The Prose Edda (with Dr. Haukur Þorgeirsson)

Prof. Haukur Þorgeirsson (Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies) talks about the Prose Edda, and shows us one of its most important (and potentially oldest) manuscripts.
Jackson Crawford, Ph.D.: Sharing real expertise in Norse language and myth with people hungry to learn, free of both ivory tower elitism and the agendas of self-appointed gurus. Visit jacksonwcrawford.com/ (includes bio and linked list of all videos).
Jackson Crawford’s Patreon page: / norsebysw
Visit Grimfrost at glnk.io/6q1z/jacksoncrawford
Latest FAQs: vimeo.com/375149287 (updated Nov. 2019).
Jackson Crawford’s translation of Hávamál, with complete Old Norse text: www.hackettpublishing.com/the... or www.amazon.com/Wanderers-Hava...
Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Poetic Edda: www.hackettpublishing.com/the... or www.amazon.com/Poetic-Edda-St...
Audiobook: www.audible.com/pd/The-Poetic...
Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Saga of the Volsungs: www.hackettpublishing.com/the... or www.amazon.com/Saga-Volsungs-...
Audiobook: www.audible.com/pd/The-Saga-o...
Music © I See Hawks in L.A., courtesy of the artist. Visit www.iseehawks.com/
Logos and channel artwork by Justin Baird. See more of his work at: justinbairddesign.com

[@bjarnitryggvason7866]

Great wide-ranging talk. Prof. Haukurs' aside about Málsháttakvæði sent me down a rabbit hole because I don't remember ever seeing it mentioned anywhere and man, what a fun poem. Old Norse wisdom literature with ending rhymes. Your ability to coax all these different experts down from the trees, sit them down and ask them interesting questions is on point, as usual.👍 Hope you guys do another chat.

[@mekongbaby]

Did you find a proper translation of the poem?

[@guillermotheivth4378]

@@mekongbaby There's a translation at the end of Roberta Frank's 2003 paper, "Sex, Lies and Málsháttakvæði".

[@ErikHolten]

When the very great privilege befell me to meet Dr. Haukur briefly this Spring and be shown this very R codex (taking care not to sneeze), I realized on a very deep level how much people like Snorri, the scribes, their clients, and their audiences cared about art and culture preservation and communication. The work they did mattered greatly , and so does similar efforts today to keep past and present culture accessible for generations to come. Like this KZbin channel with all its contributors.

[@janosch1097]

Superb and a privilege to be sitting at a table with you (virtually) and listen, please continue sharing this kind of content, it helps break the barrier between academia, knowledge of our European ancestors, and carry it over into a tradition that is shared and lived by us.

[@SFGJP]

Table of Contents Contents of the Prose Edda 01:25 Manuscripts of the Prose Edda 05:50 Reading I: Heimdallr 28:45 Reading II: Njǫrðr & Skaði 31:00 Reading III: Ragnarsdrápa (poem for Ragnar Lothbrok) 45:53 Reading IV: Þórsheiti (poetic names for Thor) 49:55

[@bethstaley467]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

[@RobertKaucher]

An amazing show and tell episode. Thank you!

[@kmshallaed8989]

Thank you, Dr Crawford, for this fascinating presentation on the Snorra-Edda. It's probably the most interesting to me of all your very interesting videos! I have an old edition of the Snorra-Edda by Guðni Jónsson in which he includes some interpolations from the Wormsbók in the Prologue, Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál which I've always found extremely exciting and fascinating. This really helps me to get an idea of how all the sources fit together. What I would seriously like to see would be a similar sit-down discussion of the Konungsbók eddukvæða, possibly my favourite book in the world.

[@hattorihanzo2275]

History is before them. Fantastic video.

[@cloverISL]

Flott peysa Dr. Crawford.

[@BaepseMan]

Sprinted to the break room the moment I could this is so amazing thank you Jackson !

[@guillermotheivth4378]

This. Is. Gold. Love how deep into manuscript studies this goes, and would really wish to see many more Norse Studies videos coming at the subject from this angle. Jackson, you should totally make more interviewing rounds with the Árnastofnun peeps like this one, since it's pretty much ground zero for most of it. When I visited the Árnastofnun in 2014, I asked Lethbridge if there were facsimile copies available for the various manuscript sources of the Eddas, but at the time she said there weren't. While I know you can now access scans digitally, I keep hoping someone will print the seven manuscripts for NorsePlay-ers like us to do their own homework with or just nerd out on. Maybe get Hackett on that.

[@Eulemunin]

Always interesting for a pair of passionate people to talk. As always great work. I would love to have an edition of the Proses and Poetic eddas with this level of explanation about how he texts.

[@abhiramn474]

Amazing show!

[@jamesjosephmcdevitt2020]

Thanks for this. It's great to see the manuscripts. I wish you both well in your translations and research.

[@Tina06019]

Fascinating stuff, gentlemen.

[@woodyseed-pods1222]

Mention of Orkney makes me hope for a vid on the Orkneyinga Saga or Norn or Maes Howe. Please.

