Edda to English

A Survey of English Language Translations of the Prose Edda

A depiction of the god Heimdallr providing gifts to mankind by Swedish artist Nils Asplund, 1907. The Prose Edda contains the only known references to a lost poem about the god, Heimdalargaldr. Image source: Wikimedia Commons The edges of this image appear warped because it is not flat: The image features in a curved lecture hall at the University of Gothenburg.

 Joseph S. Hopkins for Mimisbrunnr.info, May 2019. Revised and periodically updated throughout 2020. The author thanks Lauren E. Fountain, Haukur Þorgeirsson, Ann Sheffield, and the many others who continue to provide corrections, suggestions, and other feedback for the project. The author is responsible for any and all errors. Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed are the author’s own.

The present article provides the first in-depth survey of English translations of the Prose Edda. English translations of the Prose Edda vary in scope and content, and contain entire or partial translations of the four sections of the book. Some editions suffer from censorship and only one edition contains normalized Old Norse text.

Navigating translations of the Prose Edda can prove time-consuming, difficult, and befuddling, particularly for new readers. Only one English translation to date, that of Anthony Faulkes, can be said to approach ‘completeness’. It is for this reason that Mimisbrunnr.info recommends Faulkes’s translation of the Prose Edda to all readers.

While Faulkes’s edition remains the clear go-to translation of the text, researchers—including those who seek to produce translations of their own—will find much of interest in the various translations of the Prose Edda, and Mimisbrunnr.info always recommends comparing at least three translations when analyzing a text. The Prose Edda is closely related to the Poetic Edda, for which Mimisbrunnr.info provides a survey of English translations here, and readers entirely new to Norse mythology can find a guide to getting started with the topic here.

Wherever possible, entries contain excerpts of reviews from scholarly and popular publications. These sections are no doubt incomplete and, given the historic distribution of reviews, may always remain so. Reviews vary in length and approach, and can at times descend into flattery over critical analysis. The purpose of highlighting reviews in this text is to provide useful insight for the reader, including future translators. The author has chosen excerpts from reviews based on the sole criteria of ‘is this somehow useful for the reader?’ and encourages readers to read full reviews wherever possible. Where links to full reviews are absent, readers can often find reviews mentioned in this resource through online databases such as JSTOR.

 

CONTENTS

  • About the Prose Edda

  • Translation entries

    • George Webb Dasent, 1842

    • I. A. Blackwell, 1847

    • Rasmus B. Anderson, 1880

    • Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, 1916

    • Jean I. Young, 1954

    • Anthony Faulkes, 1987

    • Jesse Byock, 2006

  • References

  • See also

 

ABOUT THE Prose Edda

While the present survey aims to serve as a valuable resource for both new and seasoned students of the Prose Edda, it was not designed to function as an introduction to the text. For that, see Faulkes’s commentary here. Nonetheless, some brief discussion regarding the Prose Edda and its structure may assist readers in navigating commonalities and differences among translations, and so we provide it here.

Often held to have been at least partially authored or to some extent assembled in the 13th century by Icelander Snorri Sturluson (hereafter referred to simply as Snorri), the Prose Edda is an enigmatic work that draws from the folklore of the North Germanic peoples, what we today know as Norse mythology. In turn, the Prose Edda is a crucial text in ancient Germanic studies.

While the original form in which the Prose Edda author(s) composed and compiled the work which we know today as the Prose Edda remains unclear, taken together the extant manuscripts of the Prose Edda contain four distinct sections:

1. Prologue: A brief section presenting North Germanic gods as deified humans (a ‘rationalizing’ concept known as euhemerization). Authorship of this section remains particularly unclear—the Prose Edda prologue may have been an addition to an earlier form of the text by an unknown author.

