This volume presents a wholly new edition of five of the most brilliant and celebrated poems of the Poetic Edda: 'The Sibyl's Prophecy', 'The Rigmarole of Rigr', 'Wayland's Poem', 'Skirnir's Lay', and 'Loki's Quarrel'. New textual readings and interpretations are established. New light is shed on the Franks Casket and on King Alfred's interest in Wayland; new links are found between the Viking and Christian worlds. A close translation accompanies the text to give the non-specialist reader a transparent and rhythmic sense of the original. For each poem the sequence of ideas is traced in the introduction and the interpretation substantiated by a detailed commentary. Much consideration is given to the themes of the poems and the ancient ideas in which they are rooted: analogues come from many sources - Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Sanskrit, African, and Finnish. The excellence and variety of the poems give a rare insight into the genius of oral poets of the Viking age.

Her textual analysis is ... excellent and challenging, and her notes on the manuscript tradition illuminating her comments are instructive ... the work is a remarkable achievement, throwing new light on the background and composition of the texts examined: the comments are most instructive, and the discussions open new perspectives. An outstanding book, henceforth indispensable for all students of the Poetic Edda. * Dr Edgar Polome, The Journal of Indo-European Studies *
For lovers of the Poetic Edda, this volume will be a prized possession, enabling scholars and amateur enthusiasts alike to enter with ease into the daunting world of mythological poems... this is an edition of great power and potential influence... from now on it is likely that most English-speaking readers of the Poetic Edda will wish to take Edda II for their authoritative of Voluspa and the other poems. * Richard North, Saga-Book *