March 5, 2015
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.72 x 8.5 inches
  7. Print length
    392 pages
  8. See all details
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  1. A fool stays awake all night worrying about everything. He’s fatigued when the morning comes, and his problems remain unsolved.
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  2. A man is happy if he finds praise and friendship within himself. You can never be sure of where you stand in someone else’s heart.
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  3. You should never exchange words with someone who won’t see reason.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent and entertaining work that succeeds in achieving its intended purpose: to create an accessible and readable English translation of the Poetic Edda. Crawford's knowledge of and passion for the topic is clear throughout, and he strikes an excellent balance between approachability and authenticity. I will most certainly be using this translation when I teach Norse mythology in the future and will recommend it to anyone looking for an approachable introduction to the subject."
—Natalie M. Van Deusen, University of Alberta, in Scandinavian-Canadian Studies

"Crawford's Edda is easy to pick up and read. Commentary is minimal but useful, and the verse itself is presented in a visually clear style. A published poet in his own right, Crawford renders his translation in a modest, cautiously elegant free verse with a rigorous consistency that gives the material fluency impossible in a translation reflecting the original Old Norse syntax. Crawford's sense of rhythm is perhaps his strongest suit here, contributing significantly to the readability of the verse. The diction is simple and clear. . . . [Crawford's verse has] a conservative sparseness that often comes close to echoing the terseness of the Old Norse Eddic metres.”
—Pete Sandberg, University College London, in Saga-Book

About the Author

After more than a decade as a full-time Instructor in Scandinavian Studies at such institutions as the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of California-Los Angeles, Dr. Jackson Crawford became a full-time public educator in all things Old Norse in 2020. Among other accomplishments, he has built up a large YouTube following and served as an Old Norse language and runes consultant on major multimedia projects, including some of today's most popular films and video games. He is currently a Resident Scholar at the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado Boulder. Learn more at www.jacksonwcrawford.com.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (March 5, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1624663567
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1624663567
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.72 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 5,646 ratings

About the author

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Jackson Crawford

Jackson Crawford

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Jackson Crawford earned his Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.A. in linguistics from the University of Georgia. He has taught Norse mythology, the Old Norse language, and the history of the Scandinavian languages at UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently Instructor of Nordic Studies and Coordinator of the Nordic Program, University of Colorado Boulder. Visit JacksonWCrawford.com

Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
5,646 global ratings
Beautiful
5 Stars
Beautiful
Great works by Dr. Jackson Crawford,the direct translations are precise and easy to understand. I have found these books easy to read and understand the poems and lives of the Elder Gods and Heroes of old. I own the pocket Voluspa and Havamal for the troops which is a Bellows Translation and though Dr. Crawford's translations are to the point, I like trying to make sense of the Old English translations of this little book. After all, everything in life is just an Interpretation. Thank you for these books and I highly recommend them to anyone and everyone.
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Top reviews from the United States

Alvar
5.0 out of 5 stars my favorite translation so far
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2019
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The Poetic Edda is a collection of stories from Norse mythology and history that were written in poetic form. The stories contained within this book are both entertaining and provide advice for life. While not a bible of the Norse, it is easy to understand how people would want to see this as an equivalent.

This is my favorite translation of The Poetic Edda but I have not read every translation. So I've been holding off writing a review but I'll go ahead and get this out of the way since I'll likely be unable to access every translation. I first heard about Jackson Crawford from his YouTube channel and I liked his videos on Old Norse and Norse mythology. He seems extremely knowledgeable on the subject. I would suggest you read about discussions on the various translations to get a more accurate comparison instead of using my following opinion.
I didn't care for Lee Hollander's translation but his is generally very favorable and popular, for a very long time too. I thought Jackson Crawford's translation was an improvement since that time. Adam Bellows, Olive Bray, and Benjamin Thorpe all have translations that are too old for modern English but interesting to compare with. Carolyne Larrington reads pleasantly but I did not like the way she changes names too much into English, but I have not read her newest edition, which interests me since she includes a poem called Svipdagsmál. Even Jackson Crawford's Poetic Edda removed the accented letters to simplify the spelling of names which really bothers me because it doesn't make sense in English to remove those marks. The glossary of names in the end of the book is nice but I wish it had an additional etymological approach to the names. From the translations I have not read, there are a few that people are very much in favor of.
So there are plenty of things I would do differently if I wrote my own translation (which I won't because I don't know Old Norse) but this has been my favorite translation so far. Jackson Crawford's The Saga of the Volsungs is better when it comes to keeping name pronunciation. There was a recent translation of the Hávamál that I found better than Jackson Crawford's translation of it within The Poetic Edda, but Jackson Crawford has his Wanderers Hávamál coming out soon so I have that to look forward to.

