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marenfp's review against another edition
Lest primært for research til master.
Ble egentlig svært positivt overrasket over Den eldre Edda. Til tross for blytungt språk og verseformer jeg har vært helt ukjent med, så gjør innholdet opp for det. Mytene er morsomme, bisarre, blodige, moralprekende og mye, mye mer. Det er en glede å kunne si at jeg nå har lest Den eldre Edda!!
Ble egentlig svært positivt overrasket over Den eldre Edda. Til tross for blytungt språk og verseformer jeg har vært helt ukjent med, så gjør innholdet opp for det. Mytene er morsomme, bisarre, blodige, moralprekende og mye, mye mer. Det er en glede å kunne si at jeg nå har lest Den eldre Edda!!
olivierbeys's review against another edition
3.0
Having read a lot in my life about the Greco-Roman mythological world, I got around to norse mythology quite late in my life with this set of stories (compiled in the Codex Regius). It was quite revealing to find out where Tolkien and others drew their inspiration from, I should have read up on this as a teenager when I first discovered Middle-Earth in the Lords of the Ring!
It is notoriously difficult to translate poetry, especially if it is circa 1000 years old. While this translation gave it a fair go, I'm sure I failed to grasp the many plays on words, cross-references to other myths and so on. In that sense, I would probably enjoy these stories in contemporary prose form just like so many people do with fanasy novels and computer games.
For me the reading experience worked best by reading one saga every (odd) day or so, rather than going for a long read. The downside of this is that it becomes rather difficult to keep track of the protagonists in the second part of the book dedicated to the heroic sagas. There is genealogical table in the book, which made it almost impossible to follow the flow of these stories, which are often related to one another.
In hindsight, I'd first read a companion book or some sort of informative book about norse mythology before tackling and better appreciating the originals.
That's why this was not quite a pageturner for me
It is notoriously difficult to translate poetry, especially if it is circa 1000 years old. While this translation gave it a fair go, I'm sure I failed to grasp the many plays on words, cross-references to other myths and so on. In that sense, I would probably enjoy these stories in contemporary prose form just like so many people do with fanasy novels and computer games.
For me the reading experience worked best by reading one saga every (odd) day or so, rather than going for a long read. The downside of this is that it becomes rather difficult to keep track of the protagonists in the second part of the book dedicated to the heroic sagas. There is genealogical table in the book, which made it almost impossible to follow the flow of these stories, which are often related to one another.
In hindsight, I'd first read a companion book or some sort of informative book about norse mythology before tackling and better appreciating the originals.
That's why this was not quite a pageturner for me
abeanbg's review against another edition
5.0
I would give this 5 stars just for the opening poem, Volupsa (The Seeress's Prophecy) which is a work of beautiful, strange, and arcane power. The translation by Hollander retains the alliterative form and archaic language of the Old Norse original, which lends itself well to a very unique and enchantingly challenging reading experience. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the philosophy and culture of the Old North, though I think I prefer the wonderfully forthright prose of the Icelandic Sagas by just a hair.
zachlittrell's review against another edition
4.0
Patricia Terry's translation is a delight and makes reading Norse poetry about as fun as it must've been hearing it in the past. She gives equal love to Odin's challenge of wits with a giant, a captured warrior bravely accepting his fate being thrown into a snakepit, or Loki getting really really drunk and making fun of Njord for being taken hostage and a buncha serving-maids um..."squatted over you / made water into your mouth."
It sags a little in the middle when it goes over the endless list of overlapping lays all about the tragedy of Sigurd and Brynhild, and if you don't care about that story...you're in for a long ride. But I think it's a great credit to the original poets and Terry's readable translation that every single time I went from "ah jeez, more of this hunh?" to "oh wow, this is fun!" even when we were talking about what characters were doing LONG after Sigurd and Brynhild were dead.
It sags a little in the middle when it goes over the endless list of overlapping lays all about the tragedy of Sigurd and Brynhild, and if you don't care about that story...you're in for a long ride. But I think it's a great credit to the original poets and Terry's readable translation that every single time I went from "ah jeez, more of this hunh?" to "oh wow, this is fun!" even when we were talking about what characters were doing LONG after Sigurd and Brynhild were dead.
ceadda's review against another edition
4.0
(Hollander's Translation)
A difficult book to rate. I enjoyed the first third of the poems, having to do with the gods and giants, but I suspect this was only because I was already familiar with these myths and could follow along.
The last two-thirds of the poems have to do with the heroic legends that partly inspired Wagner's Ring Cycle. I wish I had read a prose version of this story first as the poetic version(s) was hard to follow. Especially since the story was chopped up among 20 different poems each telling different parts of the story (with lots of overlap), some focusing on different characters, with sometimes contradictory versions of the narrative. If it wasn't for the translators explanations I might not have realized it was a single story. I didn't enjoy this section of the book as much, mostly because of the repetition (Betrayal! Revenge murder! Repeat!) I was glad when it was over.
The very last poem was just a list of dwarves mostly cribbed from The Hobbit.
I believe that the skalds who composed these poems expected their audience to be already familiar with the myths and legends depicted as the stories are very sparsely and artistically told with many sudden unexplained jumps in setting or character. I had the feeling while reading these poems as if I was reading a play minus the stage directions, that a lot of the action was being depicted by actors I couldn't see so that I was missing a great deal of what was happening in the story. I would have been completely and utterly lost without the footnotes.
I read this book as part of National Poetry Month (April) 2015.
A difficult book to rate. I enjoyed the first third of the poems, having to do with the gods and giants, but I suspect this was only because I was already familiar with these myths and could follow along.
The last two-thirds of the poems have to do with the heroic legends that partly inspired Wagner's Ring Cycle. I wish I had read a prose version of this story first as the poetic version(s) was hard to follow. Especially since the story was chopped up among 20 different poems each telling different parts of the story (with lots of overlap), some focusing on different characters, with sometimes contradictory versions of the narrative. If it wasn't for the translators explanations I might not have realized it was a single story. I didn't enjoy this section of the book as much, mostly because of the repetition (Betrayal! Revenge murder! Repeat!) I was glad when it was over.
The very last poem was just a list of dwarves mostly cribbed from The Hobbit.
I believe that the skalds who composed these poems expected their audience to be already familiar with the myths and legends depicted as the stories are very sparsely and artistically told with many sudden unexplained jumps in setting or character. I had the feeling while reading these poems as if I was reading a play minus the stage directions, that a lot of the action was being depicted by actors I couldn't see so that I was missing a great deal of what was happening in the story. I would have been completely and utterly lost without the footnotes.
I read this book as part of National Poetry Month (April) 2015.
thebadwitch's review against another edition
5.0
love this translation- only read the Lays of The Gods, will return to the heros another time.