Asatru Bibliography - Section 1: Edda
Section 1: Edda
1. Anderson, Rasmus B. Younger Edda. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co., 1880.
Anderson was an American from Wisconsin, and founded the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin. He also founded the Norroena Society, and Leif Erikson Day. He translated the Prose, or Younger, Edda in multiple releases; the earliest listed release is his book Norse Mythology, 1875. The earliest printing readily available for purchase now is the 1897 Younger Edda. None of his translations were actually used in the Norroena Society book collection, maybe due to his modesty at also being editor of the series. Anderson was foundational to modern Asatru through his Norroena Society publications, which were highly regarded in the early 1900's. Essentially a bridge from 1800's Romanticism into modern times; many of these early translations have been thoroughly combed over and left behind for newer, more textually accurate works.
2. Blackwell, I. A. Younger Edda of Snorre Sturleson. New York: Norroena Society, 1911. The British Blackwell’s Yonger (or Prose) Edda, had a very early publication date, seeing print in 1847 London as a section of Mallett’s Northern Antiquities. Blackwell’s version went on to be the standard text for the Norroena Society editions, and is widely available in print-on-demand editions
3. Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist. Prose Edda. New York: American Scandinavian Foundation, 1916.
Brodeur was an American who founded the Scandinavian Studies department at Berkeley in California. His Prose Edda published in 1916 is widely read and reprinted today as the common Dover press edition; he was a known communist ally of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Brodeur also wrote on Beowulf, King Arthur, and published many Viking-themed adventure stories in the 1920’s. This will be a common theme in Asatru, both here and in Scandinavia and Germany - the people attracted to the faith, and working in it are often bold outsiders, and are so far "right" or so far "left" they resist these simple categories so common today.
4. Byock, Jesse. Prose Edda. London: Penguin Classics, 2004.
Byock is Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of California - Los Angeles. He has published the very well known Old Norse Viking Language books, and the Edda for Penguin. He also is overseeing extensive archaeological work in Iceland. Seems to be a well-trained and published historian, and not ideologically motivated as we often see.
5. Cottle, Amos Simon. Icelandic Poetry, or the Edda of Saemund. London: Biggs, 1797.
Known mainly as the very first English translation of the Edda, Cottle’s Edda is referred to as neither “faithful, nor vigorous”. First editions from 1797 are available at auction rarely, and print-on-demand readily available. The next translation, possibly Blackwell’s, doesn’t appear for at least another fifty years. It is unknown if Cottle worked directly from the Icelandic codex, or from Latin translations.
6. Crawford, Jackson. The Poetic Edda. USA: Hackett, 2015.
Crawford is a Professor of Old Norse who teaches at the University of Colorado, and previously at Berkeley and UCLA. His new translations of the Edda are currently some of the best-selling. His degrees are in Linguistics and Old Norse. Crawford does not practice Asatru, but strictly identifies as an academic; that being said he's not hostile either, but functions like as a check on the more outlandish claims. Academics in Asatru are an ongoing issue - a cadre of people fact-checking minutiae for their full-time job is a great asset, but the reality of academia is they either hate the völkisch aspects of Asatru, or at best won't affirm them.
7.Crawford, Jackson. Saga of the Volsungs. USA: Hackett, 2017.
Continuing his successful Edda, Crawford has continued with the Volsung Saga and the Havamal.
8. Fisher, Peter. Saxo Grammaticus: History of the Danes. UK: Boydell & Brewer, 1980.
Recent translation from the original Latin. The History of the Danes is recommended reading, nearly as much as the Eddas; there is probably more lore and practical description of heathen practice here than in the actual Eddas. Also, the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This translation from 1980 was also edited by scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson, with a crucial second volume of commentary.
9. Puryear, Mark. Asatru Edda: Sacred Lore of the North. USA: CreateSpace, 2009.
In order to avoid confusion, the new Norroena Society works will be credited throughout under the name of Mark Puryear. An electronic version is available freely at the (new) Norroena Society website, and is recommended reading. Although not a "credentialed" academic, the Puryear versions are heavily sourced and footnoted and utilize a much larger amount of Icelandic text than other translations. Puryear has essentially taken the extra step of filling the gaps of the Poetic Edda with parallel stories from the Rig Veda, and other old poetic sources. Controversy rages over the Asatru Edda, but having read it, I enjoy it and the stories are not that different, really more concise if anything. Probably the only Edda that specifically situates the mythology inside the proper European racial context, as the academics are unable to properly tie Vedic and Edda sources together. (Situating Europeans as the founders of Indian culture, along with the Egyptian, Greek and Roman culture can only buttress claims of Gobineau, Chamberlain and Rosenberg that the "Aryan" people are the creators of civilization. That the DNA, linguistic, mythological and archaeological evidence increasingly support this notion is a heretical problem in academia.)
In Brief: The Eddas are one of the main foundations of Asatru, and are essentially oral stories recorded in Iceland about a thousand years ago by Snorri Sturluson. There have been multiple manuscripts discovered, each incomplete in different ways, with missing sections, different stories, different chronology, etc. There is no definitive Edda, nor should we want one - our religion is in our blood, and the stories serve as a source of inspiration, hope, and beauty - but are not the religion. The Eddas are not a Bible, a Talmud or a Koran. They are stories, they are works of art, they are inspiration, creativity, history and foundation - and for me, that is the religion. The storytelling, the beauty, the wit, fearsomeness and the might of a people, clever, bright, alive and working for a better future for our children.
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