This translation of the Poetic Edda is titled 'The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore', and the material contained within is frequently referred to as 'viking lore' throughout. Unfortunately, Orchard's translation not only continues most of the problems found in Larrington's translation, but also introduces a variety of new issues. Specifically I had hoped that Orchard's 2011 Penguin Classics translation would be a superior alternative to Carolyne Larrington's commonly available Oxford World's Classics translation (titled 'The Poetic Edda' and first published in 1996). PLEASE NOTE: Due to poor organization of translations on this website, I must note that this is a review of Andy Orchard's translation of the 'Poetic Edda', which he has titled 'The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore'.īeing familiar with Andy Orchard's handbook on Norse mythology ('Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend', 1997) and finding it to be a nice middle ground between Rudolf Simek's deeply flawed handbook and the limited scope of John Lindow's own, it was with high hopes that I waited for Andy Orchard's 2011 English translation of the Poetic Edda, or, alternately, as Orchard has chosen to go with here, the 'Elder Edda'. Their collection of poems known as the Elder Edda provides a priceless but incomplete and partial sampling of the great period of Old Norse poetry. Following his lead, anonymous compilers recorded the fragments of their ancient poetic tradition. The great Icelandic historian Snorri Strurluson, who died in 1241, led the way in recording his native traditions by compiling a handbook of pre-Christian Norse lore known as The Prose Edda, or the younger Edda. For the most part, they are the survivals of an oral culture of the tenth century, but we know them only as they were written down by antiquarian Christian scribes in the Thirteenth century. The lays were a product of the pre-Christian Norse culture of Norway and Iceland. Fair Fame is their chief subject, and such has been the potency of their words of praise that Odin the god, Sigurd the hero, and Brynhild the Valkyrie still live even into our modern popular culture. The poems that are here so vividly translated by Patricia Terry unfold the traditional lore of the Norsemen concerning their gods and heroes. Audiobook version of the 1990 Patricia Terry translation.

Edda by Unknown