The Poetic Edda

Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes

By: Jackson Crawford

Narrated by: Jackson Crawford

"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 thirteenth-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)

©2015 Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

alright

wanted to know whete the stories of oden and Thor came from. still pretty lost

Great to hear this translation of the Original.

Having read Neal Gaiman’s Norse Mythology I thought I’d try a direct translation of the original text that he adapted.

It’s easy to dismiss the Norse Myths as just a collection of blood and guts stories of cruelty, revenge, plunder and rape and surely there is an awful lot of these in the Edda. But underlying these horrors there was an Ethic and Cosmology that Norse Society was based on. The poems of the Edda sing a constant, often repetitive song of the principles the Vikings lived. It’s not pretty but it’s consistent and worked for them for a few hundred years.

Crawford’s translation brings the poems to life in a form that seems true to their spirit. He makes them understandable to the modern reader while reflecting the earthiness of the language and life of the writers. He provides enough documentation of the inclusion of each of the poems to satisfy any scholar while not bogging down in the weeds of a doctoral thesis.

All in all I enjoyed hearing the works that gave rise to much of the fascination Pop Culture has with Marvel Comics and Movies.

loved it

this book was absolutely delightful I've never enjoyed a book so much I've listened to it 3 times so far and I'm prob gonna listen to it many more lol

Outstanding

Not for the faint of heart, these ancient stories contain graphic violence - along with a wide range of human emotion. Crawford’s new translation makes them easily accessible to modern readers, and his narration is simply a pleasure to hear. Indispensable for anyone interested in the period.

Worth buying for the explanatory commentary!

I generally don't take the time to write out reviews, but I really enjoyed the author's translations and his performance of these stories. The last "story" alone was worth buying the audiobook for.