The Prose Edda

The Rasmus Björn Anderson Translation

By: Snorri Sturluson

Narrated by: Collin Moore

Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Eight hundred years ago, an heir to the Vikings collected their myths and wrote them down. Here are those original tales of Odin and Thor, magic and might, presented for your listening enjoyment.

The Prose Edda (also known as Snorri's Edda or The Younger Edda) is a manual of poetics written by Snorri Sturluson around the year 1220. In it, Snorri compiled the old myths and legends of the Norsemen, in order that poets from his time might draw on these stories to keep the Icelandic-Viking heritage alive.

Although they are a secondary source, they remain one of our oldest references for the original Norse Myths, as the Vikings themselves told them.

©2020 Ayrton Parham (P)2020 Ayrton Parham

I absolutely love this book

The story is an amazing one and a great lesson that goes with it.

Fascinating tales read by a wonderful narrator

My daughter and I love listening to this recording. Her class spent months learning about Viking history, and so we decided to do further study. The stories give the listener a good introduction to the Norse pantheon and its vital myths. A highlight for me and my daughter is the narrator, who speaks clearly and succinctly, and who handles pronunciation of the ancient Norse names and locations with aplomb; but what we really liked was how the narrator was able to set a mood or to convey humor with the slightest change in intonation. His reading is subtly expressive and highly skilled, and we loved it.

Great Read

loved it, especially if you are into norse mythology either on a historic level or religious level.

I love mythology

I liked it all. the whole book was amazing I'm going to relisten to it

good...but.

only issue I can see is the pronunciation of aesir. I feel it should be pronounced (ay-seer) the way it sounds now sounds a lot like asses rather than aesir.

Great source for understanding CS Lewis, Tolkien and movies

The Prose Edda is funny and exciting. The narration is excellent. The ancient Norse stories reveal the roots of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Lewis’ Narnia stories as well as many Marvel movies. Most of the stories are interesting. Some are riveting. All are revealing. With The Bible and Shakespeare, The Prose Eddas are must reading

amazing read

amazing reading, excellent to listen too would definitely recommend to anyone interested in Norse mythology

Norse Mythology

A must book for all who love Norse Mythology
It is the main source and it is a good one.

Learn something new

Great read/listen. A must for all. Things you thought you knew might change. Learn from the book.

Well-performed, but the names are tough going

I enjoyed this. It’s very well-read, and the translation — although it’s a bit old-fashioned, and a little “cleaner” than the original, to judge by a comparison with Jesse Byock’s version — is easy enough to follow…. with one exception. As happens so often with these medieval texts, and it seems Scandinavian and German texts for me in particular, the names are difficult to catch in audio. It may be my hearing: I like to see the names spelled out, and sometimes it’s as if I can’t quite “hear” them if I can’t see them. Fortunately a number of the names appear in the chapter headings, which are incorporated into the file. A PDF listing ALL the names (perhaps in order of appearance) would be a welcome addition.

Having just listened to the Ukemi recording of the Lay of the Nibelungs, I was interested to hear that story reproduced in miniature here. I hadn’t realized it was part of the cycle. Also amusing to hear Thor come off so badly in several of the tales about him. I’m really glad to have finally gotten around to this one: the Prose Edda has been on my list for years.