2. Gylfaginning: Consisting primarily of dialogue between three deity-like entities and Gylfi, a legendary king, Gylfaginning focuses on providing information derived from a genre of poetry known as eddic poetry (essentially, poems in the style of those found in the Poetic Edda). The section includes excerpts from numerous eddic poems known to us in extended form as well as excerpts from several eddic poems now otherwise lost (such as Heimdalargaldr).

3. Skáldskaparmál: This section begins in a frame story (readers follow a dialogue between the jǫtunn Ægir and the skald and/or deity Bragi for a period) much like Gylfaginning before turning into numerous lists of kennings and excerpts from skaldic poetry. Like the book’s prologue, Skáldskaparmál may have been modified or expanded upon by an unknown author (or unknown authors), and like Gylfaginning, it contains many items unrecorded elsewhere.

4. Háttatal: The final section of the Prose Edda, Háttatal primarily contains discussion on the technical aspects of the composition of skaldic poetry.

The Prose Edda has proven to be tremendously influential. Its impact is not only apparent in academia, where the book has inspired a great multitude of studies and in-depth analyses for hundreds of years, but also in popular culture, where its influence only seems to wax by the day, inspiring artists, authors, and adherents of new religious movements, such as modern Germanic Heathenry.

 

TRANSLATION ENTRIES

 

GEORGE WEBB DASENT, 1842

The Prose Edda or Younger Edda: Commonly Ascribed to Snorri Sturluson
Nordstedt and Sons
115 pages
This translation is in the public domain: Download it from Archive.org.

Contents:

  • Preface v

  • Gefiuns Ploughing (no number provided)

  • Gylfi’s Mocking 1

  • Bragi’s Telling 86

  • Foreword to the Edda 96

  • Afterword to Glyfi’s Mocking 112

  • Afterword to the Edda 113

Note format

None. The translator provides neither footnotes nor endnotes.

Translation sample

Then said Gángleri; What is the head-seat or holiest stead of the gods? Hár answers: That is at Yggdrasil’s ash, there must the gods hold their doom every day. Then said Gángleri; What is there to say of that stead? Then says Jáfnhar; the ash is of all trees best and biggest, it’s [sic] boughs are spread over the whole world, and stand above heaven; three roots of the tree hold it up and stand wide apart; one is with the Asa; the second with the Hrimþursar, there where aforetime was Ginnúnga-gap; the third standeth over Niflheim, and under that root is Hvergelmir, but Niðhavggr [sic] gnaws the root beneath. … (Dasent 1842: 16-17)

Reviews

  • Uncredited reviewer. 1843. Review. The Times (London), January 7, 1843, p. 3. Viewable online. Last accessed December 17, 2020.

Excerpt:

If Mr. Dasent will accept our friendly hint, we would advise him to translate into simple Saxon-English and abstain from the use of Scotch and obsolete words, such as “hight” for called or named, “sib”, “mickle”, &c. He probably adopts them to produce an antique effect; but we think his translation will gain clearness by the use of words better understood, and neither the “Younger Edda,” nor the “Skalda” need any powder to make them look gray with age.

Observations

British translator George Webb Dasent’s unusual edition includes a mash-up of various excerpts from the four books of the Prose Edda, arranged to the author’s preference. Like Anderson after him (and many of his contemporaries), Dasent censors his translation (cf. p. 90: “… he tyed [sic] a string to the beard of a goat, and the other end to his own body …”).

 

I. A. BLACKWELL, 1847

Northern Antiquities (revised 1847 edition, see Observations below)
578 pages
London: George Bell & Sons
This translation is in the public domain: Download the 1882 edition from Google Books

Contents:

This edition contains numerous essays and items exterior to Blackwell’s Prose Edda translation. The author of the present survey has listed relevant sections from the edition’s table of contents below:

SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS BY THE EDITOR

  • Chap. I.—Colonization of Greenland, and discovery of the American continent by the Scandinavians, 244

  • Chap. II.—Laws and institutions of Iceland, 276

  • Chap. III.—Manners and customs of the Icelanders, 309

  • Chap. IV.—Icelandic Literature, 362

  • The Prose Edda.—Preliminary Observations by the Editor, 397

    • Part I.—The Deluding of Gylfi, 398

    • Part II.—The Conversations of Bragi, 459

  • Critical examination of the leading doctrines of the Scandinavian system of mythology. By the Editor, 464

  • Notes to the Prose Edda by M. Mallet and Bishop Percy, 508

  • Abstract of the Eyrbyggja-Saga. By Sir Walter Scott, 541

  • Glossary to the Prose Edda. By the Editor, 541

  • Index, 571

Note format

Footnotes followed by supplementary items.

