Eddic to English:

Paul B. Taylor & W. H. Auden, 1967 & 1981

This is the Eddic to English entry for Paul B. Taylor and W. H. Auden’s translation of the Poetic Edda (1967 & 1981). Eddic to English is an ongoing and web-based comparative survey of English translations of the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Icelandic poems. It is free for use and maintained by Mimisbrunnr.info.

This entry was created in 2018 and last updated May 2025.

Quick attribution:

  • Mimisbrunnr.info. 2017. “Paul B. Taylor & W. H. Auden, 1967 & 1981”. Eddic to English, Mimisbrunnr.info. URL: https://www.mimisbrunnr.info/eddic-to-english-taylor-auden-1967-1981

1. Publication information

  • I. The Elder Edda: A Selection (1967)
    Faber & Faber, Random House
    173 pages
    No publisher website

  • II. The Norse Poems (1981)
    Athlone Press
    256 pages
    No publisher website

2. Contents

  • Translated poems in The Elder Edda (I) (16 total):

    • Codex Regius (13):
      Vǫluspá, Hávamál, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál, Skírnismál, Hárbarðsljóð, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Vǫlundarkviða, Alvíssmál, Helreið Brynhildar, Baldrs draumar

    • Non-Codex Regius (3):
      Eiríksmál, Hervararkviða, poetry from Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka (titled here “The Treachery of Asmund”)

  • Additional translated poems in The Norse Poems (II) (41 total):
    In addition to the above 16 items included in II, I contains an additional 25 poems, bringing this edition’s total number of poems to 41:

    • Codex Regius (+19):
      Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, Helgakviða Hjǫrvarðssonar, Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, Grípisspá, Reginsmál, Fáfnismál, Sigrdrífumál, Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, Guðrúnarkviða I, Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Helreið Brynhildar, Dráp Niflunga, Guðrúnarkviða II, Guðrúnarkviða III, Oddrúnargrátr, Atlakviða, Atlamál, Guðrúnarhvǫt, Hamðismál

    • Non-Codex Regius (+5):
      Rígsþula, Hyndluljóð, Gróttasǫngr, Hlǫðskviða, Sólarljóð

3. translation samples

a.) Vǫluspá (I.147 & II., no page numbers in this edition):

I know an ash-tree, named Yggdrasil:
Sparkling showers are shed on its leaves
That drip dew into the dales below.
By Urd’s Well it waves evergreen,
Stands over that still pool,
Near it a bower whence now there come The Fate Maidens, first Urd.
Skuld second, scorer of runes,
Then Verdandi, third of the Norns :
The laws that determine the lives of men They fixed forever and their fate sealed.

b.) Helgakviða Hundingsbana II (only in II, no page numbers in this edition):

Sigrun went into Helgi’s grave and said:

“I am as merry as our meeting now
As the wolfish hawks of Odin wise.
When they witness the slaughter of warm flesh
Or behold the dawn dew-sprinkled.

c.) Rígsþula (only in II, no page numbers in this edition):

He exchanged runes with Rig-Jarl,
Dealt cunningly with him and became wise;
That is how he earned the right
To be called Rig, the rune-knower.

4. Reviews

Excerpt:

The whole thing has been done with great scrupulosity, from the preparation of ‘raw’ translations by Paul Taylor to the full versions by Auden (who however did not work from the English but from that and the Icelandic at once), and to the final editing by Professor Taylor once more. Because of the old and intimate relationship between the languages of the North, everyone now may well think he can do better; but probably no one could. This is a book to keep and write in the margins of till you die. I would pay a lot for a volume of introductions and notes.

5. Observations

Here scholar Paul B. Taylor collaborates with notable English-American poet W. H. Auden (d. 1973) to produce two volumes containing an unusual list of poems: One published toward the end of Auden’s life, The Elder Edda: A Selection, and another after his death, The Norse Poems. These two editions differ from one another in significant ways. Most notably, The Norse Poems adds numerous items to the comparatively few found in The Elder Edda: A Selection.

Yet what it subtracts is just as notable: The Norse Poems strips away stanza numbers, page numbers, and, most dire of all for readers new to the material (and anyone else with an interest in the why or what), all of scholar Peter H. Salus’s notes. Even the 21-page introduction of The Elder Edda: A Selection disappears, replaced with a pithy three-page introduction consisting partially of comments on changes between editions.

In short, nearly all help for new or non-specialist readers to follow the texts has been cut away to make room for a plethora of new poem translations, most of them of a type commonly referred to as “heroic poems”. With this in mind, it is no mystery why The Norse Poems is one of the most obscure—if not the single most obscure— English translation of the Poetic Edda. And while a copy of The Elder Edda: A Selection is easier to locate (benefiting from multiple reprints), it is still more rare to encounter than essentially any other English translation of the Poetic Edda at the time of writing.

It’s difficult to follow the thought process that guided the author’s decision-making in the production of The Norse Poems: An emphasis on yet more archaic poems and a de-emphasis on supplementary material probably doomed it to a single print from the start. The Norse Poems is clearly aimed at a general audience, yet it does next to nothing to help general readers follow the material, and while it certainly contains significant artistic merit, one must wonder exactly how the vast majority of readers might make any sense of it without leaning on other works.