Völuspá

Völuspá is an Old Norse poem in which a seeress recounts the creation, history, and destruction of the cosmos. It is a central source for Norse mythology.

Old Norse: Old Norse is the North Germanic language spoken and written in Scandinavia and its settlements during the Viking Age and Middle Ages. The poem survives in this medieval language.
Völva: A völva is a seeress in Old Norse literature, associated with prophecy and ritual magic. The poem’s prophetic account is delivered by a völva.
Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda: The Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda is a 13th-century Icelandic manuscript containing many of the collection’s mythological and heroic poems. It is the principal manuscript witness to Völuspá.
Ginnungagap: Ginnungagap is the primordial void described in Norse creation traditions. The poem evokes the world before earth and sea existed.
Wyrd: Wyrd is an Old English concept of fate or unfolding events, related to ideas of destiny in early Germanic cultures. The poem presents cosmic events as bound to a foreordained course.
Eddic poetry: Eddic poetry is a body of Old Norse verse, chiefly mythological and heroic, preserved in medieval manuscripts. Völuspá belongs to this tradition of mythological verse.
Fornyrðislag: Fornyrðislag is an Old Norse alliterative verse meter organized into short lines with two stressed beats. This meter gives the poem its terse, incantatory cadence.
Hauksbók: Hauksbók is a medieval Icelandic manuscript miscellany compiled in the early 14th century. It preserves another version of the poem, with differences from Codex Regius.
Ymir: Ymir is the primordial giant whose body becomes the world in Norse creation mythology. The poem recalls the shaping of the world from primordial matter.
Norns: The Norns are female figures in Norse mythology who shape the destinies of gods and humans. Their work at the world tree anchors the poem’s vision of fate.

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