Lesson Plan Elder Edda by Anonymous

The Poetic Edda

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Teaching Elder Edda

Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — The Poetic Edda by Anonymous. The Poetic Edda comprises a treasure trove of mythic and spiritual verse holding an important place in Nordic culture, literature, and heritage. Its tales of strife and death form a repository, in poetic form, of Norse mythology and heroic lore, embodying both the ethical views and the cultural life of the North during the late heathen and early Christian times.

Collected b The Poetic Edda comprises a treasure trove of mythic and spiritual verse holding an important place in Nordic culture, literature, and heritage.

Collected by an unidentified Icelander, probably during the twelfth or thirteenth century, The Poetic Edda was rediscovered in Iceland in the seventeenth century by Danish scholars. Even then its value as poetry, as a source of historical information, and as a collection of entertaining stories was recognized. This meticulous translation succeeds in reproducing the verse patterns, the rhythm, the mood, and the dignity of the original in a revision that Scandinavian Studies says "may well grace anyone's bookshelf.

Paperback , Second Edition, Revised , pages. Published by University of Texas Press first published Legends from the Ancient North. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Poetic Edda , please sign up. Hailey The poems Norse mythology is based upon.

One of the two surviving texts from that time period we have to go off of. The other is the Prose Edda. Trevor These are poems about the Norse gods. It includes prophecies and sayings by the Norse gods as well as stories about them. It also includes some poems …more These are poems about the Norse gods. It also includes some poems about Norse heroes and their adventures. It's probably not the best choice if you're looking to learn about vikings but is fantastic if you're interested in Norse mythology. See 2 questions about The Poetic Edda….

Lists with This Book. Due to poor organization of translations on this website, I must note that this is a review of Andy Orchard's translation of the "Poetic Edda", which he has titled "The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore". Being familiar with Andy Orchard's handbook on Norse mythology "Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend", and finding it to be a nice middle ground between Rudolf Simek's deeply flawed handbook and the limited scope of John Lindow's own, it was with high hopes that I waited for Andy Orchard's English translation of the Poetic Edda, or, alternately, as Orchard has chosen to go with here, the "Elder Edda".

Specifically I had hoped that Orchard's Penguin Classics translation would be a superior alternative to Carolyne Larrington's commonly available Oxford World's Classics translation titled "The Poetic Edda" and first published in Unfortunately, Orchard's translation not only continues most of the problems found in Larrington's translation, but also introduces a variety of new issues.

Let's begin with the title. A Book of Viking Lore", and the material contained within is frequently referred to as "viking lore" throughout. Referring to these poems as "viking lore" may have been a marketing decision intended to move units, but it is unfortunately misleading; the lore in question primarily dates from the Viking Age, sure, but elements of the compositions date at least as far back as the Migration Period the 5th to 9th century CE and other elements are from a few hundred years after the Viking Age ended the Poetic Edda was compiled in the 13th century and the Viking Age is held to have ended in the 11th century.

Further, famous as the vikings are, they made up a small fraction of Scandinavian society at their greatest. Daily life among the vast majority of the North Germanic peoples was focused squarely on matters pastoral and agricultural and had little to do with this specific class of Norsemen. Anyway, a minor gripe, but it needs to be pointed out. The introduction essay is considerably more hairy. The first major issue here is Orchard's handling of weekday names. Orchard makes it seem as if the English days of the week are of Old Norse origin p.

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In actuality, these weekday names were put in place by way of a process known as interpretatio germanica. This occurred in nearly all recorded Germanic languages and well before the Viking Age. As a result, the English weekday names are not a product of Old Norse influence but arose natively, and so bear the names of native Anglo-Saxon deities. As a result, English "Friday" in fact translates to 'Frige's Day'. Why Orchard offers this muddled commentary rather than simply pointing out how closely related the English and the Norse were I do not know. It would have likely have whetted the interest of the reader to point out that, as is the case with all Germanic languages and mythologies, the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse were fellow siblings of a Proto-Germanic mother.

Later in his introduction, Orchard offers up some curious personal commentary as simple fact. The first incident of this occurs when Orchard discusses women in the mythological poems contained within the Poetic Edda. According to Orchard, "in the mythical world of the Codex Regius [the most important Poetic Edda manuscript], women are largely scheming and suspect, when they are not simply victims or the objects of unwanted sexual attention" xx. True, the female aspect of Germanic mythology is far under-represented in these poems, but so are most things that don't relate to the god Odin or royalty, likely due to the source of their recording skalds of particular royal courts.

