The map & the free shelf

The Hearth Library.

Two things live here. First, the map: every page on this site, grouped by what you are actually trying to do. Second, the free shelf: public-domain source texts and site-made guides. No wall, no secret club, no pretending a free resource is more sacred because it is harder to find.

The map

Find the page you need.

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The old books

These are the sources themselves, in public-domain translations you can read tonight. They are old translations — sometimes stiff, occasionally dated — but they are complete, legal, and free, and they are the same wells this site draws from. When you're ready to buy a modern translation, Sources & Ethics names the ones worth owning.

Poems · 13th c. manuscript

The Poetic Edda

Henry Adams Bellows, 1936 · public domain

The heart of it all — Hávamál, Völuspá, and the mythic and heroic poems. The translation quoted throughout this site.

Read at sacred-texts → Mythology · c. 1220

The Prose Edda

Arthur G. Brodeur, 1916 · public domain

Snorri Sturluson's handbook of the myths — the fullest single telling of the stories the poems assume you know.

Read at sacred-texts → Legendary saga

Völsunga Saga

Morris & Magnússon, 1888 · public domain

Sigurd, the dragon, the ring, and the doom of a family — the great heroic cycle behind half of fantasy literature.

Read at Project Gutenberg → Kings' sagas · c. 1230

Heimskringla

Samuel Laing, 1844 · public domain

Snorri's lives of the Norse kings — including the Ynglinga saga chapter this site cites for the three attested festivals.

Read at Project Gutenberg → Family saga

The Story of Burnt Njal

George W. Dasent, 1861 · public domain

Njáls saga — law, feud, frith, and consequence. The best single window into how the old ethics actually worked.

Read at Project Gutenberg → On this site

Hávamál for Daily Life

Bellows verses · modern commentary

Selected stanzas paired with how they steer an ordinary day — this site's own working edition of the poem.

Read here →

Free from the hearth

Made here, released free. This shelf grows — everything free this site puts out will live on it.

Practice guide · free

The Seven-Day Beginning

Printable · offered for an email

The gentle first week from Start Here, formatted to print and keep by your temporary hearth.

Get it free →
Coming to the shelf

More on the way

Seasonal rites · reading paths · field cards

Future free releases land here first. The hearth list hears about each one the day it ships.

The external texts are hosted by sacred-texts.com and Project Gutenberg — long-running public archives. Translations listed are public domain in the United States. Modern translations by Larrington, Crawford, and Byock are recommended for study but cannot be hosted or excerpted here; see Sources & Ethics.