Eddaic, or Eddic Poetry

The Eddic poems passed orally from poet to poet for centuries. None of the poems can attributed to a particular author, but many of them show individual characteristics that suggest the work of individual poets.

Like all Old Norse poetry, Eddaic poems rely on alliteration. The metres that they employ tend to be relatively simple: most are in fornyrðislag or “metre of ancient words”, while málaháttr or “metre of speeches” is a common variation. The rest, which make up roughly a quarter, are composed in ljóðaháttr “metre of chants”.

The language used in Eddaic poems is usually clear and relatively unadorned. Although kennings are used, they are not used as frequently as in Skaldic verse, nor are they as complex.

It is hard to reach firm conclusions about the date of many Eddaic poems, and there has been much scholarly about the subject. A few poems mention historical characters, such as Attila, and this gives a terminus post quem for the poem

A large number of the Eddaic poems are from an unnamed collection of poetry which modern scholars refer to as ‘the Poetic Edda’. Much of this material was included in the Codex Regius, a manuscript presented by Bishop Brynjólfur to the King of Denmark. The Codex Regius is the most important source that we have for Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.

(see this extract from Völuspá)

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