The Poetic Edda on Voluspo

The > Poetic Edda > General Introduction

• attestation: The Voluspo contains one of the grandest literary visions of cosmic creation and destruction ever composed

  "The mythological poems include, in the Voluspo, one of the vastest conceptions of the creation and ultimate destruction of the world ever crystallized in literary form"

The > Poetic Edda > Proper Names

• attestation: The title Voluspo uses 'o' for the Norse ǫ, rejecting the alternative spellings Valuspa and Voluspa

  "for the ǫ I have used "o" and not "a," e.g., Voluspo, not Valuspa or Voluspa."

The > Volume I > Notes

• attestation: The new ruler who orders rights and fixes laws in the reborn world is unnamed, and the passage may suggest Christian influence though this is uncertain

  "The name of this new ruler is nowhere given, and of course the suggestion of Christianity is unavoidable. It is not certain, however, that even this stanza refers to Christianity"

• attestation: In both manuscripts, the final half-line of Voluspo refers not to the dragon but to the Volva herself sinking into the earth as a conclusion to the prophecy

  "in both manuscripts the final half-line does not refer to the dragon, but, as the gender shows, to the Volva herself, who sinks into the earth; a sort of conclusion to the entire prophecy."

The > part in a few of the Eddic poems. > Pronouncing Index

• attestation: The Voluspo (Wise-Woman's Prophecy) is the most extensively referenced poem in the Poetic Edda

  "Vol″-u-spǭ′, the Wise-Woman's Prophecy"