Norse-lit-bib - 5/18/01 Bibliography of Norse literature by Mistress Gunnora Hallakarva. NOTE: See also the files: Norse-msg, books-Norse-msg, Norse-crafts-bib, Norse-women-bib, V-Arts-and-A-art, Norse-games-art, pst-Vik-Norse-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Subject: From the Norsefolk List Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 21:26:15 -0000 From: "Gunnora Hallakarva" Subject: Old Norse Poetry, Sayings and Stories --- In Norsefolk at egroups.com, lambb77 at h... wrote: > Hello. I have a question to ask. Is thare a good source for Viking > era poems, sayings and short storys out thare? Im very interested > in Viking era writings. Thank you. I'm going to give some general info about various types of Old Norse literature below, as well as a good many links to the small portions available on-line. Start with the on-line materials, but don't forget to check your library or bookstore for some of the books -- the on-line materials, due to copyright restriuctions, are usually very old translations, and not everything is available on-line. Also, please note, that I have not listed every title possibly available, neither the titles of the Viking works nor of modern translations. This is an introduction! (1) Viking Poetry ================== There are, in general, three main types of Viking poetry. The first is Eddaic poetry, which is found in the Prose Edda. Eddaic verse is anonymous and is composed in relatively simple language and meters. The themes are mythical or drawn from heroic legends. Stanzas vary in number of lines within the same poem. Another source which is not, strictly speaking, poetry is the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. In the Prose Edda, Snorri was trying to create a manual explaining the mechanics of Viking poetry, including the mythological tales, meters, kennings, and so forth. This was to help others to understand the old poetry, but also to help poets who came later to create Old Norse poetry in the same style. Eddaic Poetry ------------- * The Poetic Edda Lee M. Hollander, trans. Poetic Edda. Austin. Univ. of Texas Press. 1962. 2ns Revised edition, 1986. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0292764995/thevikinganswerl Carolyne Larrington, trans. The Poetic Edda. World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192839462/thevikinganswerl Henry Adams Bellows, trans. The Poetic Edda. Edwin Mellen Press. 1991. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0889467838/thevikinganswerl The Poetic Edda http://members.aol.com/cbsunny/poetic_edda.html Havamal http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/4178/havamal.html http://www.nenne.com/nordicway/havamal2.html * The Prose Edda Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. trans. Jean I. Young. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1954. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520012321/thevikinganswerl Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. trans. Anthony Faulkes. Everyman Paperback Classics. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0460876163/thevikinganswerl http://members.aol.com/cbsunny/prose_edda.html The second type of Viking poetry is skaldic verse. Skaldic poms are usually attributed to named poets and many of them are praise poems made for a specific jarl or king. Skaldic meters follow strict rules and can be very complex in structure, and the language used is often convoluted, kenning-rich, and a challenge for those unversed in the poetic tradition to understand without footnotes. A kenning is a riddling reference to one item or concept which does not name it directly, but rather suggests it by the elliptical way in which the subject is spoken of, which causes the listener or reader to visualize the intended concept. An example of a simple kenning is "wound-wand", which is a sword, or "raven's-mead", which is blood, usually of men slain in battle. A complex kenning uses several layers of allusion. A two-level complex kenning might be, "ice of the hawk's land" -- "the hawk's land" is the wrist, and "ice of the wrist" is a silver bracelet. A three-level complex kenning might be, "chariot-Vidur of wondrous- wide ground of Endil" is similarly deciphered. Endil is the name of a legendary sea-king. "The sea-king's ground" therefore is the ocean. This gives us "Chariot-Vidur of the ocean," which can also be read as "Vidur of the chariot of the ocean." "Chariot of the ocean" is a ship, giving us "Vidur of the ship." Vidur is one of the heiti or alternate names of Odinn, and here is used to mean "god." The "god of a ship" is its captain. Kennings can be even more complex than these, but a good translation will usually include footnotes explaining them. Skaldic Poetry -------------- Bragi Boddason's Ragnarsdrápa. Includes several variants of the Old Norse text, as well as translation. http://cd1.fisher.su.oz.au/pubotbin/drapa?view=formonly Lee M. Hollander, trans. The Skalds: A Selection of their Poems with Introduction and Notes. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1945. Roberta Frank. Old Norse Court Poetry. The Dróttkvætt Stanza. Islandica 42. Ithaca NY. 1978. Out-of-print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801410606/thevikinganswerl E.O.G. Turville-Petre. Scaldic Poetry. Oxford. 1976. Out-of-print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0198125178/thevikinganswerl Russell Poole. Skaldic Poetry in the Sagas. PhD Dissertation. Toronto. 1975. May be ordered from University Microfilms Inc. Russell Poole. Skaldic Verse and Anglo-Saxon History: Some Aspects of the Period 1009-1016." Speculum 62 (1987) pp. 265-298. Dick Ringler. Formal Features of Jónas Hallgrímsson's Poetry and the Present Verse Translations. 1996-1998. http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/Jonas/Prosody/Prosody-I.html Webpage accessed 29 Sept 2000. Contains an excellent description of the features of skaldic poetry. I'm also eagerly awaiting a book being written by Mistress Brynhildr jarla Kormaksdottir, "Women Skalds: Voices from the Medieval North". She has it about half done, says her webpage. The third type of Viking poetry are the Rune Poems. The rune poems are usually composed with a stanza for each of the runes, and we think that these stanzas explain a bit about the meaning the runes had in terms of divination. Rune Poems ---------- Bruce Dickins. Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples. Cambridge. 