The Poetic Edda Volume II by Ursula Dronke - 9780198111818

The Poetic Edda Volume IIMythological Poems\nAuthor(s): Ursula Dronke\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Oxford University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Clarendon Press\nISBN-13: 9780198111818, 978-0198111818\nSynopsis\nThis volume presents a wholly new edition of five of the most brilliant and celebrated poems of the Poetic Edda: 'The Sibyl's Prophecy', 'The Rigmarole of Rigr', 'Wayland's Poem', 'Skirnir's Lay', and 'Loki's Quarrel'. New textual readings and interpretations are established. New light is shed on the Franks Casket and on King Alfred's interest in Wayland; new links are found between the Viking and Christian worlds. A close translation accompanies the text to give the non-specialist reader a transparent and rhythmic sense of the original. For each poem the sequence of ideas is traced in the introduction and the interpretation substantiated by a detailed commentary. Much consideration is given to the themes of the poems and the ancient ideas in which they are rooted: analo.