Reddit reviews The Poetic Edda (Oxford World's Classics)

As other people have said, read the sources themselves. Neil Gaiman is good but he doesn't get as good as the original! Caroline Larrington's translation of the Poetic Edda is quite cool: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poetic-Edda-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199675341/ref=dp_ob_title_bk Here is a good translation of the Prose Edda with commentary: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prose-Edda-Mythology-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447555/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AK4RMWSXZRA97ZZRP1WH

Just to make it clear, "The Prose Edda" and "The Poetic Edda" are very different texts from Medieval Iceland, which both happened to be called Eddas later because of a literary tradition. The Poetic Edda is a collection of short narrative poems on mythological and heroic subjects - these poems have no known authorship, and were likely written over a few centuries and then collected on one manuscript. The Prose Edda is basically a summary of Old Norse mythology written by an Icelandic bloke called Snorri Sturluson, about whom you will be hearing a lot further on. An amazing storyteller, Snorri did more or less what Neil Gaiman did, that is, wrote a book outlining the most important mythological stories - but he did so for 13th century audience, which makes for a more complex and more fascinating read.

If you are more interested in narratives about heroes like Ragnar loðblók, there are numerous Old Norse sagas to read. If you are interested in mythology more that with history, I recommend Saga of King Hrolf Kraki and Saga of the Volsungs to start with. They go heavy on Odin, dragons, berserkir, armies of living dead etc. Penguin has really good annotated editions of these sagas (both translated by Jesse Byock).

I personally prefer the version contained within Carolyne Larrington's translation of the Poetic Edda

Milk all you want! I'm happy to provide. If you would like to do your own investigations, I highly recommend either purchasing The Prose Edda or The Poetic Edda. Another option is downloading The Uppsala Edda for free. :D

As for Tyr...

> High replies: ‘Then there is also an Áss that is called Týr. He is the bravest and changeable in his mind and he has a lot of control over victory in battles. It is good for men of action to pray to him. There is a saying that a man is týr-valiant who surpasses others. And it is one proof of his valour
and bravery, when the Æsir were luring Fenriswolf so as to get the fetter
Gleifnir on him, then he did not trust them that they would let him go until they placed Týr’s hand in his mouth as a pledge. And when the Æsir refused to let him go, then he bit off his hand at the place that is now called the wolf joint, and he is one-handed. He is so intelligent that it is also said that so-and-so is týr-wise.

(The Uppsala Edda 43-45)

> 'How should Tyr be referred to?'
> 'By calling him the one-handed god, the foster-father of the wolf, the god of battles and the son of Odin.'

(The Prose Edda 110)

I would argue that he is God of War, Justice, and Law. As we know, almost all things that have to do with the law is a battlefield. Same with justice. As seen above, we know him as the god of battle. So you are definitely correct, I think, in saying that he is also strongly associated with justice and law!

Larrington

This is the one i'm talking about

There's also this one but the author tries to keep the poetic structure intact so it's a lot harder to understand, to me anyways.