Translation sample

“Where,” asked Gangler, “is the chief or holiest seat of the gods?”
“It is under the ash Yggdrasill,” replied Har, “where the gods assemble every day in council.”
“What is there remarkable in regard to that place?” said Gangler.
“That ash,” answered Jafnhar, “is the greatest and best of all trees. Its branches spread over the whole world, and even reach above heaven. It has three roots very wide asunder. One of them extends to the Æsir, another to the Frost-giants in that very place where was formerly Ginnungagap, and the third stands over Nifelheim, and under this root, which is constantly gnawed by Nidhogg, is Hvergelmir. But under the root that stretches out towards the Frost-giants there is Mimir's well, in which wisdom and wit lie hidden. The owner of this well is called Mimir. He is full of wisdom, because he drinks the waters of the well from the horn Gjoll every morning. One day All-father came and begged a draught of this water, which he obtained, but was obliged to leave one of his eyes as a pledge for it.” (Blackwell 1847: 411)

Reviews

  • Uncredited staff reviewer. 1847a. Review. The Hull Packet; and East Riding Times. October 29, 1847, Friday, p. 8. Viewable online. Last accessed December 16, 2020.

    Excerpt:

Among the most interesting portions of the supplementary labours of the editor we must rank the chapter in which he, as we think, completely succeeds in proving that America was discovered by the Scandinavians some four centuries before Columbus.

  • Uncredited staff reviewer. 1847b. Review. Manchester Weekly Times and Examiner. November 6, 1847, Saturday, p. 3. Viewable online. Last accessed December 16, 2020.

    Excerpt:

(No excerpt available due to print quality, see link above)

Observations

Understanding this edition requires a little background: Starting in 1758, Swiss writer Paul Henri Mallet (d. 1807) published a series of works on the history of Denmark, which he had come to consider an adoptive home. In 1770, Irish bishop and antiquarian Thomas Percy (d. 1811) published an English language edition of Mallet’s Histoire du Danemarch (‘History of Denmark’). Titled Northern Antiquities, Percy’s edition takes the shape of two volumes:

Most notable for the purpose of the present study is Percy’s second volume, which contains his translation of Mallet’s own rendering of portions of the Prose Edda along with a Latin edition by Swedish antiquarian Johan Göransson.

Years after the deaths of both Mallet and Percy, a translator credited as I. A. Blackwell republished Percy’s text with significant alterations: For example, Blackwell swaps out Percy’s translation of Mallet and Göransson’s Latin, and replaces them with his own translation of sections of the Prose Edda alongside other items, making this the second original English translation of the Prose Edda. Blackwell covers much the same ground as Mallet and Percy before him, translating Gylfaginning and a small part of Skáldskaparmál. (For a comparative analysis of differences between the editions of Mallet, Percy, and Blackwell, see discussion throughout Spray 2015.)

