which when appropriately carved can summon water spirits or win its owner high renown

with roots that go back centuries further

we can be happy that they were willing to tell us that themselves

some of which has not been seen in print before

bound him with a magical chain

The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes talismans which when appropriately carved canThe poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a Modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!) and well worth the wait. These amazing texts from a thirteenth century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological, and literary importance, containing the lions share of information that survives today about the gods and heroes of pre Christian Scandinavians, their unique vision of the