Quoting or citing public-domain works in a short story?

[Ireth]

I have a short story in the works involving characters from Norse mythology, and I was hoping to open the story with a relevant verse from the Prose Edda. Any idea how to correctly format it? Would I do something like this...

“Hugin and Munin fly each day
over the spacious earth.
I fear for Hugin, that he come not back,
yet more anxious am I for Munin.”

- Prose Edda, translated by Benjamin Thorpe

...or something else entirely? Like a footnote at the bottom of the story? Help please!

 

[buyjupiter]

When I've seen it done, it's been formatted like you did it.

 

[skip.knox]

There's not a correct version, only conventional ones. On which, I echo buyjupiter. But for reference, I just looked at my old Penguin copies of Njal's Saga and of Hrfankel's Saga, and both are rendered in prose format, so there you go.

 

[Ophiucha]

Aside from whether or not you should also include Snorri Sturluson in there, I don't think there's anything wrong with that format. Fiction doesn't have quite as strict a style guide as MLA or anything, and I've definitely seen passages presented in roughly the same way (some publishers prefer italicizing the quote, but that's not universal).