Home : Training : Resources : Primary Sources

Primary Source Material

The following books are primary source translations for the Indo-European cultures ADF draws its inspiration from, including Celtic, Hellenic, Norse, Roman, Slavic, and Vedic. Relevance to religious practices varies, and some of the books may provide more of a "cultural flavor".

Please note that this is not our recommended reading list, which is much more accessible for general reading. Also note that the links below are to hard-copy editions available at Amazon; there may be freely-available texts on the web, or cheaper hard-copy versions available through other book-sellers such as Barnes & Noble.

Note: ADF will receive a referral bonus if you order from Amazon through a link on this page - thanks!

Celtic

Lebor Gabala Erren: Book of Invasions (out of print; web)
The Second Battle of Mag Tuired - Elizabeth A. Gray, trans. (web1, web2, web3)
Book of the Dun Cow - R.I. Best, Osborn Bergin, trans. (out of print; web)
The Tain - Thomas Kinsella, Louis Le Brocquy, trans.
Early Irish Myths and Sagas - Jeffrey Gantz, trans.
A Celtic Miscellany - Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson, ed.
The Voyage of Bran - Kuno Meyer, trans. (out of print; web1, web2)
Old Celtic Romances: Tales from Irish Mythology - P. W. Joyce, trans.
The Feast Of Bricriu - George Henderson, trans.
Fianaigecht: Finn and His Fiana - Kuno Meyer, trans. (out of print)
Acallam Na Senorach: Tales of the Elders of Ireland - Ann Dooley, Harry Roe, trans.
The Four Ancient Books of Wales - William F. Skene, trans. (out of print; web)
Buile Suibhne: The Frenzy of Suibhne - J.G. O'Keefe, trans. (out of print; web)
The Celtic Heroic Age - John T. Koch, John Carey, eds.
Ancient Irish Tales - Tom Peete Cross, Clark Harris Slover, eds. (out of print)
The Mabinogi, and Other Medieval Welsh Tales - Patrick K. Ford, trans.
Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Welsh Triads - Rachel Bromwich, ed. (out of print; web)
Carmina Gadelica - Alexander Carmichael (out of print; web)

Some of these sources are available at CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts.

Hellenic

Theogony and Works and Days - Hesiod; Norman Brown, trans.
The Iliad and The Odyssey - Homer
The Homeric Hymns - Homer
Metamorphoses - Ovid; David Raeburn, Denis Feeney, trans.
The Library of Greek Mythology - Apollodorus; Robin Hard, trans.
The Fall of Troy - Quintus Smyrnaeus; A. S. Way, trans.
Voyage of Argo - Apollonius of Rhodes
Medea and Other Plays - Euripides; Philip Vellacott, trans.
The Bacchae and Other Plays - Euripides; Philip Vellacott, trans.
Euripides Orestes and Other Plays - Euripides; Robin Waterfield et al, trans.
The Oresteian Trilogy - Aeschylus; Philip Vellacott, trans.
The Theban Plays - Sophocles; E.F. Watling, trans.
Electra and Other Plays - Sophocles; E.F. Watling, trans.
Hymns and Epigrams - Callimachus; Stanley Lombardo, Rayor Diane, trans.
The Golden Ass - Apuleius; P. G. Walsh, trans.
The Histories - Herodotus; Robin Waterfield, Carolyn Dewald, trans.
Six Greek Comedies - Aristophanes, Menander, Euripides; Kenneth McLeish, J. Michael Walton, trans.

Note: You may be able to find some of the above texts freely-available at the Online Medieval and Classical Library.