1915. The Rune Poems http://members.aol.com/cbsunny/rune_poems.html (2) Viking Sayings ================== The formal term for "sayings" is "gnomic wisdom". The Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible is one example of this type of literature. The Vikings also had similar literature. Certain sayings occur in various places throughout the sagas and Eddas, but there is one collection that really contains the greatest number of "Viking sayings" in one place. This would be the poem "Havamal", which is a part of the Poetic Edda. See the citations above under "Eddaic Poetry". (3) Viking Short Stories ======================== The Vikings didn't really write short stories, at least not in the sense that we use the term today. Their prose literature was mostly written down after the close of the Viking Age, and it is generally thought that prior to that time these stories circulated orally. There are three types of prose literature, generally speaking, these being the saga, which can range in length from what we'd consider a short story up to a novel, the þattr, which is generally a fairly short story, and often makes up a small part of a longer saga, and histories, which often resemble collections of sagas. All three types may have a basis in history, but should be understood to be "historical fiction" and not undisputed fact. There are also stories that revolve around mythical and fantastic elements as well. One good way of locating translations is to look in a bibliography. There may be newer ones by now, or supplements, but the one I know of is: Fry, Donald K. Norse Sagas Translated into English: A Bibliography. New York: AMS Press. 1980. Out-of-print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0404180167/thevikinganswerl Below I've listed a number of print and on-line sources. Often there are several sources containing the same tale. The listings are headed with an asterisk followed by the Old Norse name for the story, then any sources for the story that I happen to be aware of. * Bandamanna Saga (The Saga of the Confederates) Palsson, Hermann, trans. The Confederates and Hen-Thorir. (Bandamanna Saga and Hænsa-Þóris Saga). Edinburgh: Southside. 1975. Out-of- print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0900025182/thevikinganswerl * Egils saga Skallagrimssonar (The Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson) Fell, Christine, trans. Egil's Saga. London: J.M. Dent & Sons. 1975. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0460872656/thevikinganswerl Palsson, Hermann and Paul Edwards, trans. Egil's Saga. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1976. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140443215/thevikinganswerl * Eirîks saga Rauða (The Saga of Eric the Red) Jones, Gwyn, trans. The Norse Atlantic Saga. 2cnd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 1986. Out-of-print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192851608/thevikinganswerl Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, trans. The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1965. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140441549/thevikinganswerl http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/north/nor-i/thule/017e.htm * Eyrbyggja Saga (The Saga of the Ere-Dwellers) Palsson, Hermann and Paul Edwards, trans. Eyrbyggja Saga. Buffalo: University of Toronto Press. 1973. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140445307/thevikinganswerl http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/EreDwellers/ * Faereyinga Saga (The Faroe Islanders' Saga) Johnston, George, trans. The Faroe Islanders' Saga. Canada. Oberon Press. 1975. Out-of-print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887501362/thevikinganswerl * Gautreks Saga Palsson, Hermann and Paul Edwards, trans. Gautrek's Saga and Other Medieval Tales. New York: New York University Press. 1968. Out-of- print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/034009396X/thevikinganswerl * Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus (History of the Danes) http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/DanishHistory/ * Gisla saga Surssonar (The Saga of Gisli) Johnston, George, trans. Gisla saga Surssonar (The Saga of Gisli). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1959. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802062199/thevikinganswerl * Grettir's Saga (The Saga of Grettir the Strong) http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Grettir/ http://www.luth.se/luth/present/sweden/history/lit/grettir/ * Hænsa-Þóris Saga (The Saga of Hen-Thorir) Palsson, Hermann, trans. The Confederates and Hen-Thorir. (Bandamanna Saga and Hænsa-Þóris Saga). Edinburgh: Southside. 1975. Out-of- print, to have Amazon.com do a book search for it go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0900025182/thevikinganswerl * Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson (Chronicle of the Kings of Norway) Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla: Or the Lives of the Norse Kings. 1932; New York: Dover. 1990. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486263665/thevikinganswerl http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/ * Heitharviga Saga (The Saga of the Heath-Slayings) http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heitharviga/ * Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoði (The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey's-Priest) Palsson, Hermann, trans. Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories. New York: Penguin. 1983. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140442383/thevikinganswerl http://www.harborside.com/~vanfam5/ox/hsaga.htm * Kormak's Saga (The Saga of Kormak the Skald) Hollander, Lee M., trans. The Sagas of Kormak and the Sworn Brothers. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. 1949. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Cormac/ http://www.luth.se/luth/present/sweden/history/lit/cormac/ * Laxdaela Saga Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, trans. Laxdaela Saga. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1969. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140442189/thevikinganswerl http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Laxdaela/ * Njal's Saga (also Brennu-Njals Saga, or The Saga of Burn Njal) Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, trans. Njal's Saga. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1960. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140441034/thevikinganswerl http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Njal/ * Orkneyingasaga (Saga of the Earls or Orkney) Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, trans. Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney. New York: Penguin. 1978. Reprint 1985. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140443835/thevikinganswerl * Sturlunga Saga McGrew, Julia H. and R. George Thomas, trans. Sturlunga Saga. 2 vols. New York: Twayne. 1970 and 1974. To order from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805733647/thevikinganswerl * Vatnsdoela Saga. (Saga of the Men of Water-Dales) Jones, Gwyn, trans. The Vatnsdaler's Saga. New York: Princeton University Press. 1944. * Volsungasaga (The Saga of the Volsungs) http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Volsunga/ I think this should be enough to get you started! ::GUNNORA:: Edited by Mark S. Harris Norse-lit-bib Page 7 of 7