And who was I. A. Blackwell? That’s a fine question. Icelandic scholar Sigrún Pálsdóttir has proposed the following answer:

Blackwell’s revision included comprehensive and detailed supplementary chapters on Icelandic history and literature, yet he is hardly ever mentioned in writings on the reception of northern literature in the 19th century. This may be due simply to scholars having been unable to identify him, which in turn can be explained by how his initials are presented on the title page of Northern Antiquities. An examination reveals that the editor was in fact Joseph Andrew Blackwell, an English aristocrat, diplomat, and agent of the British government in Hungary, but that he wrote an I rather than J as an initial. (Sigrún 2006: 80)

Over 40 years later, American scholar Rasmus B. Anderson published a new edition of the Prose Edda, in which his comments of Blackwell’s edition are decidedly negative, referring to it as “a poor imitation of Dasent’s” (Anderson 1880: 15-16). Nonetheless, today Blackwell’s translation is perhaps most commonly encountered as part of a 1907 combined edition published by the now-defunct Norreona Society, where it is stripped of footnotes and other accompanying material and is presented with Benjamin Thorpe’s 1866 translation of the Poetic Edda. Despite his earlier negative comments and the existence of his own edition, Rasmus B. Anderson is listed as the publication’s editor-in-chief.

As in all other 19th century translations of segments of the Prose Edda, this translation is censored. For comparative purposes, Blackwell renders Loki’s encounter with a goat as follows: “… as Loki managed to make her laugh, by playing some diverting antics with a goat, the atonement was fully effected” (Blackwell 1847: 461).

 

RASMUS B. ANDERSON, 1880

The Younger Edda
Chicago: S.C. Griggs and Company, London: Trübner & Co.
299 pages
This translation is in the public domain: Download it from Archive.org

Contents:

  • Preface 5

  • Introduction 15

  • Foreword 33

The Fooling of Gylfe

  • Chapter I: Gefjun’s Plowing 49

  • Chapter II: Gylfe’s Journey to Asgard 51

  • Chapter III: On the Highest God 54

  • Chapter IV: The Creation of the World 56

  • Chapter V: The Creation (Continued) 64

  • Chapter VI: The First Works of the Ases—The Golden Age 69

  • Chapter VII: On the Wonderful Things in Heaven 72

  • Chapter VIII: The Asas 79

  • Chapter IX: Loke and his Offspring 91

  • Chapter X: The Goddesses (Asynjes) 97

  • Chapter XI: The Giantess Gerd and Skirner’s Journey 101

  • Chapter XII: Life in Valhal 104

  • Chapter XIII: Odin’s Horse and Frey’s Ship 109

  • Chapter XIV: Thor’s Adventure 113

  • Chapter XV: The Death of Balder 131

  • Chapter XVI: Ragnarok 140

  • Chapter XVII: Regeneration 147

  • Afterword to the Fooling of Gylfe 151

Brage’s Talk

  • Chapter I: Aeger’s Journey to Asgard 152

  • Chapter II: Idun and her Apples 155

  • Chapter III: How Njord got Skade to Wife 158

  • Chapter IV: The Origin of Poetry 160

  • Afterword to Brage’s Talk 166

Extracts from the Poetical Diction

  • Thor and Hrungner 169

  • Thor’s Journey to Geirrod’s 176

  • Idun 184

  • Æger’s Feast 187

  • Loke’s Wager with the Dwarfs 189

  • The Niflungs and the Gjukungs 193

  • Menja and Fenja 206

  • The Grottesong 208

  • Rolf Krake 214

  • Hogne and Hild 218

Notes

  • Enea 221

  • Herikon 221

  • The Historical Odin 221

  • Fornjot and the Settlement of Norway 239

  • Notes to the Fooling of Glyfe 242

  • Note on the Niflungs and Gjukungs 266

  • Note on Menja and Fenja 267

  • Why the Sea is Salt 268

Note format

The translator provides a large amount of notes, both in the form of footnotes and endnotes.

Translation sample

Then said Ganglere: Where is the chief or most holy place of the gods? Har answered : That is by the ash Ygdrasil. There the gods meet in council every day. Said Ganglere: What is said about this place? Answered Jafnhar: This ash is the best and greatest of all trees; its branches spread over all the world, and reach up above heaven. Three roots sustain the tree and stand wide apart; one root is with the asas and another with the frost-giants, where Ginungagap formerly was; the third reaches into Niflheim; under it is Hvergelmer, where Nidhug gnaws the root from below. (Anderson 1880: 72)

Reviews

  • Uncredited reviewer. 1880. Review. D. D. Whedon, ed. Methodist Quarterly Review, April 1880, p. 399.

