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Icelandic poem

Hrafnagaldr Óðins ("Odin's raven galdr") or Forspjallsljóð ("prelude poem") is an Icelandic poem in the style of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved only in late paper manuscripts. In his influential 1867 edition of the Poetic Edda, Sophus Bugge reasoned that the poem was a 17th century work, composed as an introduction to Baldrs draumar. Since then it has not been included in editions of the Poetic Edda and not been extensively studied. But prior to Bugge's work the poem was considered a part of the Poetic Edda and included, for example, in the English translations of A. S. Cottle (1797) and Benjamin Thorpe (1866) as well as Karl Simrock's influential German translation (1851). In 1852, William and Mary Howitt characterized it as "amongst the most deeply poetical and singular hymns of the Edda".

In 2002, Jónas Kristjánsson in the Icelandic daily Morgunblaðið argued in favor of an earlier dating than Bugge, perhaps to the 14th century, based on linguistic evidence and the seemingly corrupt state of the text. However, metrical, linguistic, and stylistic evidence all point towards a date in the 16th century at the earliest, and the scholarly consensus has rested on the seventeenth. Annette Lassen, in her preliminary assessment (2006) had stated conservatively that this poem should not be subject to greater skepticism than e. g. Fjölsvinnsmál and Sólarljóð (other Eddic poems thought to be of later authorship and exist only in paper manuscripts). But in her 2011 critical edition with accompanying translation (rendered into English by Anthony Faulkes), she states unequivocally that the poem "is a postmedieval poem" probably composed soon after "the rediscovery of the Codex Regius of the Elder Edda in 1643". Elsewhere she assigns a terminus post quem to when the Icelanders were familiarized with Erasmus's Adagia (1500), which she says must have been the conduit through which the poet learned the adage in nocte consilium which is adapted into the poem in st. 22. Another dating clue is the occurrence of the word máltíd st. 20, a Middle Low German loanword, used in Iceland after the middle of the 14th century, though the poem can "hardly be as old as that."

The poem consists of 26 fornyrðislag eight line stanzas. It involves several known figures from Norse mythology, including Odin, Iðunn, Heimdallr, Loki and Bragi, but does not appear to describe a myth known from other sources. The poem begins with five stanzas of ominous introduction, the narrative proper setting in during stanza 6. Idunn falls from the world tree (stanzas 6 7) and is given a wolfskin to wear (stanza 8). Alarmed, Odin sends a trio of messengers led by Heimdall to get news from a woman designated as "the doorpost of Gjöll's sun" (Giallar sunnu gátt, a kenning for woman) (stanza 9). The identity of the woman that Heimdall and his companions visit in the lower world is not revealed. She has been variously identified as Idunn, Hela, and as Urd. The messengers ask her the beginning, duration and end of heaven, the world, and hel (stanza 11). Tears are her only response (stanzas 12 13). The failed messengers return to Asgard, joining a feast in progress (stanzas 14 15). Heimdall tells the gods of their mission; Loki informs the goddesses (stanzas 16 19). The festivities conclude (stanza 21), and the onset of night is described in mythological terms (stanzas 22 26). In the final verse, Heimdall lifts his horn toward heaven.

The first printed edition of the poem appeared in the so called Arnamagnæan edition of Edda Sæmundar hinns fróði (1787). The tome was a collaboration of several co editors, but Lassen identifies Guđmundur Magnusson (Gudmundus Magnæus, 1741 1798) as the poem's editor, translator (into Latin), and commentator. The text is that of MS Icel. 47, a manuscript edition made by Jón Eiríksson, which contained variant readings, used in the critical apparatus of the edition. The critical apparatus also made use of commentary by aforementioned Gunnar Pálsson, scribbled on the manuscript AM 424 fol. The poem was published next in Edda Sæmundar hinns fróða, 1818, edited by Rasmus Rask and Arvid August Afzelius. Hallgrimur Scheving (1837), P. A. Munch (1847), Hermann Lüning (1859), Theodor Möbius (1860), and Frederich Wilhelm Bergmann (1875) also published editions of the poem. Finnur Magnusson (1822), Karl Simrock (1851) and Benjamin Thorpe (1865) produced translations into Danish, German and English respectively. Sophus Bugge in his 1867 edition of the Poetic Edda argued that the poem was a work of the 17th century, and after this, it was mostly ignored by editors and students of the Edda. An exception is Viktor Rydberg, who in 1886 accepted the poem as authentic and sought to explain its narrative as referring to the time Idun was taken from Asgard by Thjazi.

Interest in the poem has been renewed after 1998, when Eysteinn Björnsson and William P. Reaves posted an edition of the poem with English translation and commentary online. Although this edition was "for the most part removed again in 2002", leaving only the English translation of the poem in its place, Eysteinn Björnsson and Reaves' work on the poem led to the performance of the choral and orchestral work Odin's Raven Magic with music by Sigur Rós, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, and Steindór Andersen.