The book is physically very appealing with a very well printed cover full of rich colors under a glossy coat. The paper used is a bright white paper and the text is printed cleanly and with enough ink. The font size is good and the page margins are of excellent size. The glue binding is well done and the spine is strong. So for its size and quality, in addition to the great content, there is a lot in this book for a very good price.

I might come back to this review later in life if I ever got real serious about comparing the different translations so I can add a more in-depth analysis. I don't think there is one best translation of this book but this one is better than most in many ways.
37 people found this helpful
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pcol6642
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice, easy read.
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2024
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Nice, easy read of mythological text. Well-spaced, easy font. Pleasant reading.
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Luis Aguado
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2023
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Great works by Dr. Jackson Crawford,the direct translations are precise and easy to understand. I have found these books easy to read and understand the poems and lives of the Elder Gods and Heroes of old. I own the pocket Voluspa and Havamal for the troops which is a Bellows Translation and though Dr. Crawford's translations are to the point, I like trying to make sense of the Old English translations of this little book. After all, everything in life is just an Interpretation. Thank you for these books and I highly recommend them to anyone and everyone.
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Luis Aguado
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2023
Great works by Dr. Jackson Crawford,the direct translations are precise and easy to understand. I have found these books easy to read and understand the poems and lives of the Elder Gods and Heroes of old. I own the pocket Voluspa and Havamal for the troops which is a Bellows Translation and though Dr. Crawford's translations are to the point, I like trying to make sense of the Old English translations of this little book. After all, everything in life is just an Interpretation. Thank you for these books and I highly recommend them to anyone and everyone.
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2 people found this helpful
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Teresa
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2023
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Great writer. An easy and interesting read. Excellent for those wanting to learn about the norse gods, vikings, pagan, and much more. I will be purchasing more from him.
2 people found this helpful
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Yvonne Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic Edda
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2024
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Great book. The author did a phenomenal job explaining everything. I enjoyed this book
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matt townzen
5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic Edda
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2024
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Clean book, no rips, tears, or stains. Good starter book if you looking to get into the Norse gods or paganism.
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Milo
4.0 out of 5 stars Yehawww. Read most of it so far and….
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2022
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I love the norse mythological stories and the wisdom therein, but, I don’t understand why he added the Havamal and the Volsungs, which I was gonna read after, like why even have those books if you’re gonna add them all into this one book? But, other than that, it’s been a good tootin’ book y'all. 🤠
5 people found this helpful
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Græme Ravenscroft
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended.
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2016
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It is a huge undertaking to look at a centuries-old collection of stories in a long-forgotten tongue, stroke one's chin, and think 'I'll bet I can make that better'. I'm of the opinion that Dr Crawford has succeeded.

There may be more 'accurate' versions, based on transliterating word-for-word, and there are certainly dustier volumes if that's how you like 'em. However, I think this translation is the best yet: it's poetic; it's nuanced and colorful; and perhaps most remarkably, it's readable by the average person. Our author manages to render these stories in a way that feels alive and lacks the torturous mental acrobatics one sometimes finds when reading translations of ancient literature into modern language.

When I bought this book, I made an evening of it: a wee dram (mead was, alas, in short supply); a roaring fire (okay, it was the Fireplace For Your Home channel on Netflix); and an old interest in the ancient stories told around real fires on long northern nights. I felt myself transported to a mead-hall, enraptured by a chanting skald, my joint of meat going co…okay, look, I read it super fast. It's engrossing and the time passed quickly! The material itself is dense in a way that invites re-reading; as easily as I might have flown through the book, it requires multiple passes to truly absorb. I don't say this often or lightly, but this is a book I will enjoy reading more than once.

