The Codex Regius manuscript of the Poetic Edda is written in Iceland, preserving anonymous Old Norse poems from oral tradition (ca. 800-1200 CE). These mythological lays (Völuspá, Hávamál) and heroic elegies derive from pre-Christian Germanic folklore, Viking legends, and shamanistic rituals. The manuscript is rediscovered in 1643, transforming European understanding of Norse myth.

The Poetic Edda directly inspired the Romantic and Victorian poets (Thomas Gray, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Matthew Arnold) who mined it for mythological imagery and alliterative meters. W. H. Auden's Edda translations and J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium show how Norse folk poetry provides alternative epic models beyond Greco-Roman classics, reshaping modern fantasy poetics.