The "Elder" or "Poetic" Edda is the modern name for a set of Old Norse mythological (mainly about gods) and heroic (mainly about humans) poems, found in a limited number of Icelandic manuscripts, the most important of which is damaged, and missing pages, and does not agree with other copies, and quotations in other medieval texts. The exact list of poems included varies slightly, with editors and translators having a little leeway. The "World's Classics" series from Oxford University Press finally included a translation of this famous collection in its list in 1997; it has since been reprinted in the slightly refurbished and renamed series of "Oxford World's Classics."
{Perhaps I should add that, like five earlier reviewers, I have taken for granted the importance and high literary quality of the Elder Edda, and concentrated on whether this particular translation is worth your time -- and money.}
Although some reviewers have complained that Carolyne Larrington's translation is inaccurate, it has been favorably received by the academic community on the grounds of its exceptional accuracy. (It is on a Cambridge University syllabus too, although this may reflect, in part, its availability.)
Part of the problem may be that Larrington is following the 1983 revision of the Neckel-Kuhn text edition, without giving specific notice of all of its decisions on how to resolve contradictions in the manuscript evidence. (A reader who consults the notes at the end will find some of them, particularly regarding the ordering of stanzas.) Most previous translators produced eclectic versions, based on a variety of older editions, and often noting their own departures from the then-standard text editions. For those without access to the latest revised version of Kuhn's revision of Neckel's turn-of-the-century critical edition, Larrington's departures from the familiar are likely to seem arbitrary.
She also seems to be making full use of the latest in linguistic scholarship -- another reason for departing from familiar readings.
Of course, some of her translations may well be wrong -- translators have to make decisions among various options, and the format of this book does not allow for full discussions of such problems. Some problems have no easy answer; for example, there are lists of names, most of which, but not all, were chosen for their obvious meanings; should any of them be translated in the main text? I found many points on which I would differ, preferring the arguments advanced by other scholars, but any other amateur, but enthusiastic, reader could probably come up with an entirely different list. I appreciate having her version available.
What I find a more serious problem is that the translation is not really all that pleasant to read, and, although valuable to the serious student, is not likely to attract the merely curious. Despite being set up in stanzas, it is extremely prosy. This was probably the result of a decision to prefer precision to literary form, but, after comparing translations of sample passages going back to William Morris in the nineteenth century, I can't say that I am completely convinced. I could be wrong; I would not be astonished to find that someone fell in love with Old Norse literature through this version. But I do think that some older versions would serve this purpose better, despite many shortcomings, due in part to age.
I offer, as examples, two other complete versions in English. Henry Adams Bellows' translation (from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923) was at least interesting to read aloud, despite numerous shortcomings, both as a translation and as poetry. (It was out of print, except in a very expensive limited edition, but was available in digital form, and is being reprinted in its original two-volume format, at a much more reasonable price, by Dover; as of summer 2004, "Mythological Poems" has appeared.) Lee M. Hollander's attempt at an alliterative verse rendering (University of Texas, also 1923, second edition, 1962, and still in print in paperback) is sometimes a little hard to follow, but at least the reader is kept aware that the original is a metrical composition. (I once worked through a good part of Hollander's text-edition-for-students of "Seven Eddic Lays," so his translation seems to me comparatively clear -- and, allowing for some liberties due to meter, mostly very accurate, since it matches his editing and glossary!) Larrington's stanza divisions, by comparison, seem to be there strictly as points of reference.
Curiously, neither of these translations is mentioned, so far as I can see, anywhere in the present volume; nor is another, more recent, American translation, by Patricia Terry, which has undergone several revised printings. Larrington discusses in detail translations published in Britain, which is fair enough; but she somehow omits the expanded edition of Auden and Taylor's "The Elder Edda: A Selection" as "Norse Poems" (1981), which does contain the whole standard Eddic "canon."
(It should added that "The Poetry of the Elder Edda," by Andy Orchard, announced some time ago as forthcoming in Penguin Classics, has yet to appear, as of Fall 2005; some on-line sources now list it for Spring 2008! The first part of a five-volume text, translation and commentary by Ursula Dronke was published in 1969, but only reached the second -- superb -- volume in 1997, with nothing since. Work on a more manageable bi-lingual edition was recently announced by Edward Pettit on his "Leaves of Yggdrasill" site, raising hopes once again.)
