Völuspá, "The Prophecy of the Seeress", opens the collection of eddic poems in the Codex Regius, the thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript that preserves most of Old Norse mythological poetry. In just over sixty stanzas a seeress tells the history of the world, from its birth to its destruction and rebirth. It is one of the highest achievements of medieval European literature, and the most important text for understanding the relationship between prophecy and cosmology in the northern world.
Versions of the text
The poem has come down to us in three forms:
| Source | Manuscript date | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Codex Regius | thirteenth century | most complete version |
| Hauksbók | fourteenth century | different order of some stanzas |
| Snorri's Prose Edda | thirteenth century | many stanzas quoted |
The differences show that the text circulated in non-identical forms. Scholars debate when it was composed: many place it around the year 1000, during the transition to Christianity, but there is no certain date.
The frame: Odin questions the seeress
The poem opens with a call for silence addressed to all the holy kindreds, to the sons of Heimdallr great and small. The speaker is a seeress, a völva, who remembers being born among the giants in a very ancient time. Odin has questioned her, and she answers him: she knows where he hid his eye, in the well of Mímir. A refrain returns several times in the poem: "Do you know yet, or what?". It is a question addressed to Odin and to the audience, pushing the account ever further forward.
The stages of the account
The beginning
At the origin there was neither sand nor sea nor cool waves, neither earth nor sky: only Ginnungagap, the yawning void. Then the sons of Burr raised up the land, the sun shone on the stones and the grass grew. The gods gathered, named the night and the phases of the moon, built altars and temples, forged tools and played with golden game pieces.
The tree and the Norns
The seeress describes the ash Yggdrasil, wet with white dew, ever green beside the well of Urðr. From there come three maidens, the Norns, who carve on wood, set laws and choose the life and fate of the children of men.
The first war
Gullveig appears, a female figure whom the gods pierce with spears and burn three times in Odin's hall, and who three times is reborn. She is also called Heiðr, a name used for seeresses, and the poem says she practised seiðr. Then follows the first war in the world, between the Æsir and the Vanir.
The death of Baldr
The seeress sees the fate of Baldr, Odin's son, killed by a shoot of mistletoe hurled by his brother Höðr. It is the turning point: from here the world slides towards its end.
Ragnarök
The following stanzas describe the collapse: brothers fighting one another, an age of axes and swords, an age of wind and wolves. The cock crows, the wolf Fenrir breaks free, Loki snaps his bonds, Surtr comes from the south with fire. Odin falls to the wolf, Thor to the world serpent. The sun darkens, the earth sinks into the sea, the stars fall from the sky.
The rebirth
Yet the seeress sees further: the earth rises again from the waters, green, and the surviving gods meet on the plain of Iðavöllr, where they find in the grass the golden game pieces of ancient times. The fields will bear fruit unsown, and Baldr will return.
The enigmatic ending
The poem does not close with the serenity of the reborn world. In the last stanza the dragon Níðhöggr appears, flying with corpses in his wings. Then the seeress says that she will now sink down. The meaning is debated: some see the persistence of evil even in the new world, others simply the end of the vision.
Reading Völuspá today
Völuspá is not a doctrinal treatise but a poetic vision. Some elements, such as the image of a renewed world, may reflect contact with Christianity; others seem much older. Above all, the poem shows the seeress's role as the memory of the cosmos: it is she, not the god, who knows the beginning and the end. Odin, the wisest of the gods, has to ask.
In short
- Völuspá is the first poem of the Poetic Edda in the Codex Regius.
- A seeress, questioned by Odin, narrates the history of the world.
- The account runs from creation to Yggdrasil, from the first war to Baldr's death.
- Ragnarök destroys the world, which is then reborn from the waters.
- The ending with the dragon Níðhöggr leaves interpretation open.