Orchard might have pointed out the strong female component found in our records of Germanic paganism and its mythology. Beginning with veneration of Nerthus as recorded by Tacitus in 1 CE Germania on to repeated references to a strong tradition of powerful, intelligent seeressess wielding power throughout the records of the heathen Germanic peoples such as Veleda, Albruna, Waluburg, Ganna, and Gambara , and reaching all the way up to our records of Norse mythology, it is clear that women were no lesser beings to the pre-Christian Germanic peoples.

In the same section is Orchard's commentary on what he calls "the twin fatal flaws of Norse pagan belief" p. Orchard says these two flaws were that Norse pagan beliefs were "fragmented" and also "had an uncertain future".

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Regarding his first point, Orchard claims that since Germanic or specifically Norse paganism appears to have been fragmented and non-unified, it was destined to be replaced by Christianity. However, what he neglects to mention is that while few surviving sources on continental Germanic paganism exist, these sources frequently seem to closely parallel the Old Norse material i. Orchard briefly compares this to Christianity's afterlife narrative, which he evidently deems to have offered more to believers and thus insinuates that it was therefore more attractive.

This is problematic for multiple reasons, but the primary reason is that the Germanic afterlife beliefs were clearly nowhere near as simple as Orchard here says which the Poetic Edda alone makes perfectly clear. Yet what is perhaps most striking about Orchard's claim of "twin fatal flaws" is that he for some reason neglects to mention the primary reason for this shift in religion: From Charlemagne's crusade against the pagan Saxons, waged with extermination orders for those that refused Christianization in hand see Charlemagne's infamous "Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae" and the Massacre of Verden , to archaeological finds of mass employment of emblematic replicas of Thor's hammer all over Scandinavia as a defiant responses to enclosing Christian crosses, and references to death-or-conversion throughout the Old Norse record, it is inappropriate for Orchard to fob off these events with a poorly-supported theory of supposed "flaws".

It is further crucial to mention that, despite the Christianization process, elements of these beliefs continued to live on in folklore and folk practice, where deity names are recorded as in use until as late as the 19th century in Germanic-language speaking areas, sometimes exactly in the context of Old Norse attestations!

These beliefs have also been the source in modern times for modern reconstructionist Germanic pagan groups. And they are hardly alone. Groups inspired by Germanic paganism now exist in every country in Europe, throughout the United States, South America, and as far away as Australia. Why does this sizable cultural shift get no mention here? While Orchard does mention that the Poetic Edda has had much literary influence through the years, it is by no means an overstatement to say that the Poetic Edda has been influential well beyond those dusty circles, and that the work remains a potent cultural force.

Moving on to the "A Note on Spelling, Pronunciation, and Translation" section, Orchard details some of his translation choices.

Unfortunately, Orchard has decided to arbitrarily and inconsistently translate some of the proper names in the text to whatever he has most preferred. Mind-bogglingly, Orchard admits that this practice is "frankly indefensible" p. What exactly does this mean for the reader? Well, for example, the proper name Gullveig is rendered as "Gold-draught" p. Additionally, since these are proper names that may have been archaic in their time, this practice is a lot like referring to your 20th century pal Alfred as "Elf-Counsel", yet with far more etymological certainty than is available in most of the etymological troublesome proper nouns Orchard handles in his translation.

Restricting this sort of tomfoolery to the Index of Names section in the back of the book would have avoided any confusion nicely, and Orchard's earlier handbook contains plenty of etymologies to draw from. Adding to this unfortunate decision is Orchard's choice to continue the practice of inappropriate and unhelpful glossing found in some other translations. Besides, the source text is entirely unclear how "giant" any of these beings were considered at any given time. This poor practice should have been discontinued long ago, even if, yes, a minor note about what the scary, scary word may mean would be required.

I mean, do we gloss "valkyrie" as "fury" or "Odin" as "Jupiter"? Fortunately not, and these culturally-specific concepts should be treated with the same level of respect. Considering the whole package, there does not really seem to be a lot of reason for this translation to exist; it offers essentially nothing of particular value that its precursor Larrington's translation does not, and it frequently reads much like it.

