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Alt veit ek, Óðinn hvar þú auga falt: í inum mœra Mímis brunni; drekkr mjöð Mímir morgin hverjan af veði Valföðrs. Vituð ér enn eða hvat?

1905 Carl Emil Doepler 'the younger' Odin meets the Völva

“I know all, Odin,  where you hid your eye: in Mimir's famous well; Mimir drinks mead every morning from Valfather’s pledge. Understand ye yet, or what?

Manuscripts:

The poem known as Völuspá is comprised of two similar poems found in manuscripts known as Codex Regius and Hauksbók. While both manuscripts contain many similar and identical verses, each contains unique verses and variant readings not found in the other. All modern versions of this poem contain a mixture of material from both manuscripts. They are:

• Codex Regius MS No. 2365 4^to [R; also K for Konungsbók, "The King's Book"]
  • Page 1 Völuspá 1  —Völuspá 15; Transcript
  • Page 2 Völuspá 15—Völuspá 31; Transcript
  • Page 3 Völuspá 31—Völuspá 45; Transcript
  • Page 4 Völuspá 45—Völuspá 61; Transcript
  • Page 5: Völuspá 61—Hávamál 15; Transcript
• Hauksbók AM 544 4^to [H] 

Snorri Sturluson quotes several verses from Völuspá in Gylfaginning. Many additional variant readings occur in the manuscripts of Snorri's Edda.

Old Icelandic Editions:

• Völuspá: A comparative edition of the manuscripts presented by Eysteinn Björnsson's Jörmungrund
• Codex Regius edition with English Translation
• Hauksbók edition with English Translation
• Völuspa verses 1-25 sung by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson with English subtitles

1665 Peder Hansen Resen, Voluspa (First modern printing of the poem)
1817 Frederich David Grater, Volospa hoc est Volae seu Sibyllae Arctoae vaticinium.
1818 Rasmus Rask as "Völu-spá" (p. 1)
1828 Edda Saemundar hinns Fróda: Edda rhythmica seu antiquior as "Völo-spá" (with facing Latin translation)
1829 Peter Wieseloren Völo-spa: hoc est Carmen Veledæ Islandice et Latine (Icelandic with Latin Translation)
1830 Ludwig Ettmüller as Vaulu-spá: Das älteste Denkmal germanisch-nordischer Sprache

• 1857 Sophus Bugge in Norrœn Fornkvæði as Völuspá
  • Codex Regius Text
  • Hauksbók Text
  • Variants to verses cited in Snorri's Edda
  • Normalized Text Proposed by Sophus Bugge

1876 Karl Hildebrand as "Völuspá"
1899 Ferdinand Detter as Die Völuspa
1954 Guðni Jónsson in Eddukvæði as Völuspá

English Translations:

The first English citation of Völuspá, representing parts of strophes 3 and 5 quoted in Snorri's Edda, occurs in Paul Henri Mallet's Northern Antiquities (1770), p. 105, under the title "VOLUSPA" or "The Oracle of the Prophetess". Translated from the French of Mallet, it reads:

"In the day-spring of the ages there was neither sea nor shore, nor refreshing breezes. There was neither earth below, nor heaven above, to be distinguished. The whole was only one vast abyss, without herb, and without seeds. The sun had then no palace : the stars knew not their dwelling places: the moon was ignorant of her power."

Völuspá is conspicuously absent from the first English-language collection of Eddaic poems: Amos Simon Cottle's, Icelandic Poetry or The Edda of Saemund (1797). This is because his is a translation of Edda Saemundar hinns Fróda: Edda rhythmica seu antiquior (1787), which did not include the poem. Völuspá and Hávamál had been previously published in 1665 by Peder Hansen Resen in Edda Islandorum. In his preface (p. xxix), Cottle indicates that he "has omitted one ode in this series, on account of its containing nothing of the Northern mythology. It is filled with little else but the absurd superstitions of the Church of Rome." By this he means Sólarljóð.

