The Edda

by Anthony Faulkes

English, Norwegian

Genres: Classics

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second part of Snorri Sturluson's Edda is called Skáldskaparmál (something like "language of the skald-shaper"). When I finished the first part, Gylfaginning, I was feeling pretty good about my Old Norse skills. I could read extended passages pretty fluently, with occasional recourse to the glossary in the back of the book. But the skaldic poetry of Skáldskaparmál presented huge challenges. First of all the bards use a lot of poetic words that don't appear in prose contexts. And then there are the kennings. These often come with multiple layers. For instance, where in prose you might say, "The ship crossed the sea," in skaldic poetry you would say something like, "The wooden steed cut through Aegir's daughters on the whale-road." It was often necessary to look up every single word of a four-line poem, to make sure I knew which words went with which other words. Fortunately, Anthony Faulkes's notes and glossary to this 2-volume edition are extremely helpful in this regard. He offers his interpretation of the meaning, but also notes when other scholars have a different interpretation. Faulkes is often willing to join words into kennings even when they are widely spaced in the poem, while others are more likely to alter the text slightly to make simpler readings possible.

Snorri created Skáldskaparmál to illustrate how older poets created kennings. As a result, he is usually quoting passages out of context from larger poems. This also adds to the difficulty in grasping the meaning, though Faulkes in the notes attempts to link verses that originally came from the same poem. Most of the verses come in skaldic form, an intricate scheme of alliteration and internal rhyme. But there are a few that use end-rhyming couplets, similar to our sense of generic English poetry. And then at the end of the section, there are lists of "thula," basically synonyms for various poetic elements, like ships, weapons, oxen, men, women, etc. After a long, difficult journey through the skaldic verses, these came as both a relief and an anticlimax.

I couldn't imagine digging into this work without Anthony Faulkes's edition. It gives the student/reader exactly what you need to know to make sense of this poetry. I also have to say I can't imagine that it is possible to translate this poetry satisfactorily. The tangled web of meanings and poetic skill can only be appreciated in Old Norse. On to the Háttatal!