/lit/ - Literature

>>19624594
I wouldn't start with poetic Edda unless you like poems and trying to make sense out of translated pre-viking era rhymes about mythology which we only know in fragments.

You better start with prose edda to understand the Norse mythology or one of the icelandic sagas like Egils saga or Burnt-Njals saga to see if you like the style.

>>19624594

>>19624644
paganism?

>>19624644
I checked Penguin's edition of The Saga of the Volsungs. It's pretty short at 160 pages. I thought it was a longer poem.

>>19624594
Start by learning Old Norse, pseud

>>19624745
There's some relevant things there
>>19625358
No that sounds about right.
>What's the difference between the Poetic, Prose and Elder Edda?
There's two, the Poetic/Elder Edda, and the Prose Edda. They overlap in content but also differ to some extent. Prose also has texts on how to write poetry. Best to start with Poetic/Elder Edda.

>>19625401
Any particular translations you recommend? I'm leaning towards Anthony Faulkes' translation for the [Prose] Edda.

>>19625412
Yes for the Prose Faulkes is best.
For Poetic, I've read Larrington and Orchard, of which I liked Larrington best but it wasn't amazing. I've heard Hollander is good if you like a more "retro" translation, while Crawford is a decent modern translation but I'm not sure on the accuracy and I've heard it has no notes.

What would be one book to get for specifically delving into the creatures and monsters of Norse mythology?

>>19625776
Bottom left here is a good start.

>>19624594
It's amazing how much Tolkien took from these guys. I knew he was 'inspired' but Jesus, he took many things.

>>19625860
wew ład. Why's the Vinland saga so low rated? I always thought it was one of the major ones

>>19625918
No idea, I guess it isn't as strong as some of the other ones.

>>19625887
His prose and diction stand out the most, more than the elements of folklore.

>>19625918
They're important for describing the discovery of the New World, but as >>19626541 said there are better sagas

>>19624594
"Edda" means "Great-Grandmother". It's usage means something like "source" or "wellspring", implicitly of knowledge (like the elderly).

The Poetic Edda is a collection of poems. It was copied from some prior text into the Codex Regius. It was the result of some noblemen going around to other noblemen and the "middle class" and recording a bunch of poems that people still remembered. Scandinavia at the time (around 900-1000AD). This is important, because Scandinavia at the time is being subjected to a massive cultural revolution by the Catholic Church. At the time of its composition, it was a crime punishable by burning at the stake to be out of sight of a bishop for more than three nights. There was a lot of concern about, simply put, the Norse being genocided. Christianity brought with it a collapse of the traditional social order, and the nobles were at constant war to a degree that had never before been seen.

The Poetic Edda is a series of disjointed poems, often unrelated, stories in "Eddic Verse". Eddic Verse is the type of poetry used to describe "the stuff in the Poetic Edda". It's simple and unadorned in comparison to the incredible complexity of Skaldic Verse. At times, however, the meter suddenly shifts, such as when Odin speaks out magical incantations. "Eddic Verse" is thus a Norse equivalent to Homer's hexameters, being designed as a memory aid rather than to show off a Skald's skill. A few poems appear theatrical (they're a list of lines, and each line starts with the first letter of the speaker's name). The stories themselves cover a wide historical range. Attila (died 453) shows up, and various visual depictions in Anglo-Saxon and Proto-Germanic material culture indicate that, at least conceptually, stuff like Thor fighting Jormundgandr or Odin's shamanic hanging are very old.

>>19630138
It should be noted that whoever composed the Poetic Edda is unknown.

Later, in the early 1200s, the Church's power had waned, and kings started getting deeper roots and enforcing order. The Prose Edda is, ostensibly, a book explaining traditional Norse poetry to the King of Norway. To do this, he needs to explain the basics of Norse Religion, as this religion totally suffused Norse society. The complicated kennings (a kenning is something like "raven-feeder" to refer to warriors; kennings get stupidly complicated in Skaldic Verse) made poetry basically un-understandable unless you got the kenning. In reality, the text is more so an attempt at crafting a sourcebook for the Norse to enter into the broader European society as a meaningful power. While Snorri quotes poetry, he often just states the plot points. There's a few times where Snorri's own ignorance shows up, such as when he misunderstands that someone is fucking obviously Odin. Snorri quotes poems also found in the Codex Regius, but understand that he never read it. There is an "ur-Edda", the Norse folk-tradition, that both are referencing.

Snorri starts the text with an euhemerized account of the Aesir as being descendants of Troy, meaning that Odin lived somewhere around 1000BC. This is patently absurd, but more importantly, it is also Snorri coming up with a way to make the Norse a "real people" by the standards of the rest of the Christian world. Sometimes, he's pretty clearly bending the truth to make it fit his ideological goals ("Odin was a Trojan chieftain who lived around 1000BC therefore the Norse get to not be genocided by the Pope oh btw we're going to conquer Germany in 200 years"). Having said that, the Poetic and Prose Edda only overlap partially, and there's also stuff found in "Norse folklore" (which is literally just remnants of Norse religion).

It cannot be stressed enough that there was a living tradition among the Norse, that continues to this day, that the Poetic and Prose Eddas are both referencing. There are MANY other texts that reference this living tradition (such as Saxo Grammaticus, or Bede), they're just not nearly as comprehensive. Odin, Freyja, and Thor absolutely existed according to Medieval Scandinavians, and even many Englishmen up until the 1700s. They weren't entities from the Torah or whatever, they were just Things, and they couldn't turn your body back on after death. It was CRUCIAL that a Christian know who Odin was and how to interact with him, because while he was on "Team Norse", he was absolutely not "nice" and would happily inflict grievous punishment upon you if you, say, refused to let him sleep in your barn because the Pope would throw a hissy fit about it.