As a special bonus, you get Crawford's own 'Cowboy Hávamál', a retelling of the original through the voice of his no-nonsense, tough-as-nails grandfather. I promise it's one of the best parts of this book; well-worth the price of admission by itself.

tl;dr - Buy it. You won't be disappointed.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Lloyd
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in Mexico on February 18, 2024
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Stories of the Norse gods, godesses and heroes, pretty useful if you want to learn the “lore”. Overall, excellent book.
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Lenylson luan
5.0 out of 5 stars Good!
Reviewed in Brazil on August 6, 2021
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I really like it!
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Jim Beam
5.0 out of 5 stars amazing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 8, 2022
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you know what, in search of learning about the real Norse peoples there are so much rubbish. so much accredited books are built upon previous publication including the past errors and miss information and you can feel they put their own values and ideas of what a viking should be.
this book is not that, its easily read and understood in a way a translated copy doesn't, and this is a huge plus for me because there are no embellishment, you feel your only one step away from the source. Best way for me to put it: It doesn't pretend to try to be something it is not.
Its just there and very accessible , great read, and in a different league from other books
5 people found this helpful
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Plotinus
5.0 out of 5 stars The Pagan Norse "Bible" in Clear Modern English
Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2020
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First off I am going to disagree with some of the commenters here who complain that Dr. Crawford "oversimplifies" the texts. I disagree. Writing clearly and elegantly is not oversimplification. It is accuracy. His translations are accurate, clear, and convey the full meaning. I have a Classical Greek and Latin M.A. and I can tell you that we do exactly what he has done in order to truly translate classical works into modern English. This has to happen. I don't read Old Norse, but I have other translations of the Poetic Edda and I honestly don't see much difference at all in terms of content - only in terms of clarity! Some other translations are more wordy, and if you like simply having more words in a line, then by all means, enjoy those translations! Old Norse poetry isn't wordy though. It's terse, tight, tough. Dr. Crawford's translations here are exactly that.
I think the problem is more that people come to these texts expecting to find something that they are not. This stuff is not Homer, and it is not Beowulf either, nor is it Ovid nor Shakespeare nor Milton. Like I wrote above, it's terse, tight, tough. It is not something you read or hear (if we're thinking of how these poems were enjoyed back when they were actually performed around the fire) only once. Oral poetry is songs without melodies. It's something you recite again and again, you hear again and again. It has lots of hidden gems that only come out the more you go over it and the more you think about it, and the more you absorb it into your own being.
When we read Norse poetry, we have to come to it with a Norse frame of mind. This is dense, compact stuff, to be unpacked the more often you read and ponder it. It's meant to be memorized.
Now, having got all that off my chest, it's time to make a comment about what the Poetic Edda is. If you don't already know, it's about the closest thing to a Norse Pagan "Bible" as there can be. Half of it is the tales of the creation of the world, its end, and the deeds of the gods, and the other half is tales of the best examples of mankind (alright, "humankind" if you're sensitive) from the Norse perspective, with Sigurth as the main lynchpin. While the ostensible tales the poems tell are something like "snap-shots" of different parts of Norse Lore, actually they tell a rather complete story when put altogether. Why is this? Because, just like in Ancient Greek mythic literature, the rest of the tale is told by means of prophecy and back-story telling. This makes for more interesting and involved story telling than just starting at A and working to Z. Along the way are lots of details of Norse culture, philosophy, material life and attitudes that come up, again making this work a lot more useful for us who want to see into the Viking soul than just a plot line.
I'll also add that the collection comes across at least to me as "complete". Do not fear that there was a whole lot more stuff like this that didn't make it through the years. What we have here tells the whole tale. In fact we have even "more than enough" if you like. We have some variant tellings even recorded here. There is if anything a superabundance of material. The poems are linked together with prose writing to connect them. It's complete and it's long. Given that this stuff was meant to be recited and repeated, if you think about it in terms of the time investment expected of you, this is actually a pretty huge work of literature! Frankly speaking, it does not make much sense read only once or twice. It takes several times reading it over again before it really starts to mean something meaningful. This is when your mind starts making all the connections across it to all the other parts of it and you start to develop a wisdom web of a pagan Viking (I'm using the term to mean Norse - this is an acceptable use of the term "Viking".) I think this stuff can generate in us common sense, courage, and a feeling of connectedness with the natural world. The many impossible scenes like playing the harp with your toes as snakes are eating you, understanding birds talking, hibernating surrounded by a ring of red and white shields surrounded yet again with a circle of fire... all these impossible images are the key points of the Edda. These things which are absolutely impossible are the memorable things that stick in our minds. They are the images we see carved on runic rocks all through the North. These impossible images are what define the Edda and make it unique.
I'd also like to say that as someone descended from Northern Europeans, I'm gratified that I can enjoy a text like this that connects me to their spiritual beliefs. I feel it's my birthright. No one can accuse me of "cultural appropriation" or the like here. This is the aboriginal lore of who I descend from. I think this carries meaning too.
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whothefluff
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than I expected
Reviewed in Spain on August 12, 2021
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The hero poems were actually the most compelling and fun to read, since most basically tell stories about the same family in chronological order.
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