Excerpt:

Our author does not lay claim to the original work, but to have collected and adapted material from the best authorities, and to furnish thus the most complete exposition of the Edda yet made in any language. The volume is surely no less than its pretensions. We cannot buy regret that the author’s enthusiasm has led him to confound the scientific interest of the Eddas with a literary value they cannot be held to possess. We should be surprised if the book “charms” a single reader not in some sense a student of Northern subjects. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. The crude legends and sagas of the Norsemen never please even their direct descendants until recast by a Fryxell or a Tegnér. But the book will edify if it does not charm, and should add much to what we are glad to believe is a growing interest in Northern themes.

  • “A. B. S.”. 1880. Review. The Quarterly Review of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, vol. II, no. 3, July, 1880, p. 542-543.

Excerpt:

Persons that know but little of Norse mythology will read this translation of the Younger Edda with astonishment and delight—with astonishment that these weird stories are not more widely known and admired; with delight, that a new world of beauties is discovered.

  • Uncredited reviewer. 1880. Review. Theo S. Case, ed. Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, vol. III: 1879-80, p. 700.

Excerpt:

It is more complete than any other English or German translation, and gives to the lover of antiquities the most complete and succinct idea of the ancient Teutonic faiths and beliefs, yet published. To such readers this work will have powerful interest, while to nearly all, the explanatory introduction, the copious notes and full index will render it interesting and attractive.

  • “C. A. A.”. 1880. Review. The Presbyterian Review, vol. I., July 1880, p. 605.

Excerpt:

This translation, although not absolutely complete, contains all that can be of use to the general reader or student, exceeding in its compass any translation previously made into any modern language. … We profess no qualifications to judge his work critically. We welcome it as promoting knowledge of the Old Norse literature and the early Teutonic religion and life. … The material generally accessible has hitherto been quite too meagre. This edition, with its various and ample apparatus, will helpfully guide the interest which it will awaken.

Observations

While this edition consists primarily of translations of snippets of the Prose Edda, American scholar Rasmus Bjørn Anderson’s (d. 1936) edition represents another step toward a full English language translation of the book (on this, Anderson says, “the present volume contains all of the Younger Edda that can possibly be any importance to English readers”, p. 9). Anderson applies the censorship typical of his era (for example, see p. 158: “Then Loke tied one end of a string fast around the beard of a goat and the other around his own body, and one pulled this way and the other that …”).

Anderson was a remarkable advocate for the study of North Germanic culture in the United States both in academia, in his founding of the (now defunct) Norreona Society, and as United States Ambassador to Denmark. Anderson’s efforts ultimately led to the observance of Leif Erikson Day in the United States, and his autobiography, Life Story of Rasmus B. Anderson (with Albert O. Barton, 1915, evidently self-published?), contains discussion peppered throughout regarding his Prose Edda translation and a variety of related topics.

 

Arthur GILCHRIST BRODEUR, 1916

The Prose Edda
Oxford University Press (American-Scandinavian Foundation)
269 pages
This translation is in the public domain: Download it from Archive.org.

Contents

  • Introduction ix

  • Prologue 1

  • Glyfaginning 11

  • Skáldskaparmál 87

  • Index 243

Note format

The translator provides frequent footnotes throughout the text.

Translation sample

Then said Gangleri : “Where is the chief abode or holy place of the gods?” Harr answered: “That is at the Ash of Yggdrasill; there the gods must give judgment every day.” Then Gangleri asked : “What is to be said concerning that place?” Then said Jafnharr: “The Ash is greatest of all trees and best : its limbs spread out over all the world and stand above heaven. Three roots of the tree uphold it and stand exceeding broad: one is among the Æsir; another among the Rime-Giants, in that place where aforetime was the Yawning Void; the third stands over Niflheim, and under that root is Hvergelmir, and Nídhöggr gnaws the root from below. (Brodeur 1916: 27)

Reviews

To date, the author has been unable to find reviews of this text.

