Völuspá

Völuspá (original title: Voluspå) is a religious poem in The Older Edda(all links in this text are written in Norwegian only, Sceneweb's comment), most is likely created in the time between the old and new religion, approximately year 1000.

In the poem, the völva remembers the creating of the world and the golden age, how evil and war entered the world, and how the death of Balder becomes the reason for more disturbance. She switches to her real prediction, tells about the moral decline in the last days and about the apocalypse, Ragnarok, the fight between good and evil, ending with the end of the world. After it, a new world appears, rising from the ocean, and the golden age starts over.

Völuspá was an important source for Snorre's Edda, as it is for religious historians today. It seems to be written by a poet influenced by Christianity. The Heathen religion has in him an ethical attitude other poems of The Edda have not.

Source:

Store norske leksikon, snl.no, 11.09.2012, http://snl.no/Volusp%C3%A5