SOURCE: Dunn, Charles W. Introduction to Poems of the Vikings: The Elder Edda, translated by Patricia Terry, pp. xiii-xxiv. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969.

In the following excerpt from his introduction to Patricia Terry's English translation of the Elder Edda, Dunn summarizes the pre-Christian ethos of these Old Icelandic lays, also discussing character, theme, and poetic style within the works.

Deyr fé, deyia fraendr,           deyr siálfr it sama; en orztírr deyr aldregi,           hveim er sér góðan getr. 

Cattle die, kinsmen die,           one day you die yourself; but the words of praise will not perish           when a man wins fair fame. 

(Sayings of the High One, 76)

The poems that are here so vividly translated by Patricia Terry unfold the traditional lore of the Norsemen concerning their gods and heroes. “Fair fame” is their chief subject; and such has been the potency of their “words of praise” that...