Reviews

The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore by Unknown, Andy Orchard

jessesierra's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

4.0

marti4's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative medium-paced

4.0

morgcxn's review against another edition

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informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

lanceschaubert's review against another edition

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5.0

Where else can you find a joint source for half of Tolkien's names and a good chunk of Marvel comics?

The Poetic Edda is the crux of Norse mythology and I won't presume to aspire to heavy or valued literary criticism here. I appeal as a lay reader to lay readers – you need to work your way through this book as you would any classic piece. You need this book as source material for your own stories, as enjoyment for life, and as a platform upon which to build an understanding of modern stories.

As Lewis said in the intro to Athanasius:

"There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English literature that if the average student wants to find out something about platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of �lato off the library shelf and read the symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. �ut if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what �lato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worh acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.

"This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology. Wherever you find a little study circle of Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are studying not St. Luke or St. Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Booker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M. Maritain or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even myself.

"Now this seems to me topsy-turvy. Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. �t has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books. If you join at eleven o'clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why—the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point. In the same way sentences in a modern book which look quite ordinary may be directed at some other book; in this way you may be led to accept what you would have indignantly rejected if you knew its real significance. The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity ("mere Christianity" as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones."

It goes on, but that's enough to say that reading the Poetic Edda is the easiest way to understand much of fantasy literature today. So read it, and then come back and let's discuss its influence.

starbuck1210's review against another edition

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5.0

I wanted to take my time reading each page of this book and I'm glad I spaced it out as long as I did. I would put it down and come back to it. I plan on doing another read sometime in the near future where I actually study what is going on in each poem. I chose this translation based on reviews I had read online of reliable copies and I would say that I agree with these opinions. As I cannot read the original language (at this time) I depend on the translator to get it right context wise. I enjoyed this copy because there were other poems included that were not included in the Codex Regius. Overall great translation and a nice little paperback copy I can carry around with me. If you've been thinking of reading some Norse Mythology, the Edda is for sure the place to start and I highly recommend this edition.

bluestjuice's review against another edition

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3.0

It's a mixed bag. This volume is a collection of (primarily Icelandic, although there are arguments about this) Scandinavian poetry, dating from probably about 900 to as late as 1400. Like most works that arise in an oral tradition, there is a lot of argument about when each piece is actually dated from, and of course the date at which it was composed may not correspond well with the date at which it was written down. Additionally, many of the poems have likely been modified many times over the intervening years, and there are lots of footnotes which try to make sense of these possibilities, and also give context and meaning to the many names and mythological references herein. Constantly referring to footnotes makes reading this less pleasurable than it could be, but it's also true that for the most part, the poetry is not complex, and the particular style of the verses tends to repeat lines over and over and over again in a way that is not my favorite (but is excellent for memorizing poems). My favorite pieces were the Hovamol, a collection of proverbs which seem surprisingly applicable for being 1000+ years old, and the Lokasenna, which features a spry smack-talk argument between Loki and the rest of the Aesir. I want to translate/abbreviate it into modern English in the worst way.

topher804's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

dr_matthew_lloyd's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative slow-paced

5.0

queenaries's review against another edition

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5.0

A little confusing but nevertheless important mythology information if you’re going into Norse paganism or working with Norse deities

dee9401's review against another edition

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5.0

I picked this volume up serendipitously, as part of a trade at one of my local used book stores. This was a fantastic volume. I'd never read any Norse mythology or epic poetry, only the snippets I'd picked up in comic books or movies. This was so much better and having read reams of Greek and Roman mythology and epics, it was cool to see the various similarities we humans have in explaining the world around us.

Several of the poems reminded me of Hesiod's Theogony (e.g. The Seeress's Prophesy, Vafthrudnir's Sayings, Grimnir's Sayings) as well as his Works and Days (e.g. The Sayings of the High One). The former when the Poetic Edda covers the history of the universe and the gods and people in it; the latter when it covers morals, duties, social contracts, and such. The Lay of Atli & the Greenlandic Poem of Atli were had similar instances to the Atreus and Thyestes dining "fiasco." I also saw the idea of asking for a decent burial from the one who kills you, like Hector asking Achilles in the Iliad, in the Greenlandic Poem of Atli (Verse 102-4, p. 233).

I loved the creation myth in the Seeress's Prophecy, especially this: "From the south, Sun, companion of the moon, / threw her right hand round the edge of the heaven, / Sun did not know where her hall might be, / the stars did not know where their place might be, / the moon did not know what power he had" (Verse 5, p. 4).

The Sayings of the High Ones had many useful nuggets, many of which pop up throughout the world and throughout time as useful aphorisms. For example: "The foolish man lies awake all night / and worries about things; / he's tired out when the morning comes / and everything's just as bad as it was" (Verse 23, p. 17). Also, on gluttony, we have: "Cattle know when they ought to go home, / and then they leave the pasture; / but the foolish man never knows / the measure of his own stomach" (Verse 21, p. 17). Finally, in today's world, this is still sage advice: "You should never bandy words / with a stupid fool" (Verse 122, p. 31).

The translation by Carolyne Larrington was wonderful. Her general introduction and the introductions to each poem were short, fantastic and eminently useful.