Ironically, Völuspá was among the first Eddaic poems to be published and one of the last to be translated into English. It was first published in 1665, followed by several mid- to late-18th century translations into Swedish, French, and German before being accurately translated into English for the first time in 1819 (abridged) and 1823 (complete).  For a more detailed context of this poem's publication history, see:

Chronological Order of the Earliest English Translations of the Eddaic Poems
Historic Editions and Translations of the Poetic Edda in Languages Other Than English

Although sometimes identified as the first English translations of Völuspá, the following two are original works only loosely based on the poem:

• 1815 William Herbert Song of Vala in Helga (appendix)
• 1816 Rev. James Prowett The Voluspa or the Speech of the Prophetess

                  Prowett's poem of 1816 is clearly a revision of  "An Imitation of the Prophecy of the Edda" (1795)  published anonymously in "The Vision: A Poem ...with other Pieces" (1797), p. 33 with the disclaimer:

"The greater part of the images which form the composition, are taken from Voluspa or speech of the Prophetess. I have taken some prominent features of the Oracle and dropt others which were more particular, or interrupted the thread of the narration. Other parts again I have taken the liberty of supplying from invention: it was not meant to be a version of Voluspa, but only to throw together their leading opinions of a future state."

      Actual Translations of Völuspá into English in chronological order of publication are:

1819 Ebenezer Henderson The Voluspa or the Oracle of the Prophetess Vola

 

1823 Sharon Turner The History of the Anglo-Saxons as "The Prophecy of Vola"

 

1838 Thomas Smith The Völuspá read April 6, 1838 before the Leicestershire Literary Society

 

1842 William Herbert Works Vol. I: Horæ Scandicæ or Works Relating to Old Scandinavian Literature

• Contains a reissue of "Select Icelandic Poetry" with additional Eddaic poems.

• Herbert's poem of 1815, a pale imitation of Völuspá, is now presented in Canto 2 of 'Helga' with critical Notes  in English relevant to understanding the Icelandic poem.

 

1847 from the French of Marmier, "Northern Literature: The Eddas", The Knickerbocker  no. 30, "Voluspa"

 

1862 Andrew James Symington Pen and Pencil Sketches of Faröe and Iceland (excerpts from Völuspá)

   

1865 Benjamin Thorpe in Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða as “The Vala´s Prophecy”

      

1870s William Morris in William Morris, Artist, Writer, Socialist (1938) as "The Prophecy of the Vala" (unrevised)

 

1883 Gudbrand Vigfusson in Corpus Poeticum Boreale as “The Sibyl’s Prophecy”

 

1884 Rasmus Anderson in Norse Mythology as Völuspá [Loose verses in original translation scattered throughout the text]

 

1888 Henry Morley in English Writers Vol 2. as Völuspá

 

1898 James Wilkerson in The Book of Edda called Völuspá as "Voluspa, the Hearing, Seeing, and Kenning of the Vala."

    

1905 Ananda K. Coomaraswarmy as "Völuspa"  

    

1908 Olive Bray in Edda Saemundar as “Völuspá: The Soothsaying of the Vala”

  

1923 Henry Adams Bellows in The Poetic Edda as “Voluspo: The Wise-Woman's Prophecy” 

       

1920s and 30s J.R.R. Tolkien, a partial translation in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun (2009)  as "The Prophecy of the Sibyl"

  

1930 Watson Kirkconnell in The North American Book of Icelandic Verse as "The Norse Apocalyse (circa 950 A.D.)"

 

1962 Lee M. Hollander in The Poetic Edda as “The Prophecy of the Seeress: Völuspá”  

  

1965 Jacqueline Simpson as "The Prophecy of the Wise-Woman" in The Northmen Talk

 

1967 W. H. Auden & P. B Taylor The Elder Edda as “The Song of the Sybil”

  

1969 Patricia Terry in Poems of the Elder Edda as “Völuspá” (Revised 1989)  

  

1996 Carolyne Larrington in The Poetic Edda as “The Seeress’s Prophecy" 

 

1997 Ursula Dronke in The Poetic Edda: Vol. II as “Völuspá”  

 

 2001 Bernard Scudder as "The Prophecy"  

 

2011 Andy Orchard in The Elder Edda as  "Völuspá: the Prophecy of the Seeress"  

 

2014  Carolyne Larrington in The Poetic Edda (revised) as "The Seeress's Prophecy" (Codex Regius Version) and Appendix: "Hauksbók text of The Seeress's Prophecy"

Danish Translations:

Italian Translations:

Swedish Translations:                  

Commentary

  [R=Codex Regius; H=Hauksbók]