![]() ![]() Snorri comes up with countless of ways to refer to something or someone. In later chapters the poetry itself is what it is all about. In the Gylfaginning king Gylfi visits the Aesir to gain knowledge. The first two chapters are the most famous. Also he quotes poems that have not survived. ![]() As you might know, this Edda of Snorri is really a handbook for poets, but in his explaining of the meanings of passages, Snorri rattles up a massive number of myths, also a few that we do not know from other sources. Yet, both Otten and Faulkes left out a few untranslatable passages. Only Faulkes’ translation to English (which I happen to have) and now his own translation did not skip the lengthy lists of ‘kennings’ and Snorri’s test-of-strength concluding poem in which everything that he described in the previous chapters comes back. According to the preface, there are hardly any (near) complete translations of this book. This new translation comes in a luxery hardcover, Otten added the first 12 chapters of the Heimskringla as well (and he is said to have plans for the complete Heimskringla in Dutch) and made a large list of notes and a detailed index. Otten also translated the other Edda and many sagas. In a 1990’s book the most important parts have been translated in a book about Northern mythology, but I have never been able to lay my hands on a copy. In Dutch so far we had no translation of the “Snorra Edda” (also called “Prose Edda” or “younger Edda”). ![]()
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