I'm not sure why I hadn't noticed this thread before, I've been chewing through the Hollander edition of the Prose Edda for the past month or so and am a bit over half way through it. Chewy stuff. The later half seems to get more into variations of Sigurd's tale, which I'm less interested in having read Volsung and having a good covering already of Neiblungun (sp). But at this point, I've come to enjoy the kennings and general poetic style enough to continue anyway. Its great stuff. I especially love how the gods are rarely given direct names. They're always referred to by a descriptive title. Odin, for example, might be Wanderer in one stanza and All-Wise in the next. But if you want a good grounding in the mythology, the Edda is the place for it. Snorri's Edda is a later work that summarizes the mythology, mostly taken from Voluspa and Havamal, and is an easier read. There's also an interesting interpretation of the Eddas from a Theosophic point of view in Titchenell's The Masks of Odin which I found to be a helpful addition to Hollander's notes, though you have to sift the Theosophic theories to taste.
I've read Hrafnkel's, that was short and fun. Vinlander is next in my queue, and then I plan to get to Njal's, which I've only just found a copy of.
If you haven't read Volsung or Sigurd's saga, that's another classic. Its also the Neiblungun in German, the story Wagner abused into his Ring Cycle opera (Das Rhinegold). You'll find bits of it familiar from a lot of the mythologic lays. In short, its the story of Sigur slaying the dragon Fafnir, the cursed Rhine Gold, and Brunhilde. Spear and magic HEL-met!
I haven't had a chance to read Beowulf yet. Is Heaney's the edition to get, or does anyone have better recommendations?
How on earth did they manage to link Thor with Jesus
Actually, its less linking Thor with Jesus as it is linking God with Odin. It then follows that God's charasmatic son popular with the common folk must be just another version of Thor, even if his myth bears closer resemblence to that of Odin's other son, Baldur. I guess it shows about how much attention the old Islanders were paying to the Christians at the time, eh?
Though I do have a question for anyone here. Throughout the Eddas, there are references to the elves (or Alfs). But unlike the Dwarves, who have a catelog of names and appear frequently as characters, there seems to be little detail on the elves. In fact, the only one to show up that I've seen so far is Volund the Smith, who builds himseld a flying chariot to escape from an analog of king Minos. The kennings link them to light and the sun, there are bits like "elves discern" and perspectives in the namings in Allvismal, but little in the way of detail on what the heck they are and their place in the cosmic scheme of things other than Frey being in charge of their realm. Clearly, Tolkien had an interpretation, but I'm curious about actual references if anyone is aware of anything useful in that regard. |