Observations

Prior to the publication of Anthony Faulkes’s edition of the Prose Edda (described above), American scholar Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur’s edition served as something of the de facto standard English translation of the book, primarily due to the breadth of its content and because it does not suffer from the censorship found in earlier English language editions (for example, compare p. 92 of Brodeur’s edition to the sections highlighted in the Observation sections below). However, like most other translations of the Prose Edda, Gilchrist’s edition is notably ‘incomplete’ in that it lacks for example Háttatal.

 

JEAN I. YOUNG, 1954

The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology
Bowes & Bowes, University of California Press
131 pages
Publisher website

Contents

  • Introduction, p. 7

  • Translator’s Foreword, p. 17

  • The Deluding of Gylfi, p. 21

  • Selections from ‘Poetic Diction’, p. 95

Note format

Footnotes, generally consisting of etymologies.

Translation sample

Then Gangleri asked: ‘Where is the chief place or sanctuary of the gods?’
High One replied: ‘It is by the ash Yggdrasil. There every day the gods have to hold court.’
Then Gangleri asked: ‘In what way is the place famous?’
Then Just-as-high said: ‘The ash is the best and greatest of all trees; its branches spread out over the whole world and reach out over heaven. The tree is held into position by three roots that spread far out; one is among the Æsir, the second among the frost ogres where once was Ginnungagap, and the third extends over Niflheim, and under that root is the well Hvelgelmir; but Niðhögg gnaws at the root from below. …’ (Young 1954: 42-43)

Reviews

  • Rogers, H. L. 1956. Review. The Review of English Studies, vol. 7, no. 26, April 1956, p. 192-193.

Excerpt:

Some features of the arrangement of the text are unduly distracting. ‘Thor the driver’ is surely better than 'Thór-the-charioteer', for Thor (without the length-mark) is a well-established English spelling, and normal English practice requires no hyphens in such phrases. Miss Young has also sometimes used square brackets to denote words in her translation but not in the original; these could safely have been omitted.

There is a great demand for good translations from Old Icelandic, and Miss Young has gone a long way towards meeting it: many readers will find her work stimulating and valuable. Yet it lacks that final polish, that confident authority which a translation must have if it is to serve as a model for university students of the language.

  • Einarsson, Stefán. 1956. Review. Modern Language Notes, vol. 71, no. 5, May, 1956, p. 393.

Excerpt:

THIS translation is made from the most recent edition of Snorra Edda (1950) made by Anne Holtsmark and Jón Helgason at the Universities of Oslo and Copenhagen respectively. The translator, Miss Young, felt there was room for a new translation since the American one by Brodeur is now forty years old. She wants her translation to serve the needs of the student as well as the general reader, hence she tries to translate faithfully without falling into pedantry. My feeling is that she has succeeded in her double purpose, I have found no errors in her translation, and it seems to me to read very well indeed. Her treatment of names is a sensible one, adopted also by Turville-Petre, to give them unchanged minus the nominative -r. It is curious that the English should still prefer this latinized form to their native Walhall. … This book is very much recommended.

  • Ciklamini, Marlene. 1966. Review. Scandinavian Studies, vol. 38, no. 1, February 1966, p. 71-72.

Excerpt:

Any major work of a past age needs informed commentary to remove and anticipated difficulties in understanding, interpretation, and evaluation of passages with little dramatic interest. This guidance is lacking. While Sigurður Nordal’s introductory essay is a lucid and interesting guide to the purpose of Snorri’s work, its historic setting, genesis, and influence, the translator fails to provide any information on the poems Snorri cites, the literary conventions used, and the structure of the work. Appended notes for the curious or perplexed reader would have been an invaluable tool.

