The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson: And the Younger Edda of Snorre Sturleson (Classic Reprint)

Saemund, son of Sigfus, the reputed collector of the poems bearing his name, which is sometimes also called the Elder, and the Poetic, Edda, was of a highly distinguished family, being descended in a direct line from King Harald Hildetonn. He was born at Oddi, his paternal dwelling in the south of Iceland, between the years 1054 and 1057, or about 50 years after the establishment by law of the Christian religion in that island; hence it is easy to imagine that many heathens, or baptized favourers of the old mythic songs of heathenism, may have lived in his days and imparted to him the lays of the times of old, which his unfettered mind induced him to hand down to posterity. The youth of Saemund was passed in travel and study, in Germany and France, and, according to some accounts, in Italy. His cousin John Ogmundson, who later became first bishop of Holum, and after his death was received among the number of saints, when on his way to Rome, fell in with his youthful kinsman,

Table of Contents

Gudrun's Incitement 248; The Lay of Hamdir 251; THE YOUNGER EDDAS OF STURLESON; The Deluding of Gylfi 256; Of the Primordial State of the Universe259; Origin of the Frost-Giants 260; Of the Cow Audhumla, and Birth of Odin262; The Making of Heaven and Earth263; Creation of Man and Woman 265; Night and Day, Sun and Moon266; Wolves that Pursue the Sun and Moon267; The Way that Leads to Heaven268; The Golden Age269; Origin of the Dwarfs, and Norns of Destiny270; The Ash Yggdrasill and Mimer's Well 271; The Norns that Tend Yggdrasill 273; The Wind and the Seasons 275; Thor and His Hammer -277; Balder and Njord 278; Njord and His Wife Skadi 279; The God Frey and Goddess Freyja 280; Tyr and Other Gods 281; Hodur the Blind, Assassin of Baldur 283; Loki and His Progeny284; Binding the Wolf Fenrir 285; The Goddesses and their Attributes 289; Frey, and Gerda the Beautiful291; The Joys of Valhalla 293; The Wonderful Horse Sleipnir 2