Norse

The Poetic Edda - Lee M. Hollander, Edda Saemundar, eds.
Edda (a.k.a., the "prose" Edda) - Snorri Sturluson, Anthony Faulkes, eds.
Saga of the Volsungs - Jesse L. Byock, trans.
Egil's Saga - Hermann Palsson, Paul Edwards, trans.
Eyrbyggja Saga - Hermann Palsson, Paul Edwards, trans.
Hrafnkel's Saga - Hermann Palsson, trans.
Saga of the Jom'svikings - Lee M. Hollander, trans.
Fljotsdale Saga - Jean Young, Eleanor Haworth, trans. (out of print)
Njal's Saga - Robert Cook, trans.
Laxdaela Saga - Magnussen, trans.
Saga of King Hrolf Kraki - Jesse L. Byock, trans.
Grettir's Saga - Denton Fox, Herman Palsson, trans.
Viga Glum's Saga - George Johnston, trans.
Nibelungenlied - A.T. Hatto, trans.
The Sagas of the Icelanders - Robert Kellogg, Jane Smiley, eds. (many sagas collected)
Saxo Grammaticus: The History of the Danes - Hilda Ellis Davidson, Peter Fisher, trans.
Orkneyinga Saga - Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, trans.
Hrafnkel's Saga - Hermann Palsson, trans.
The Vinland Sagas - Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, trans.
King Harald's Saga - Snorri Sturluson; Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, trans.
Erik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas - Gwyn Jones, trans.
Seven Viking Romances - Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards
The Galdrabok, An Icelandic Grimoire - Stephen E. Flowers, trans. (out of print)
Heimskringla - Snorri Sturluson
Beowulf - Burton Raffel, trans.
Havamal: Glossary and Index - Anthony Faulkes (UK)
Havamal - Viking Society for Northern Research (UK)
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Michael Swanton, ed.
The Origin and Deeds of the Goths - Jordanes (out of print; web)
Rudiments of Runelore - Stephen Pollington
Anglo-Saxon Verse Charms, Maxims, Heroic Legends - Louis J. Rodrigues, trans. (out of print)

Note: If you can get it, the out-of-print Complete Sagas of the Icelanders may be more economical if you are committed to reading all the sagas (may be cheaper on other book sites). Also, we recommend the Viking Society for Northern Research as a source of excellent scholarly works regarding the Norse peoples.

Roman

Fasti - Ovid
Early History of Rome - Titus Livy; Aubrey De Selincourt, Robert Ogilvie, trans.
The Aenid - Virgil; W.F. Jackson Knight, trans.
Metamorphoses - Ovid; David Raeburn, Denis Feeney, trans.
Remains of Old Latin - E.H. Warmington, ed.
Apuleius Metamorphoses - Apuleius; J. Arthur Hanson, trans.
Augustine Confessions - Robert J. O'Connell, trans.
Achievements of the Divine Augustus - Paterculus Velleius; F.W. Shipley, trans.
Aulus Gellius: Attic Nights - Aulus Gellius; J.C. Rolfe, trans.
Marcus Aurelius - C. R. Haines, trans.
Caesar: The Gallic War - Julius Caesar; H.J. Edwards, trans.
Cato on Agriculture - W.D. Hooper and H.B. Ash, trans.
De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods) - Cicero; H. Rackham, trans.
De Divinatione (On Divination) - Cicero; W.A. Falconer, trans.
Dio Cassius Roman History - Ernest Cary, trans.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus: The Roman Antiquities - Ernest Cary, trans.
Odes and Epodes - Horace; C.E. Bennett, trans.
Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica - Horace; H.R. Fairclough, trans.
Ab Urbe Condita (History of Rome) - Livy; B.O. Foster, trans.
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) - Livy; W.H.D. Rouse, trans.
Satyricon - Petronius; W.H.D. Rouse, et al, trans.
Natural History - Pliny; H. Rackham, trans.
Parallel Lives - Plutarch; Beradotte Perrin, trans.
The Histories - Polybius; W.R. Paton, trans.
Lives of the Caesars - Suetonius; J.C. Rolfe, K.R. Bradley, trans.
Annals - Tacitus; C.H. Moore, trans.
On the Latin Language - Varro; Roland G. Kent, trans.
Ecologues, Georgics, Aeneid - Virgil; H.R. Fairclough, trans.
The Digest of Justinian - Justinian; Alan Watson, trans.
The Sibylline Oracles (out of print; web)
The Pumpkinification of Claudius - Seneca (out of print)
De Verborum Significatu (On the Meaning of Words) - Festus (out of print)
The Saturnalia - Macrobius (online text)

Note: Many of the above books are in the highly recommended Loeb Classical Library by Harvard University Press.

Slavic

Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text - Samuel H. Cross (out of print; web)
Songs of the Russian People - W.R. Ralston (web)

Vedic

Pinnacles of India's Past: Selections from the Rgveda - Walter H. Maurer, trans.
The Rig Veda - Wendy Doniger, trans.
Rigveda Brahmanas - A.B. Keith, trans.
Atharvaveda Samhita - W.D. Whitney, trans.
The Vedas of the Black Yajus School - A.B. Keith, trans.
Upanishads - Patrick Olivelle, trans.
Rigveda in Sanskrit und Deutsch - Karl Friedrich Geldner, trans (German)

Note: Vedams Books and South Asia Books are also good for Vedic works not carried by Amazon.

Home : Training : Resources : Primary Sources