Excerpt:

This is a re-issue of Dr. Young’s excellent and lively translation of all the narrative parts of Snorri’s Edda—that is to say, practically everything which anyone interested in Snorri as a prose-writer or a mythographer could require. What is omitted is chiefly the more difficult of the verses which Snorri quotes as sources, and Snorri’s own lengthy and untranslatable poem exemplifying all known varieties of scaldic metre. The latter is no loss; the former may sometimes be, since one may be left in doubt as to whether some particular feature of a myth can be proved to be older than Snorri, but those who wish to pursue such points can always turn to Professor Turville-Petre’s Myth and Religion of the North for the hard facts. Meanwhile, this translation splendidly serves the purposes of the general student of Norse myth, being accurate and filled with infectious verve. Professor Nordal’s Introduction sets Snorri’s work in the literary context of its period.

Observations

Yet another partial translation featuring little in terms of supplementary materials, English scholar Jean I. Young’s edition compares unfavorably to Anthony Gilchrist Brodeur’s 1916 translation, which preceded it by decades and contains significantly more content. Sigurður Nordal, a notable Icelandic scholar who served as Icelandic ambassador to Copenhagen, composed the book’s introduction. While not listed in the book’s table of contents, Young also includes a translation of the Prose Edda prologue, and the book’s index begins on page 123.

 

ANTHONY FAULKES, 1987

Edda
Everyman’s Library
260 pages
Available online as a free PDF from the Viking Society for Northern Research (VSNR) website

Contents

  • Notes on the Author and Editor vi

  • Chronology of Early Icelandic Literature viii

  • Introduction xi

  • Select Bibliography xxiv

  • Prologue 1

  • Gylfaginning 7

  • Skaldskaparmal 59

  • Hattatal 165

  • Text Summaries 221

  • Annotated Index of Names 229

  • Index of Metrical Terms 260

Note format

While Faulkes’s Prose Edda edition itself contains no footnotes or endnotes, Faulkes provides extensive and thorough notes as free PDF files. On this, see discussion in Observations below.

Translation sample

Then spoke Gangleri: ‘What is the chief centre or holy place of the gods?’
High replied: ‘It is at the ash Yggdrasil. There the gods must hold their courts each day.’
Then spoke Gangleri: ‘What is there to tell about that place?’
Then said Just-as-high: ‘The ash is of all trees the biggest and the best. Its branches spread out over all the world and extend across the sky. Three of the tree’s roots support it and extend very, very far. One is among the Æsir, the second among the frost-giants, where Ginnungagap once was. The third extends over Niflheim, and under that root is Hvergelmir, and Nidhogg gnaws the bottom of the root. … ’ (Faulkes 1987: 17)

Reviews

  • O’Donoghue, Heather. 1989. Review. The Review of English Studies, vol. 40, no. 157, February 1989, p. 107-109.

Excerpt:

Anthony Faulkes’s translation of Snorri Sturluson’s Edda gives English medievalists who cannot manage Snorri’s Norse the first complete access to the unique prose account of Norse mythology, written in the first half of the thirteenth century, and its accompanying treatises on poetic diction and metre. … Faulkes’s annotated index is an extremely neat and useful reference tool; the volume as a whole will be a boon to all interested medievalists.

  • McTurk, Rory. 1989. Review. Saga-Book, vol. XXII, 1986-1989, p. 290-297. Viking Society for Northern Research. Available online. Last accessed December 4, 2020.

Excerpt:

Anthony Faulkes’s translation is a pioneer work; the first English translation of the entire prose Edda. … If these are weaknesses in this translation, they are very minor ones, and could even be argued that they have a certain advantage in compelling the reader who knows or is learning Old Icelandic to look closely at the original. The same advantage might also be claimed for Faulkes’s not wholly consistent of the more technical of Snorri’s terms, some of which he simply translates without reference to the original, others of which he gives in their original as well as translated forms—witness his index on p. 252, of the Icelandic forms of the specifically metrical forms used in Háttatal.

