Poetry
The Prophecy of the Seeress
Völuspá
Anonymous · 1000
Synopsis
A seeress, addressing Odin, asks for silence and unfolds the knowledge of ancient times: the primeval void of Ginnungagap, the earth drawn from the sea by the sons of Burr, the sun, the moon and the stars set in their places by the Æsir, then the golden age of the gods, the creation of the dwarfs and of the first humans, and the ash tree Yggdrasill. She then recalls the first war, between the Æsir and the Vanir, reveals that she knows where Odin sacrificed his eye, and then sees the murder of Baldr and the signs that herald Ragnarök.
Context
The poem is known from two fairly different versions, that of the Codex Regius, a manuscript of forty-five leaves copied in Iceland in the 1270s, and that of the Hauksbók, around 1334; Snorri Sturluson quotes or paraphrases many of its stanzas in his Edda. Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson sent the Codex Regius to King Frederick III of Denmark in 1662, and the manuscript returned to Reykjavik on 21 April 1971, by ship and under military escort. Neither the author, nor the place, nor the date is known with certainty, and several stanzas recall the Apocalypse and the Gospel of Mark.
Who it is for
About sixty stanzas, whose number and order vary according to the manuscripts; an allusive poem, to be read with a commentary.
Prizes and reception
The most famous of the poems of the Poetic Edda; Tolkien took from it the names of his dwarves and that of Gandalf.