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A review by aeudaimonia
The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún by J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Rating this book - Tolkien's poetic reworking of the Old Norse lays (with supplemental information from the Prose Sagas) - is frankly beyond my intellectual capacity. 5 stars for my time and trouble! Before you begin, please read the introduction(s). You won't understand anything that's happening otherwise, and you won't understand why you don't understand (Norse skaldic verse is obscure and troublesome by design). Secondly, read it out loud! Tolkien went to great lengths to make it read like poetry rather than a mere translation. Silent reading, I think, actively diminishes the artistry and makes it harder to understand.
Additionally, for anyone nervous about the length of the book, the lays themselves are relatively short; the bulk of the page count goes to the introduction and commentaries on both the Völsungakvida and the Gudrúnarkvida. Consult them liberally! Christopher Tolkien took great pains to make his father's work intellectually accessible to Norse amateurs. Apologies for my unusual bossiness in this review but I love and appreciate this work so, so much.
Additionally, for anyone nervous about the length of the book, the lays themselves are relatively short; the bulk of the page count goes to the introduction and commentaries on both the Völsungakvida and the Gudrúnarkvida. Consult them liberally! Christopher Tolkien took great pains to make his father's work intellectually accessible to Norse amateurs. Apologies for my unusual bossiness in this review but I love and appreciate this work so, so much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Incest