Observations

Any reader interested in the Prose Edda would be wise to turn to Faulkes’s edition before any other. The standard English edition of The Prose Edda, British scholar Anthony Faulkes’s translation of the Prose Edda makes for the most complete, approachable, and affordable edition of the text to date. The publication of Faulkes’s edition was a significant milestone in ancient Germanic studies, and the English history of translations of the text can uncontroversially be divided into pre-Faulkes and post-Faulkes eras. For the first time, one could find a ‘complete’ edition the Prose Edda in the English language, the digital version of which is available online through the VSNR website as a PDF for free:

In addition to Faulkes’s translation itself, the VSNR website hosts a variety of other items from Faulkes, including supplementary material for his translation of the Prose Edda. This includes normalized Old Norse editions of all sections of the Prose Edda:

Readers can find a variety of other Prose Edda-related items from Faulkes at the Viking Society for Northern Research Web Publications website (see in particular the section titled Prose Edda).

 

JESSE BYOCK, 2006

The Prose Edda
Penguin Classics
180 pages
Publisher website

Contents

  • Acknowledgements vi

  • Introduction ix

  • Further reading xxxi

  • Note on the translation xxxiv

  • Map: The Geographical World of the Edda

  • The Prose Edda 1

  • Prologue 3

  • Gylfaginning (The Deluding of Gylfi) 9

  • Skaldskaparmal (Poetic Diction) 80

    • Mythic and Legendary Tales 80

    • Poetic References from Skaldskaparmal (Translated by Russel Poole) 108

  • Appendices

    • 1: The Norse Cosmos and the World Tree 119

    • 2: The Language of the Skalds: Kennings and Heiti 123

    • 3: Eddic Poems Used as Sources in Gylfaginning 129

  • Genealogical Tables 129

  • Notes 135

  • Glossary of Names 153

Note format

The translator provides sparse endnotes organized by section and subsection.

Translation sample

Then Gangleri said, ‘Where is the central or holy place of the gods?’
High answered, ‘It is at the ash Yggdrasil. There each day the gods hold courts.’
Then Gangleri asked, ‘What is there to tell about this place?’
Then Just-As-High said, ‘The ash is the largest and the best of all trees. Its branches spread themselves over the world, and it stands over the sky. Three roots support the tree and they are spread very far apart. One is among the Æsir. A second is among the frost giants where Ginnungagap once was. The third reaches down to Niflheim, and under this root is the well Hvergelmir; but Nidhogg [Hateful Striker] gnaws at this root from below.
(Byock 2006: 24, note is the translator’s own)

Reviews

To date, the present survey author has been unable to find reviews of this text .

Observations

In terms of content, American scholar Jesse Byock's translation is a major step backward from that of its immediate predecessor, Anthony Faulkes’s edition: Whereas Faulkes offers readers a ‘complete’ translation, Byock’s approach returns to that of the pre-Faulkes era by offering translations of the book’s prologue, Gylfaginning, and select portions of the remaining sections.

Although titled The Prose Edda, containing a lengthy table of contents, and priced the same or higher than Faulkes’s edition, Byock’s partial translation of the Prose Edda makes for quite a slim volume when placed next to that of Faulkes. The content difference grows exponentially when one takes into account the extensive supplementary material Faulkes makes available to readers online.

Unfortunately, Byock’s translation does not make the limitations of his edition particularly clear to readers new to the Prose Edda: The translator appears to relegate clear discussion about his decision to produce a partial translation to page xxxiv, where he mentions it in a brief discussion about other editions of the text produced in the 20th century.

While marketing a partial translation with the strength of Penguin’s distribution network as The Prose Edda rather than a more accurate title like, say, Selections from the Prose Edda may help sales and cast it in a more favorable light next to Faulkes’s edition, it does not serve the reader.

 

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