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bucketoffish's review against another edition
3.0
Since this book is kind of a historical document, it's a bit odd to review. Instead I'll just list some of the thoughts I had while reading it.
- The Catholic stuff is super shoehorned into this. It's funny that Snorri tries to rationalize away the existence of the Norse gods by saying e.g. Odin was actually Hector who moved from Troy to Scandinavia, but at the same time all this crazy magic stuff is happening, and that's accepted without question.
- There are a lot of Tolkien influences here. The cursed ring, the dragon on the hoard of gold, the races of dwarves and elves and men etc. I found it interesting that both Gandalf and Thorin were names of the First Dwarves. There was also a passage that sounded a lot like Theoden's speech to his riders.
- Thor is a huge jerk. He'll kill anyone for any reason and nobody even comments on it. Moral of the story is don't piss Thor off. Don't even look at him. Just stay away from Thor.
- Over half of this book is just talking about how to periphrase objects in Norse poetry. For instance, the book will talk about how silver can be periphrased as snow, and there will be a dozen example passages of different poets calling silver snow. No stories or anything, just pages after pages of people calling things different names. You would think there was more to Norse poetry than just calling things by the names of other things. These passages were extremely uninteresting to me and I started skimming over them after a while.
- So many names. At one point there was a rock that had a name, and the rope that went around the rock had a name, and the pin that was used to pin down the rope had a name. What a crazy world.
- It's interesting that the army of Valhalla was described as unimaginably immense, but the number of actual warriors given in the text was smaller than e.g. Napoleon's army.
- I think I would have rather read a collected book of Norse mythology than this. I guess it's good for people interested in history, but big parts of it were not fun to read.
- The Catholic stuff is super shoehorned into this. It's funny that Snorri tries to rationalize away the existence of the Norse gods by saying e.g. Odin was actually Hector who moved from Troy to Scandinavia, but at the same time all this crazy magic stuff is happening, and that's accepted without question.
- There are a lot of Tolkien influences here. The cursed ring, the dragon on the hoard of gold, the races of dwarves and elves and men etc. I found it interesting that both Gandalf and Thorin were names of the First Dwarves. There was also a passage that sounded a lot like Theoden's speech to his riders.
- Thor is a huge jerk. He'll kill anyone for any reason and nobody even comments on it. Moral of the story is don't piss Thor off. Don't even look at him. Just stay away from Thor.
- Over half of this book is just talking about how to periphrase objects in Norse poetry. For instance, the book will talk about how silver can be periphrased as snow, and there will be a dozen example passages of different poets calling silver snow. No stories or anything, just pages after pages of people calling things different names. You would think there was more to Norse poetry than just calling things by the names of other things. These passages were extremely uninteresting to me and I started skimming over them after a while.
- So many names. At one point there was a rock that had a name, and the rope that went around the rock had a name, and the pin that was used to pin down the rope had a name. What a crazy world.
- It's interesting that the army of Valhalla was described as unimaginably immense, but the number of actual warriors given in the text was smaller than e.g. Napoleon's army.
- I think I would have rather read a collected book of Norse mythology than this. I guess it's good for people interested in history, but big parts of it were not fun to read.
estherdb's review against another edition
4.0
Interessant en overzichtelijk naslagwerk. De "Edda" is zo'n werk dat ik sowieso eens wou hebben gelezen in mijn leven en dit boek was enorm aangenaam. Veel duiding, goede voetnoten, een overzichtelijk register... Alles wat een mens van een "Edda"-editie kan verwachten.
anthonylwolf's review against another edition
4.0
Whenever I studied Scandinavian Literature as part of my uni course, Snorri Sturluson was always introduced as a legend and the prime reference work for any Norse mythology tale. I knew The Prose Edda was important. I can now see why.
This classic has everything I've ever known and loved about Norse mythology. The Nine Realms, the World Tree, the gods and the legends, and how the world came to be – even the heroes and the incredibly evocative Ragnarok.
If you're into Norse mythology, or even just mythology in general, this is a must read. Even though it has some inconsistencies here and there due to the passing of time, and even though parts of it were somewhat adapted over the years to fit the Church's agenda, the soul of germanic cultures and the Viking world stays true and alive.
Plus, it was great to catch up on it now that God of War Ragnarok is out!
This classic has everything I've ever known and loved about Norse mythology. The Nine Realms, the World Tree, the gods and the legends, and how the world came to be – even the heroes and the incredibly evocative Ragnarok.
If you're into Norse mythology, or even just mythology in general, this is a must read. Even though it has some inconsistencies here and there due to the passing of time, and even though parts of it were somewhat adapted over the years to fit the Church's agenda, the soul of germanic cultures and the Viking world stays true and alive.
Plus, it was great to catch up on it now that God of War Ragnarok is out!
hstapp's review
3.0
This book, is one of the craziest things I've had to rate, as far as form goes. The first section of the book, after the prologue is a summarized telling of the entire history of the Norse pantheon of Gods. The middle section, tells of the use of Kennings, through the use of interesting bibbits. The last section, is an in depth telling of all the norse poetry forms. The first two sections can be quite entertaining, and the last two sections are quite useful if you want to write poetry. The history is interesting, but the best section is the section of kennings. The last section is quite dull, and should not be read in full, but scanned and referenced to in the instance of writing a particular form.
forenzer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
witchofottawacounty's review against another edition
3.0
It seems like the preface belittles the telling, but that's just my opinion.
bluesilverwind's review
5.0
It’s a classic collection and a must read for those who are interested in the norse Mythos.