The rímur are the hidden sea of Icelandic literature — over a thousand narrative poem-cycles composed from the fourteenth century to the nineteenth, retelling sagas, romances, myths, and histories in elaborately metered verse. Virtually none have been translated into English. This is the largest liberation project in the Good Works Library.

What Are the Rímur?

The rímur (singular: ríma) are long narrative poems composed in Iceland from the mid-fourteenth century onward. Each rímur cycle (rímnaflokki) is a single continuous narrative divided into sections called rímur, each typically composed in a different metrical form. A cycle might contain two rímur or forty; a single ríma might run thirty stanzas or three hundred. The tradition produced over a thousand documented cycles — more than any other medieval European verse tradition — and continued as a living art form into the nineteenth century, when rímur were still chanted aloud at Icelandic farmsteads during the long winter evenings.

The form arrived in Iceland in the fourteenth century, likely influenced by continental ballad and romance traditions. The oldest known ríma is Einar Gilsson's Óláfs ríma Haraldssonar, a poem on the life and martyrdom of Saint Olaf preserved only in Flateyarbók (c. 1387–1394). From this beginning, the tradition exploded: within two centuries, poets were versifying every saga, every romance, every myth in the Icelandic literary inheritance, and composing original narratives besides.

The Verse

Rímur verse is metrically elaborate. The fundamental unit is the four-line stanza (ferskeytt) with alternating end-rhyme (ABAB) and internal alliteration — the same interlocking of rhyme and alliteration that characterizes skaldic poetry, adapted to a longer narrative frame. But the ferskeytt is only the beginning: Icelandic metrists have documented approximately 2,000 distinct verse forms grouped into roughly 450 types and ten major families. The convention required each ríma in a cycle to employ a different meter from the others, so that a cycle of ten rímur would display ten different metrical forms — a virtuosic constraint that gave the tradition its formal restlessness and variety.

The Mansöngur

Each ríma conventionally opens with a mansöngur — a lyric prelude addressed to a beloved, real or conventional. The mansöngur served as a display of the poet's lyric skill before the narrative resumed, a moment of personal voice within the impersonal story. The mansöngvar constitute a distinct lyric tradition within the rímur corpus, and their conventions — the invocation of a woman, the complaint of loneliness, the praise of beauty — form a counterpoint to the battle narratives and saga retellings they introduce.

Subject Matter

The rímur draw on the full range of Icelandic literary tradition:

• Historical rímur retell the lives of Norwegian and Icelandic kings, saints, and chieftains. Óláfs ríma Haraldssonar is the prototype.
• Saga rímur versify the Íslendingasögur (sagas of Icelanders) and the fornaldarsögur (legendary sagas). The Grettisrímur retell Grettis saga; the Sturlaugsrímur retell the legendary Sturlaugs saga starfsama.
• Mythological rímur retell Eddic material. The Þrymlur versify the Þrymskviða (Thor's hammer stolen); the Lokrur and Völsungsrímur draw on the Völsung and Loki cycles.
• Romance rímur retell continental romances that entered Iceland through the riddarasögur (chivalric sagas). The Skáldhelgarímur and Friðþjófsrímur belong here.
• Satirical rímur are rarer but include the extraordinary Skíðaríma, a dream-vision poem unlike anything else in the tradition.

The Tradition's Scale

The standard bibliography of rímur (Finnur Jónsson's Rímnatal og skáldatal, 1926) catalogues over a thousand cycles. Many survive only in manuscripts — the Handrit.is and Bækur.is digital repositories are slowly making these accessible. The critical edition of the earliest cycles is the Rímnasafn (2 volumes, ed. Finnur Jónsson, 1905–1922). Printed editions of individual cycles exist for perhaps a hundred more. The vast majority — some nine hundred cycles — remain in manuscript only.

The total verse volume of the rímur tradition dwarfs any other single-tradition corpus in the Good Works Library. A conservative estimate places the full corpus at 50,000 to 100,000 stanzas — five to ten times the Rigveda.

Why They Have Never Been Translated

Despite being one of the largest bodies of medieval literature in any European language, virtually no rímur have been translated into English. The reasons are several: the metrical complexity resists casual translation; the tradition is overshadowed by the more prestigious sagas and Eddas; the source texts are scattered across manuscripts and rare printed editions; and modern Icelandic scholarship has focused on editing rather than translating. The result is a vast body of literature that is effectively invisible to the English-speaking world.

This is a pure liberation project. There are no paywalled English translations to compete with. There is simply nothing. Every cycle translated is a first.

Sources

The primary sources for this project, in order of priority:

• Rímnasafn vol. 1 (ed. Finnur Jónsson, 1905) — 14 cycles, the earliest rímur. Available on Internet Archive and septentrionalia.net.
• Rímnasafn vol. 2 (ed. Finnur Jónsson, 1913–1922) — Continuation. Available on Google Books.
• Fernir forníslenskir Rímnaflokkar (ed. Finnur Jónsson, 1896) — 4 cycles (Lokrur, Þrymlur, Griplur, Völsungsrímur). Available on septentrionalia.net.
• Orðbog til rímur (Finnur Jónsson) — A dictionary of rímur vocabulary. Essential reference. Available on septentrionalia.net (alarichall.org.uk mirror).
• Individual printed editions — Various publishers, 18th–20th century. Some on bækur.is and Google Books.
• Manuscripts — handrit.is digital repository, National Library of Iceland.

Catalogue of Translated Cycles

This catalogue is a living document. As cycles are translated, they are added here. The project is expected to span hundreds of tulku lives.

Rímnasafn Vol. 1 — The Earliest Rímur

Rímnasafn Vol. 2

Cycle list to be compiled when Vol. 2 work begins.

Other Printed Editions

To be expanded as cycles are sourced and translated.

Manuscript-Only Cycles

The deep archive — approximately 900 cycles surviving only in manuscripts at the National Library of Iceland and related collections. To be catalogued as the project matures.

Colophon

This introduction was written for the Good Works Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church. The rímur translation project is a Good Works Translation initiative — the first systematic effort to bring the Icelandic rímur tradition into English. All translations are made from Old and Middle Icelandic source texts.

For the full project gameplan, technical notes, and source database, see the internal document Tulku/Rimur Gameplan.md.

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