Primary sources of Norse mythology: the Poetic Edda poem by poem, and the Prose Edda
What each poem of the Poetic Edda actually covers — Voluspo, Hovamol, Vafthruthnismol, Grimnismol, Skirnismol, Harbarthsljoth, Hymiskvitha, Lokasenna, Thrymskvitha, Alvissmol, Baldrs Draumar, Hyndluljoth — with the stanzas this corpus cites, and what the Prose Edda of Snorri adds that the poems do not say.
Why this wins its question: Introductions say "the Eddas". This guide says which poem carries which story, stanza by stanza in Bellows's numbering, and draws the line between what the poems say and what Snorri's prose adds.
Key takeaways
- Voluspo for the whole arc (creation to Ragnarok); Grimnismol and Vafthruthnismol for cosmology; Thrymskvitha, Hymiskvitha, Harbarthsljoth for Thor; Lokasenna for the gods' kinships and scandals.
- The Poetic Edda is anonymous poems in a c. 1270 manuscript; the Prose Edda is Snorri's 13th-century handbook that quotes them and systematises them.
- When a "Norse myth" has a beginning, middle and end, check whether the poems tell it or only Snorri does.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Voluspo is the seeress's history of the world, from Ymir and "a yawning gap" (Voluspo 3) through the first war of the gods and the Wanes (Voluspo 21–24), Baldr's death (Voluspo 32–33), the binding of Loki (Voluspo 35), to the doom of the gods — Heimdall's horn, Odin slain by the wolf, Thor by the serpent, the sun turned black (Voluspo 44–57) — and the green earth rising again with Baldr returned (Voluspo 59–66).
Vafthruthnismol and Grimnismol are the cosmological poems, both spoken by Odin in disguise: Vafthruthnir answers how earth and sky were made from Ymir (Vafthruthnismol 21), where Njord came from (39), who inherits Mjollnir (51) and what kills Odin (53); Grimnismol lists the gods' twelve dwellings (Grimnismol 4–17), Valhalla's doors and warriors (8–10, 18–26), the roots and animals of Yggdrasil (29–35) and Odin's many names (46–54).
The Thor poems are Thrymskvitha (the hammer stolen by Thrym, Thor disguised as Freyja, the giants killed: Thrymskvitha 1–33), Hymiskvitha (the kettle of Hymir and Thor's fishing for the serpent, "the brother of Fenrir": Hymiskvitha 1–40) and Harbarthsljoth (Thor at the ferry, giving his lineage: Harbarthsljoth 9, 24, 56).
Lokasenna is the flyting at Aegir's feast in which Loki insults each god in turn and the gods answer with the gods' own scandals — Odin's blood-oath with Loki (Lokasenna 9), Njord's hostage-ship (34–35), Tyr's lost hand (38–39), Freyr's sold sword (42) — until Thor's hammer ends it (Lokasenna 57–65). Much of what is known about the gods' kinships comes from these taunts.
Skirnismol, Alvissmol, Baldrs Draumar and Hyndluljoth each carry one thing: Freyr's wooing of the giantess Gerth (Skirnismol 39–42); the names of things among men, gods, Wanes, giants, elves and dwarfs (Alvissmol 10–34); Odin riding to Hel to raise a seeress about Baldr's dreams (Baldrs Draumar 1–14); and Freyja's genealogy of Ottar, which includes Loki's brood (Hyndluljoth 42–43) and the god of nine mothers (Hyndluljoth 37–38). Hovamol is Odin's sayings, with the runes won by hanging (Hovamol 141).
The Poetic Edda is the modern name for a collection of anonymous Old Norse poems preserved chiefly in the Codex Regius, an Icelandic manuscript of about 1270; the poems themselves are older, of uncertain and varying date. This corpus reads them in Henry Adams Bellows's 1923 translation and cites by poem and stanza in his numbering.
The Prose Edda is a different kind of text: a handbook written by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson around 1220, whose first part, Gylfaginning, tells the mythology as a connected story and quotes the older poems as evidence. Odin's parents Bor and Bestla, his brothers Vili and Ve, Hel as Loki's daughter, Tyr as Odin's son and the full Ragnarok narrative in prose come from Snorri, not from the poems.
