Wow I just translated the whole Poetic Edda from Old Norse into poetic English in 25 minutes using AI!

🙂
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About Volmarr Viking

🤖💻🏋️‍♂️🎮🧘‍♂️🌲🕉️🙏🛸🧙‍♂️VR,AI,spiritual,history,NorsePagan,Vikings,1972

9 responses to “”

  1. MiamiMagus's avatar
    MiamiMagus says :

    And is it accurate?

    • Volmarr Viking's avatar
      Volmarr Viking says :

      Perhaps I shall make a readable form and you can judge. :)

    • Volmarr Viking's avatar
      Volmarr Viking says :

      I just asked another AI to judge how good it is:

      I have reviewed the uploaded file, Poetic_Edda_Translation.json, which contains a translation by “Jules (AI) for Rune Forge AI” dated 2026.Completeness Assessment

      The file is not a complete translation of the historical Poetic Edda. While it includes the most famous mythological and heroic poems, it is missing approximately half of the traditional corpus found in the Codex Regius.

      Included Poems (20):

      • Mythological: Völuspá, Hávamál, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál, Skírnismál, Hárbarðsljóð, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Alvíssmál, Baldrs draumar, Rígsþula, Hyndluljóð, Grottasöngr.
      • Heroic: Völundarkviða, Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, Reginsmál, Fáfnismál, Sigrdrífumál, Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, Guðrúnarkviða I, Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Helreið Brynhildar, Atlakviða, Hamðismál.

      Major Omissions:

      • The Helgi Cycle: Missing Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar and Helgakviða Hundingsbana II.
      • The Sigurd/Gudrun Cycle: Missing Guðrúnarkviða II & III, Oddrúnargrátr, Atlamál hin groenlenzku, and Guðrúnarhvöt.
      • Other: Missing the Völuspá in skamma (usually tucked inside Hyndluljóð, but only 5 stanzas of the latter are present here).

      Accuracy and Style Review

      The translation is highly stylized, prioritizing the “Authentic 9th Century Viking Values” and “Alliterative Verse” mentioned in the metadata.

      • Poetic Structure: It successfully utilizes the fornyrðislag (old story meter) style, using the caesura (the “|” pipe symbol) to indicate the pause between half-lines. This captures the rhythmic “feel” of the original Old Norse.
      • Lexical Choices: The use of archaic terms like “leasings” for lies, “byrnie” for mail-coats, and “fain” for gladly aligns with the requested 9th-century aesthetic.
      • Content Accuracy: The narrative beats in the stanzas provided (e.g., the dwarf list in Völuspá, the advice in Hávamál) are accurate to the source material, though the number of stanzas per poem is significantly abridged. For example:
        • Hávamál: This version ends abruptly or skips large sections (jumping from stanza 62 to 76, then ending at 139), missing over 100 stanzas of the original 164.
        • Hyndluljóð: Only contains 5 stanzas, whereas the original is a lengthy genealogical poem of 50+ stanzas.

      Summary Verdict

      This file is a “Best Of” anthology rather than a complete scholarly translation. It is excellent for creative use, AI roleplay, or a “Modern Viking” blog, but it should not be used as a primary academic source due to the heavy abridgment.

      Would you like me to generate the missing stanzas for a specific poem, such as the rest of the Hávamál, to help you fill out the file?

    • Volmarr Viking's avatar
      Volmarr Viking says :

      This 2nd edition I just made with the same AI agent is complete, accurate, and sounds even better, and this time only took 17 minutes to translate the whole thing.

    • Volmarr Viking's avatar
      Volmarr Viking says :

      The best thing to do would be to look at some of the various published translations of the Poetic Edda which are considered to be accurate and scholarly and compare it to my AI translations, preferably more than one popular accurate translation. Of the modern translations, that are considered to be best, are the 1st and 2nd edition translations by Jackson Crawford. Both of these are very good, yet different than one another, even though by the same person. He is currently the most popular translator of Old Norse, and a recognized expert in Old Norse. Other translations of the Poetic Edda which are widely considered to be excellent are the ones by Carolyne Larrington, Lee M Hollander, and Patricia Terry. There is some Poetic Edda translations done in the 19th and early 20th century, that were ok for the time, but considered not great by modern standards, by Benjamin Thorpe, Olive Bray, and Henry Adams Bellows. The free public domain versions of English translations of the Poetic Edda that are floating around all over the internet are mostly those ones done in the 19th and 20th century, and not good to use for accuracy checks.

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