Additionally, it is an entirely bare-boned affair, free of any special media or aesthetic treatment, and the Old Norse is not included a low-priced dual-edition translation remains unavailable for all current English translations. The inclusion of any of these elements would have set it apart from all other modern English translations. On the up side, it is useful for its footnotes--which, with the issues outlined above as examples, one would do well to eye with caution--and is also mildly useful as yet another translation to compare prior Poetic Edda translations to.

Perhaps Penguin simply needed a translation similar to Oxford's Larrington translation and Orchard was up to the task. Whatever the case, the wait for a definitive English Poetic Edda translation continues. I am not advising the reader to avoid this translation. In fact, short of Ursula Dronke's unavailable translation s , a superior alternative does not come to mind. However, if one does decide to get this translation, he or she will benefit from searching online for Benjamin Thorpe's 19th century translation along with Henry Adam Bellows's early 20th century translation for comparison.

Both translations are in the public domain. Due to his avoidance of glossing, Thorpe's translation in particular retains its value, and will counteract some of the confusion to be found here. Hollander's midth century translation is still widely available and is also useful for comparison. Otherwise, tread with care. View all 4 comments. What I love the most about Norse literature and mythology is that the gods are all incredibly They suffer, they lust, they love, and they even seem to be quite mortal as far as gods go.

The Elder Edda has a mythological section, with poems about the gods and the start and end of the world the famous Ragnarok , and a heroic section. I was surpri What I love the most about Norse literature and mythology is that the gods are all incredibly I was surprised to find that the heroic second section of the Edda overlaps a lot with The Saga of the Volsungs: It also contains what to me will always be one of the funniest, albeit tragic, pieces of dialogue ever: I know it's a tragic death but that line gets me everytime.

Like the Volsunga saga, it narrates Sigurd the Dragon Slayer's story, and it offers a different perspective on what is probably the oldest love square story: I find their story incredibly compelling, a true Greek tragedy and what was clearly a good cautionary tale at a time when whole families died because they kept avenging each other.

If you're a fan of Norse myths, then this is the book for you. View all 6 comments. Jan 15, Markus rated it it was amazing Shelves: But I'm biased for a variety of reasons; from being from the north, from researching its history and culture every day as a profession and from this being the main inspiration for my favourite literary author J. I'll do a more prope "Wits are needful for someone who travels widely, anything will do at home; he becomes a laughing-stock, the man who knows nothing and sits among the wise. I'll do a more proper review of this when I gather some more thoughts.

It feels undoubtedly strange to review this book. In a manner of speaking, like e. It is somewhat similar with the Edda. Its influence in literature cannot be put into proper words.

However, the Edda is not a smooth read. In the translation of Bellows one can more often than not encounter archaic words or sentence structures that are unusual not only in It feels undoubtedly strange to review this book.

Elder Edda Lesson Plans for Teachers

Pass the forms out before you assign reading, so students will know what to expect. You can use the forms to provide general feedback on audibility, pronunciation, articulation, expression and rate of speech. You can use this form to grade students, or simply comment on their progress. Use the Writing Evaluation Form when you're grading student essays. This will help you establish uniform criteria for grading essays even though students may be writing about different aspects of the material.

By following this form you will be able to evaluate the thesis, organization, supporting arguments, paragraph transitions, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. They pull questions from the multiple choice and short essay sections, the character and object descriptions, and the chapter abstracts to create worksheets that can be used for pop quizzes, in-class assignments and homework. Periodic homework assignments and quizzes are a great way to encourage students to stay on top of their assigned reading.

They can also help you determine which concepts and ideas your class grasps and which they need more guidance on. By pulling from the different sections of the lesson plan, quizzes and homework assignments offer a comprehensive review of Elder Edda in manageable increments that are less substantial than a full blown test.

Use the Test Summary page to determine which pre-made test is most relevant to your students' learning styles. This lesson plan provides both full unit tests and mid-unit tests. You can choose from several tests that include differing combinations of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, short essay questions, full essay questions, character and object matching, etc. Some of the tests are designed to be more difficult than others. Some have essay questions, while others are limited to short-response questions, like multiple choice, matching and short answer questions.