Primary sources of Norse mythology
Norse mythology survives in two Icelandic books that share a name and little else. The Poetic Edda is a set of anonymous poems; the Prose Edda is a prose handbook by a named author, Snorri Sturluson, who quotes the poems and fills their gaps. Most popular retellings are Snorri's. This corpus cites the poems first, in Bellows's translation and stanza numbering, and marks what is Snorri's.
The Poetic Edda, poem by poem
| Poem | What it covers | Stanzas cited here |
|---|---|---|
| Voluspo | The seeress's history: Ymir, the making of the world, the gods' golden age, the first war, Baldr's death, Ragnarok, renewal | 1–9, 17–35, 44–66 |
| Hovamol | Odin's counsels; his hanging for the runes | 141 |
| Vafthruthnismol | Odin's wisdom contest with the giant: cosmology, Ymir, Njord, the end | 20–55 |
| Grimnismol | Odin at Geirroth's fires: the gods' halls, Valhalla, Yggdrasil, Ymir's body, Odin's names | 4–54 |
| Skirnismol | Freyr sends Skirnir to win the giantess Gerth | 17–18, 39–42 |
| Harbarthsljoth | Thor and the ferryman (Odin in disguise) trade boasts | 9, 19, 24, 56 |
| Hymiskvitha | Thor and Tyr fetch Hymir's kettle; Thor hooks the serpent | 1–40 |
| Lokasenna | Loki's flyting at Aegir's feast | 1–65 |
| Thrymskvitha | Thor's hammer stolen and recovered | 1–33 |
| Alvissmol | Thor questions the dwarf Alvis on the names of things | 10–34 |
| Baldrs Draumar | Odin rides to Hel to ask about Baldr's dreams | 1–14 |
| Rigsthula | Heimdall as Rig fathers the classes of men | — |
| Hyndluljoth | Freyja and the giantess Hyndla recite Ottar's ancestry; a "short Voluspo" is embedded | 30–44 |
| The heroic poems (Volund, Helgi, Sigurth, Guthrun, Atli, Hamthir) | The legendary cycle, not the gods | — |
Which poem for which question
- How did the world begin? Voluspo 3–9; Vafthruthnismol 20–35;
Grimnismol 40–41.
- What is Yggdrasil? Voluspo 19–20; Grimnismol 29–35.
- What is Valhalla? Grimnismol 8–10, 18–26; Vafthruthnismol 41.
- Who are the Aesir and the Vanir? Voluspo 7, 21–24; Vafthruthnismol
38–39; Lokasenna 34–35; Alvissmol (the "Wanes" have their own names for things).
- How does the world end? Voluspo 44–58; Vafthruthnismol 44–55.
- Who is Loki? Lokasenna 9 (blood-brother of Odin); Thrymskvitha 17
(son of Laufey); Hyndluljoth 42–43 (his brood); Voluspo 35, 51.
- Thor's hammer? Thrymskvitha; Lokasenna 57–63; Vafthruthnismol 51.
The Prose Edda
Snorri Sturluson (c. 1220) wrote the Prose Edda as a handbook for poets. Its first part, Gylfaginning, retells the mythology in order and quotes Voluspo, Vafthruthnismol and Grimnismol as proof texts. Because it is continuous and clear, it became the default version. But several of its best-known facts have no stanza behind them: Odin, Vili and Ve as the sons of Bor and Bestla; Hel as Loki's daughter; Tyr as Odin's son; Loki bound with the entrails of his son Narfi (the poems say only "bowels torn / Forth from thy frost-cold son", Lokasenna 49). Objects in this corpus that need those facts cite the encyclopaedia for them and are marked `derived`.
Dates
The Codex Regius, the main manuscript, was written around 1270; the poems are older by an unknown margin, and scholars date individual poems from the 9th to the 13th century. Nothing in this corpus depends on a date; every claim depends on a stanza.