from Part II - The Distant Past
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2024
The mythology of Scandinavia as the inspiration for a significant amount of Old Norse poetry, from pre-Christian times and on into the Christian period, is the subject of this chapter. It begins with a critical analysis of the main mythological poems in the first twenty leaves of the Codex Regius: Þrymskviða, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna, Skírnismál, Alvíssmál, Vafþrúðnismál, Hárbárðsljóð, Grímnismál, Völundarkviða and Hávamál, before moving on to consider Völuspá, the poem which opens the collection. The discussion then considers the ways in which mythological thinking also informs some of the poems in the so-called ‘heroic’ section, the Helgi poems, the Sigurðr poems, and poems such as Helreið Brynhildar. Eddic poems from outside the Codex Regius, such as Hyndluljóð, Baldrs draumar and Grottasöngr, are also discussed. Particular attention is paid to metre, poetic language and kennings, and mythological references in skaldic poetry are also described.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.