Customer Reviews

The Poetic Edda

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

first of all, here is my review of the poetic edda itself, which i give five stars:

the poetic edda is one of the greatest collections of poetry of all times. it contains the beautifully vivid "volupso", the norse apocalypse poem, the comedic ballads, the "wrangling of Loki" and "Lay of Thrmy", the proverbial wisdom of the "sayings of har" and the mournful lays of the larger-than-heroes, the volsungs and niflungs. the edda is better written than Beowulf, the more popular northern epic, and the rhythmic verse gives it more aesthetic appeal than most epic poems. the meter, based on alliteration and caesura, whether rhythmic fornyrdislag or lilting ljodahattr, is much more pleasing to the ear than classical blank verse, which has sticter syllable stress patterns. unfortunately, the edda is not in very good condition. their are gaps in the manuscripts, and there are numerous places where it appears a scribe covered up a gap with extraneous material. the poems vary greatly in quality, and you need a good understanting of norse myths to understand what is going on (i recommend Norse Stories: Retold from the Eddas by Hamilton Mabie). none the less, the edda is a wonderful read for fans of poetry, epics, or norse mythology.

unfortunatley, of the numerous translations of the poestic edda, only four are in print, those of Bellows, Dronke, Hollander, and Larington. Bellows is an excellent translation, at least aesthetically, and it does a very good job of preserving the rhythm, if not the precise metrics of the original. It is very readable and fairly accurate. Unfortunately, only half of it is in print, but I would recommend it highly. You can find the full text at www.sacred-texts.com, but reading off the computer just isn't the same. Dronke's is a beautiful and, i have heard, very accurate translation, although it makes no attempt to preserve the alliteration. Unfortunately, only two of five volumes of this translation have been printed and the first is out of print and the other ridiculously priced. Fortunately, I managed to find a copy of volume 1 at the library. That leaves only Hollander and Larrington. I have not read Larrington, but I have heard that it is an accuracy-over-poetry translation, and thus not the most enjoyable read.

Hollander makes a great effort to preserve the norse meter in english. However, in his attempt to maintain alliteration, he uses a lot of archaic words, which seem daunting to first-time readers, but there is a glossary in the back, so you get used to it. The minor innacurasies of his translation may disturb some purists, but I feel that a translation that preserves the beauty and spirit of a poem is more important than a literal one, and I would like to see a "FitzOmar" style translation of the Edda, which this certainly is not. My main problem with Hollander is that in trying to get the alliteration right, he loses the rhythm. When reading Bellows translation, you can FEEL the rhythm. With Hollander's, you wonder is THIS the lift or is it THAT word. In Old Norse, two consecutive stresses are OK, but not so in modern english. The introduction tells you how to enunciate the meter, by putting extra long stress on lift and reading the ustrassed syllable very quickly, but the reader shouldn't have to change his or her syllable stress patterns, the poet should do it for him. That said, once you get used to Hollander's translation, it is fairly pleasing, but I would recommend you read Bellows first, as it is a gentler intro to Eddic poetry.

It's difficult reading, since Hollander has attempted (with relative success) to preserve the alliteration and rythmic patterns of the Old Norse into his Modern English translation. Subject - verb relationships are sometimes confusing. Word order is not a major issue in an inflected language like Old Norse, but in English it makes a huge difference. Hollander's literal translation requires very close reading at times in order to make sense of it. He also uses a LOT of archaisms, some of which are defined in a very brief glossary at the end, but some of which he apparently expects his reader to look up in an unabridged dictionary. This translation sounds good read aloud, but often I got the feeling that I needed to translate the translation! I already own the recent (2004) Dover reprint of the 1923 Bellows translation, which is much more readable, but it's only the first half of the Edda (the mythological poems.) I wanted to read the REST of the Edda, so when I spotted this at the bookstore I grabbed it.
There's a general introduction at the beginning, a brief introduction before each poem, and extensive footnotes running at the bottom of each page. You will need to read all of this in order to fully understand the poems. The first half consists of stories of the Norse gods and some of their doings. Probably the most famous Eddic poem is the "Voluspa" which relates a prophetic vision of the doom of the gods. The second half of the Edda contains poems about the deeds of legendary heroes. Most of them center around the Niflung/Nibelung legend. The Edda is a much more satisfying read than the Nibelungenlied (which I found to be a major disappointment.)
All in all, I would recommend the Poetic Edda to anyone with an interest in medeival literature (or an interest in Wagner or Tolkien) ... but I don't think this particular translation is the best one to get.

"Hear me, all ye hallowed beings, both high and low of Heimdall's children...." This beautiful and poetic translation of the Poetic Edda echoes the beauty of the original Old Icelandic. It would be better of course to read the Edda in the original, but if you don't speak Old Icelandic yet, this is the translation to use. It has the convenience of having numbered stanzas and doesn't simply omit stanzas, like some translations geared toward those wholly ignorant of the traditional lore of the Nordic people, and so is suitable for study. If you are unfamiliar with the Poetic Edda's contents: The poems, dealing with the Norse Gods, are to the people of the North what the stories of Moses, Abraham and Isaac are to the peoples of the Middle East. This book should be on the bookshelf of every educated English-speaking person, along with a set of Shakespeare and the King James Bible.