If you don't find the combination of questions that best suits your class, you can also create your own test on Elder Edda. If you want to integrate questions you've developed for your curriculum with the questions in this lesson plan, or you simply want to create a unique test or quiz from the questions this lesson plan offers, it's easy to do.

Scroll through the sections of the lesson plan that most interest you and cut and paste the exact questions you want to use into your new, personalized Elder Edda lesson plan. View all Lesson Plans available from BookRags.

Copyrights Elder Edda from BookRags. Get Elder Edda from Amazon. View the Study Pack. Order our Elder Edda Lesson Plans. Short Essay Questions Key. Short Answer Questions Key. Oral Reading Evaluation Sheet. One Week Quiz A. Two Week Quiz A. Four Week Quiz A. Four Week Quiz B. Eight Week Quiz A. Or was it just a coincidence, a family treasure forgotten for some four centuries until some bright person thought, hey, maybe other people would like to know this book too? It is hard to say, but it is an interesting story. We know this hidden, now recovered, manuscript as the Poetic Edda.

The Poetic Edda belongs to a Norse poetic tradition in which metaphor, allegory and parable was essential. Not only would the entire poem, like a riddle, be referring to mythical events that explain the poetical riddle: Basic mythical characters, even places, would in themselves be presented in riddles. People would understand what character is really being referred to through these name-meanings and the attributes accompanying the character. Names are perceived as mere sounds without meaning, left as they are or transcribed into a sound that fits better with the language that the poems are translated into.

The original Norse listener or reader would have understood the meaning of names and known how to decipher the real identity of the characters, while we are left with hundreds of unintelligible, meaningless sound-names. Thus we are left with a translated poetry book where more than half of the meaning is missing.

This is not as controversial as it may seem — Norse linguists are well aware of the metaphorical nature of myths and the fact that names have meaning and may be covers for other characters. And without his work we would have understood nothing at all of the Edda poems. The problem with using Snorri is that his work, too, was biased. He was probably a devout Christian who loved his ancestry and thus desperately tried to make it more acceptable to the Church.

Or he was a secret pagan who desperately tried to preserve the myths in a fashion that would hide pagan messages in plain sight. The Church would not look kindly upon pagan gods demons, idols , but it would not mind ancestors. The Church would not accept pagan doctrines of salvation and resurrection, but it would accept ancestral history. The difficulty with translating names and, I hope, the reason why so few try to comes when you try to actually do the translations and the interpretations. If one is to come close to the original meanings, this requires an understanding of the mythology as a complete system of beliefs.

Since we are not actual insiders of this previous culture, such an understanding will be a matter of interpretation, a question of how we understand the myths and the culture in which they were nourished. We are told how people were, how they thought, what they believed in, and what they did. Most mainstream history is presented to us the way it is because it is meant to legitimize present conditions. It is important to realize that what we are left with of historical evidence, cannot ever give us the whole picture of the past.

That would be like saying that the personal literary collection of one 21 st century man, who found a way to preserve around one hundred books for the future, while no one else did, could alone give our descendants an accurate picture of our time. There would of course be numerous aspects of our time, countless ways of looking at the world, which would not be apparent in that one surviving collection.

When we are presented with history through mainstream media and education, we are presented not with an accurate image of the past but only with a biased modern interpretation of a very limited collection of evidence.

The Eddas – Genuine sources to pagan religion?

I say biased because historical interpretation cannot ever be objective. The idea of objective research has long since been rejected by academics who have had the insight to admit that each and every one of us screen all the facts of life that we are presented with through a filter made up of personal experience and perception.

Our gender, our age, our culture, our ethnicity, our religion, our ideology, our values, our special interests — all these things play a part in forming the way we see reality. These produce an effective screen for perceiving what we see in everyday life and is even more effective when trying to understand the past. This is why we should never just accept historical presentations as facts, and always be aware that there could be other evidence that gives another picture. We should also be aware of the possibility that people in the past were no less diverse in their outlook on life than we are today, and that one culture may harbor many different traditions.

There are two main avenues for understanding the past: I am an historian and base myself mostly on written evidence, although I will of course use archaeological evidence to support my theories if the evidence appears to be there. The problem with studying the history of pre-Christian Northern Europe is that people generally did not leave that much written evidence.

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