mythology

Norse Mythology

Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, Odin, Loki, Ragnarok, runes, cosmology, and Germanic mythic tradition.

Scandinavia / North AtlanticMedieval sources preserving older material4 readable texts2 indexed sources

Deep Thought

Ask about Norse Mythology

Ask against this tradition's indexed passages, source inventory, and relevant archive parallels. Follow-up questions stay with the same Deep Thought.

Available now

Readable texts

Poetic Edda

Norse MythologyAncient Myth / Comparative

Henry Adams Bellows's public-domain English translation of the Poetic Edda.

Old Norse· Medieval manuscripts preserving older mythic material

Prose Edda

Norse MythologyAncient Myth / Comparative

A public-domain Prose Edda edition for Norse creation, Ragnarok, gods, giants, and skaldic myth comparison.

Old Norse· 13th century CE; 1901 public-domain English edition

The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga)

Norse MythologyLegend / Oral Tradition

The Old Norse prose saga of the Volsung clan: Odin's descendant Sigi through Sigmund and Sigurd the dragon-slayer, the cursed gold of Andvari, Brynhild, and the fall of the Giukings. Translated by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson (1888); the translators' appendix of Poetic Edda excerpts is omitted here because the Poetic Edda is indexed separately.

Old Norse· c. 13th century CE (written); underlying legends much older

The Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus (Selections)

Norse MythologyLegend / Oral Tradition

The legendary books of Saxo's Gesta Danorum, a euhemerized treasury of Norse myth and heroic legend: Hadding's dealings with Odin, the death of Balder at Hother's hand, Amleth (the source of Hamlet), Thorkill's voyages to the giant Geirrod and Utgarda-Loki, and Ragnar Lodbrok. This selection covers Books I-IV, VIII and IX of Oliver Elton's 1894 translation.

Latin· c. 1185-1216 CE

Source inventory