This is an excellent translation of the poetic eddas which form the basis for what we currently know about Nordic mythology. The author maintains the structure of the original and mmakes a genuine attempt at alliteration in modern english. A previous reviewer noted a problem with some of the vocabulary being unfamiliar and indeciferable, but that is the beauty of this translation, it attempts to use germanic and older english constructions to give one the feel of the original. All the vocabulary used that is not contemporary can be found glossed at the back of the book or should be available in a quality dictionary like the OED. If you are interested in Nordic culture then this is the book you want for a translation of the poetic eddas (it is also an excellent crutch for those studying old norse and making an attempt to read the eddas in the original).

Hollander sacrifices accuracy in an attempt to capture the form of the original poetry. He is also fond of using archaic English words - which makes the translation more difficult to read. The book actually includes a glossary of the words used in the translation!

First time readers of the Poetic Edda would probably be better off with Larrington's translation.

Holander's is the standard translation of the Poetic (or Elder) Edda. It is stirring and poetic but somtimes difficultly archaic (unless you already know that "hight" means called or named). Any difficulties, though, are swept away by the power and grandeur of the Norse originals. Though imperfectly preserved, they remain he poinant testament to a proud and strong civilization.

Old Norse poetry is based on two strong beats per half line, usually alliterated:

"he STOLE the SWORD || SALly had SOUGHT"

This is the original sound of proto-Germanic verse, and it appears in many important poems, including the Eddas and Beowulf. Unfortunately, it's a hard style of verse to capture in modern English. Our language's sound and rhythm are different, and we are quickly annoyed by sustained alliteration.

This poses a challenge for students of Old Norse and Old English: How can we develop an ear for a dead language, and hear the sound of this marvellous poetry?

Lee Hollander has solved this thorny problem for us. His translation captures the rhythm of Old Norse, including the tricky double beats, and preserves much of the alliteration without irritating the reader. As he explains in the introduction, you'll need to watch the alliteration to correctly place the stress. But once you do, his poetry works: You can hear the Old Norse rhythm, and get a good feel for the original sound.

To achieve this goal, Hollander makes some sacrifices. He frequently digs for archaic words (many of them hold-overs from Old English), and his sentence structure can be tricky. Frankly, if you're reading the Eddas for the first time, or if you're more interested in the stories than the poetry, you'll probably want a different translation.

But if you already love the Eddas, and you want to hear the sound of Old Norse verse, this is an excellent place to start.

Hollander's translation is probably the most widely available and is often praised for it's style. His style is very good, poetically. No one can falt him for trying to both tell a good story or bring Eddic poetry to the modern English language. But if you are looking to actually understand the Edda Saemundar and study it, this is not for you. There is little interpretation or explanation for his editing. No footnotes tell you when he moves some stanza to better suit his liking, and why (he does this often). He uses imprecise words which mask subtleties which where important in the culture (the difference between "seith" and "spa"); using and glossing the original word is more authentic and exact. You don't know where the Edda begins and Hollander ends. Indeed, this book is more a "retelling" than a translation, and is about as scholarly as Wagner's Ring Cycle. It's good for 6'th grade reports, not if you want to understand the Eddas, Norse culture and poetry, or truly understand the Aesir and Vanir. 1 star for effort, and 1 for his English poetry.

I got this translation as my first copy of the Poetic Edda, and I would not recommend it to a beginner. At first I thought it was because I was unfamiliar with the poems that I had so much difficulty understanding it.

I got Larrington's translation, and it is much more readable for a beginner. Nevertheless, I find myself missing the poetic attempts of Ms. Hollander, and especially the footnote, rather than endnote, format.

I give her credit for making the poetic attempt, and I like the format, but if you actually want to understand the content, I'd go with a different translation.

This is wonderful translation of an even better text.
This is a translation of the Poetic Edda that attempts to keep every potent inch of it. For those looking for an easy read, its not. But this never should attempt to be an 'easy read' in the first place. That isn't the goal of the Poetic Edda. If you want to lazily learn about Norse Mtyhs, there are a lot of other options out there.
"The Norse Myths" by Kevin-Crossley-Holland, for example. Easy to read, easy to understand, very accessible that book is. As massivly indepth and insightful as the Poetic Edda is, it is not.

If you want to actually get into the knitty gritty of Norse Mythology, if you actually want to examine it for what it is. This is the ticket. Any attempt to easy it down, would detract from the value of the knowledge carried with in it, which should be exactly what anyone reading this should want to avoid.

Hollander gives us the Kennings as they are, and explains them for what they are. He gives us a description about each text, what it went through to get to use today. If its missing parts, interloping, and general meaning. As well as a description of how the poems should be read.

There are some old words like 'ere' and others that might not ring any bells. They allow the translater to stay a bit more true to the original text. You might have to make a bit of an effort at first whenever one pops up to look to understand it. But its not a steep learning curve, it is English.

This is essential for anyone who is genuinely interested in the Poetic Edda. Meanwhile, anyone looking for stories of Norse myths to idly entertain them, you should probably play down to something more simple.