Written in Venom

Written in Venom

Author: Lois Tilton

Publisher: Wildside Press LLC

Published: 2000-04-01

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1587151197

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Retelling of the Norse myth cycle from the point of view of Loki, the trickster god.


Odinn's Child

Odinn's Child

Author: Tim Severin

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2011-08-19

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 0330527282

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Odinn's Child by Tim Severin is the stunning first volume in the captivating Viking trilogy - an epic historical adventure in a world full of Norse mythology and bloodthirsty battles. Our story begins in the year 1001 and the toddler, Thorgils Leiffson, son of Leif the Lucky and Thorgunna, arrives on the shores of Brattahlid in Greenland to be brought up in the foster care of a young woman - Gudrid. Thorgils is a rootless character of quicksilver intelligence and adaptability. He has inherited his mother’s ability of second sight and his destiny lies beyond the imagination of those around him. Virtually orphaned, he is raised by various mentors, who teach him the ancient ways and warn him of the invasion of the ‘White Christ’ into the land of the ‘Old Gods’. Thorgils is guided by a restless quest for adventure and the wanderlust of his favoured god, Odinn. His fortunes take him into many dangerous situations as well as to the brink of death by execution, in battle, disease and shipwreck . . .


The Words of Odin

The Words of Odin

Author: Robin Artisson

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2016-12-19

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9781541141513

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What is best for human beings in this human life? What does it mean to be a friend, and how are friendships best made and maintained? What are the best things humans can treasure, and how can they most easily secure them? In a strange world full of dangers, what strategies are best for getting through safely, and how was the greatest wisdom in the world won? "The Words of Odin" is a modern rendition of the ancient book Havamal- the words of advice given to human beings from the God of Wisdom himself, long ago. Filled with the ancient wisdom-sayings, proverbs, and stories of the Old Norse people, Havamal is a tried-and-true manual of wise living and cunning strategy for navigating the subtle complexities of human interaction and avoiding dangers of all sorts. Travelers, wanderers, guests, friends, and seekers of the ultimate wisdom within human life can benefit from Odin's perennial cleverness and timeless advice. This annotated edition contains a clear and nuanced rendering of Havamal into English, preserving its original poetic richness, and is followed by many detailed and informative notes regarding the cultural, mythological, and historical background from which the verses of wisdom arise, all to help readers from any background to understand the beauty and depth of the text. It also contains the text of Havamal in Old Norse.


Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures

Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic, and Anglo-Norman Literatures

Author: Richard North

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-11-26

Total Pages: 1415

ISBN-13: 1000154084

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures provides a scholarly and accessible introduction to the literature which was the inspiration for many of the heroes of modern popular culture, from The Lord of the Rings to The Chronicles of Narnia, and which set the foundations of the English language and its literature as we know it today. Edited, translated and annotated by the editors of Beowulf and Other Stories, the anthology introduces readers to the rich and varied literature of Britain, Scandinavia and France of the period in and around the Viking Age. Ranging from the Old English epic Beowulf through to the Anglo-Norman texts which heralded the transition Middle English, thematically organised chapters present elegies, eulogies, laments and followed by material on the Viking Wars in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Vikings gods and Icelandic sagas, and a final chapter on early chivalry introduces the new themes and forms which led to Middle English literature, including Arthurian Romances and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Laying out in parallel text format selections from the most important Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman works, this anthology presents translated and annotated texts with useful bibliographic references, prefaced by a headnote providing useful background and explanation.


The Maiden with the Mead

The Maiden with the Mead

Author: Maria Kvilhaug

Publisher: The Three Little Sisters

Published: 2023-09-22

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1959350064

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Students of the Poetic Edda have long ignored a seemingly unassuming, yet most important mythical character: Namely the mead-offering Maiden that appears at the heart of many a myth and heroic legend. This study shows how the Maiden with the Mead appears at the climax of a ritual structure within the myths - a structure that clearly is based on Pagan initiation rituals.


Pagan Words and Christian Meanings

Pagan Words and Christian Meanings

Author: Richard North

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9004454969

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An evolution of attitudes towards pre-Christian custom in , North-West Europe, as shown in early .medieval word-fields and texts in Old English and Old Icelandic literature, is represented in six variously focussed studies. The first three chapters, Pagan Words, form a network of research on pre-Christian concepts of mind and soul as they survived, still active, in Christianized heroic poetry. This was part of. the heathen matrix through which the first expressions of Christianity in Old English and Icelandic literature were possible. The second half of this book, Christian Meanings, shows .how the same Christian literature produced reinterpretations of paganism. The literary range stretches from the earliest epic formulae to the polished genealogical novels of thirteenth-century Iceland- An ancient tradition of augury is invoked by the poet of The Seafarer to illustrate a believer's passage to heaven. In Havamal, an artificially pagan creed of ritual teaching and responses is compiled in Iceland as an antiquarian entertainment, perhaps on a Christian model. The last chapter shows a variety of Christian interpretations of, paganism in four sagas of Icelanders from the early to late thirteenth century. Overall where paganism was concerned, the tendency was first to cast off a way of life, then later, when that life was lost forever, to reinvent it for the imagination.


A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics

A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics

Author: Margaret Clunies Ross

Publisher: DS Brewer

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1843842793

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Accessible guide to and description of the medieval poetic tradition in Scandinavia. This is the first book in English to deal with the twin subjects of Old Norse poetry and the various vernacular treatises on native poetry that were a conspicuous feature of medieval intellectual life in Iceland and the Orkneys from the mid-twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. Its aim is to give a clear description of the rich poetic tradition of early Scandinavia, particularly in Iceland, where it reached its zenith, and to demonstrate the social contextsthat favoured poetic composition, from the oral societies of the early Viking Age in Norway and its colonies to the devout compositions of literate Christian clerics in fourteenth-century Iceland. The author analyses the two dominant poetic modes, eddic and skaldic, giving fresh examples of their various styles and subjects; looks at the prose contexts in which most Old Norse poetry has been preserved; and discusses problems of interpretation thatarise because of the poetry's mode of transmission. She is concerned throughout to link indigenous theory with practice, beginning with the pre-Christian ideology of poets as favoured by the god ódinn and concluding with the Christian notion that a plain style best conveys the poet's message. Margaret Clunies Ross is McCaughey Professor of English Language and Early English Literature and Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Sydney.


The Poetic Edda

The Poetic Edda

Author: Edward Pettit

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2023-03-03

Total Pages: 730

ISBN-13: 1800647751

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is an edition and translation of one of the most important and celebrated sources of Old Norse-Icelandic mythology and heroic legend, namely the medieval poems now known collectively as the Poetic Edda or Elder Edda. Included are thirty-six texts, which are mostly preserved in medieval manuscripts, especially the thirteenth-century Icelandic codex traditionally known as the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda. The poems cover diverse subjects, including the creation, destruction and rebirth of the world, the dealings of gods such as Óðinn, Þórr and Loki with giants and each other, and the more intimate, personal tragedies of the hero Sigurðr, his wife Guðrún and the valkyrie Brynhildr. Each poem is provided with an introduction, synopsis and suggestions for further reading. The Old Norse texts are furnished with a textual apparatus recording the manuscript readings behind this edition’s emendations, as well as select variant readings. The accompanying translations, informed by the latest scholarship, are concisely annotated to make them as accessible as possible. As the first open-access, single-volume parallel Old Norse edition and English translation of the Poetic Edda, this book will prove a valuable resource for students and scholars of Old Norse literature. It will also interest those researching other fields of medieval literature (especially Old English and Middle High German), and appeal to a wider general audience drawn to the myths and legends of the Viking Age and subsequent centuries.