[@deusfaust]

I'd really like to read Litla Skálda!

[@mistellechambless6824]

I've been pondering a subject that I've wanted to describe in a poem. The concept of the evil eye. Most people are very confused about the belief of how evil eye may manifest. It does not cause the person who is jealous, envious or coveting to be made ill, but rather the person being envied will receive the illness. This makes perfect sense considering some of the experiments that have been done with water or plants receiving either a positive or negative mental projection. It's basically quantum dynamics, that the observer has an effect on the outcome of the observation. Definitely not fair, and adding insult to injury to the receiver of that energy. Who woulda thunk¿ Very informative video, thank you.

[@benedyktjaworski9877]

The discussion of Prose Edda as a traditional poetry manual reminds me a lot of Irish so called “Grammatical Tracts” (and “Syntactical Tracts”) and in general the Gaelic poetic tradition. Now, Classical Gaelic or Irish of the 13th century was heavily codified standardized language, so the tracts spend a lot of time actually explaining the grammar: some points of syntax and morphology, but they also illustrate each point with quotations from well-known poets. Instead of kennings, they spend a lot of time explaining how to make well-formed compound words - because of strict metrical requirements, compounding was used to make a word alliterate properly or fit the required syllable count, etc. But it general, it sounds like Prose Edda is pretty much a similar text in its spirit to “Irish Grammatical Tract i”.

[@bendthebow]

Jackson wearing an incredibly ichy icelandic jumper

[@benedyktjaworski9877]

Also the spelling ⟨au⟩ for u-mutated a (/ɒ, ɔ/?) is interesting from an Irish/Gaelic point of view. In early Old Irish (7th, early 8th century) the u-mutated a vowel is also written as ⟨au⟩, but Stifter typically reconstructs it as a short diphthong /au̯/ (and similarly u-mutated ⟨eu/eo, iu⟩ as /eu̯, iu̯/, perhaps also ⟨ou⟩ /ou̯/ - attested only once). This ⟨au⟩ gets pretty early (AFAIK already during 8th century) merged with monophthong short /u/ though in Old Irish (but eu, iu remain much longer; eventually they merge with non-mutated /e, i/). This merger, I think, is the main reason why McCone and Stifter don’t simply postulate that u-infection is just rounding of the vowel - it’d be weird for something like /ɒ ~ ɔ/ to jump over the /o/ vowel and merge with /u/ instead.

[@faramund9865]

I always wonder, there are many medieval works that were lost. As in, the were copied but the original one was lost. While you could say, given such a long time if period this is bound to happen, on the other hand, how? It's not like these books get wings and usually they were prized possessions. So all I can think of is that peoples houses burn down sometimes and the books go with it. Other option is that there's still manuscripts in private collections that someone doesn't want to share or hidden in libraries somewhere.

[@ginafaena7725]

When considering changes, do you take into consideration any reasons for change is the style and poetic value?

[@emilyziegler3499]

Cardigan goes hard, Dr. C. Where’d ya get it? I would love to knit one like it haha

[@faramund9865]

Hey it's the institute that never mails me back when I have a question... Lovely video though! Ha! You guys really don't like speculation, which I love, as long as you clearly make the distinction.

[@melissahdawn]

I fear my comment might make me seem out of touch with what has just been explained, but my biggest take away was how much an Icelandic accent is less affected than other European or Scandinavian accents that makes me pontificate on how similar Icelandic is to American. I know everyone says this or that about how difficult Icelandic language is, but I think it is more similar to American than not, and one of those obvious offshoots of thought are how Early Germanic and Early English were so extremely closely related. More though, I wonder if American English is less altered as it is supposed. Old English is practically impossible to understand, whereas Icelanders can simply understand Old Norse, so their language did not change... not sure if any of that made sense, but I was trying to imply that maybe American spoken English is more like its originally spoken form than the recorded "Old English". But, no doubt some great scholar will quickly set me straight with some blaring fault in my thoughts (mind you this was just a simple conclusion when musing about how how perfectly Icelandic people seem to speak English. )

[@bethstaley467]

I am just beginning to seriously study my origins. I don't need 23 and me (or whatever it's called) to know that I'm mostly Irish. From there I'm obviously some sort of Scandinavian. I hope it's Norwegian (just bc of a gut feeling). Thank you for posting this. I am attracted to Norse mythology in a way I can't explain. I'm not a Chry, although I would like to be. I believe very much in the power of blood. The only religions I've ever felt drawn to are Native American and Celtic. As a southern American, these are not acceptable, not that I give a toss. Can you tell me what the real difference is between the prose and the poetic Eddas? Thanks again for posting this.

[@bethstaley467]

I meant, Christian.

[@ethansadhoursatpepes2882]

looks like I'm here first vikings

[@brutalisaxeworth3024]

Congrats Leif Erickson of Comments!

[@MrKorton]

WOW! YOU GET THE OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS IN THE FIELD OF EXCELLENCE! HARLA GOTT! FRÁBÆRT!

[@ethansadhoursatpepes2882]

@@MrKorton calm down with the caps buddy