Eddic to English

GUÐBRANDUR VIGFÚSSON & F. YORK POWELL, 1883

Corpus Poeticum Boreale, vol. 1 & 2
Henry Frowde (Clarendon Press)
724 pages

This translation is in the public domain:
Download volume one here and volume two here from Archive.org

 

Translated poems (39):

Codex Regius (31)
Vǫluspá, Hávamál, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál, Skírnismál, Hárbarðsljóð, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Vǫlundarkviða, Alvíssmál, Frá dauða Sinfjǫtla, Grípisspá, Reginsmál, Fáfnismál, Sigrdrífumál, Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Helreið Brynhildar, Dráp Niflunga, Oddrúnargrátr, Atlakviða, Atlamál, Guðrúnarhvǫt, Hamðismál, Helgakviða Hundingsbana (I, II), Helgakviða Hjǫrvarðssonar, Guðrúnarkviða (I, II, III) 

Non-Codex Regius (7)
Hrafnagaldr Óðins, Sólarljóð, Svipdagsmál, Baldrs draumar, Rígsþula, Hyndluljóð, Grottasǫngr

Other notable contents: As discussed below, Guðbrandur Vigfússon and York Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale contains numerous translations beyond the scope of Eddic to English. However, discussion frequently harks back to eddic material. In turn, essentially everything in these two volumes connects in some manner with eddic material.
Introduction page length: N/A
Note format: Footnotes and endnotes
Dual Edition? Yes
Rendering: jǫtunn = "giant" (cf. p. 22), þurs = "ogre" (cf. p. 112)
Censorship: Yes (cf. p. 106)
Original illustrations? No

 

I. tRANsLATION SAMPLeS

a.) Vǫluspá (p. I. 195):

I know an Ash, a high-towering Holy Tree, called Yggdrasil [Woden’s steed, gallows], besprinkled with white loam; whence came the dew that falls in the dales.

b.) Helgakviða Hundingsbana II (p. I. 143):

Sigrun goes out to meet her dead lord, and falls upon his neck and kisses him, saying: I am as glad to meet thee as are the greedy hawks of Woden when they scent the slain, their warm prey, or dew-spangled espy the brows of dawn.

c.) Rígsþula (p. I. 242):

Earl capped spells with Righ, he overcame him by cunning, and outdid him. Then he came into his heritage and got the surname of Righ the Spell-wise.

 

II. Reviews

  • Hollander, Lee M. 1919. “Concerning a Proposed Translation of the Edda” in Scandinavian Studies and Notes, vol. V, p. 197-201.

Excerpt:

The very respectable prose version of Vígfusson in Corpus Poeticum Boreale, made in 1884, is thoroughly antiquated. At best, it represented the frequently erratic and generally unacceptable theories of that brilliant scholar. It is on the market for those who can pay $30. It has not been, nor does it deserve to be, reprinted (p. 197).

  • Simpson, Jacqueline. 1975. Review of Lawrence E. Thompson’s edition (see discussion in Observations below). Folklore, vol. 86, no. 1, Spring 1975, p. 64-65.

Review text:

This book contrives to get the worst of all worlds. It offers an unaltered reprint of translations of thirty-one Eddiac poems published by Gudbrandur Vigfusson and F. York Powel in 1883, and therefore suffers from their stilted diction, unattractive lay-out, unauthentic 'stage directions', and highly eccentric treatment of proper names. But their textual apparatus and commentaries, which might have had some historic interest, have been removed; instead, the new editor prefaces each poem with one paragraph of simplistic commentary. There are no notes, no bibliography, not one reference to any of the work that has been since 1883 on the textual, literary, and mythological problems of Edda. The student will find here only a raw literal translation, whi general reader will probably be both bored and bewildered.

  • Knirk, James E. 1975. Review of Lawrence E. Thompson’s edition (see discussion in Observations below). Scandinavian Studies, vol. 47, no. 2, p. 271-272.

Excerpt:

Thompson’s purpose in editing a prose translation of the Edda was “to provide access to the content rather than to the style and literary history” (p. 1). Unfortunately, the Vigfusson and Powell text is not appropriate for the task. Three types of lacunae exist in the original translation: real and assumed corruptions of the text as construed by the authors through their “textual restorations,” unsure words or phrases for which no hypothetical rendering was provided which might have misled the uninitiated, and passages which offended the authors’ finer sensibilities (in spite of their aim for their translation—“a help for the scholar, and a faithful rendering . . . [of] the contents,” Corpus Poeticum Boreale I, cxiv). “Offensive” passages include all scatological and most sexual references. Deletion of these passages has produced such enigmatic sentences as “since thou ‘bewitchedst’ …. and then, Freyja, thou didst ….” ... Vigfusson and Powell in their introduction (I, cxv) condemn the “grave error” of most previous English translations of Old Icelandic material—“the affectation of archaism”; if the Corpus Poeiticum Boreale translation was not archaically affected in 1883, it is today (Gunnar spake to Hǫgni … “What counsel dost thou give us respecting all this that we hear, thou young hero?” [p. 94]). … By both intentional and accidental oversight the editor has impaired the text. No use was made of later research research which might have elucidated questionable passages. A more serious fault was the failure to consult and use the Vigfusson and Powell’s own final readings and corrections (I, cxxiv-cxxx).”

 

III. Observations

Grasp hold of the two hefty volumes of Icelandic scholar Guðbrandur Vigfússon (d. 1889) and English scholar Frederick York Powell's (d. 1904) Corpus Poeticum Boreale and you may suspect that this edition is unlike other Poetic Edda translations. You'd be right. As its title implies (Latin 'Body of Northern Poetry'), the scope of the duo’s translation reaches far beyond what we today consider the Poetic Edda. Here, Guðbrandur and York Powell collect, translate, and comment on poems from the entirety of the Old Norse corpus. While the authors restrict most of their translations of eddic material to volume one, the two volumes remain squarely focused on matters eddic throughout their pages.

The volumes are full of unconventional approaches and oddities. For example, they two decide to render Old Norse Óðinn not as the (modern) established anglicized form Odin (appearing, for example, throughout the translations of both Cottle and Thorpe) but as Woden (and sometimes, inexplicably, Wodin). While this decision was clearly made to represent the deity's Old English extension, Woden, the translators do not provide the same treatment to the theonyms of other entities attested in the Old English record  (readers should not expect to find, say, Old Norse Þórr rendered as Thunor or Thunder).

A publication date of 1883 combined with a curious organization (stemming from the theories of the authors) makes for a highly dated approach, which future translator Lee M. Hollander notes above. Still, as the volumes includes renderings of a number of works that have rarely seen English translation or commentary since (like the Icelandic rímur, pp. II. 392-418), Vigfússon and York Powell's edition remains useful for Old Norse translators and those who more generally seek to mine the obscure in the North Germanic corpus.

In 1973, American scholar Lawrence S. Thompson (d. 1986) edited and reissued Guðbrandur and York Powell’s Corpus Poeticum Boreale eddic poem translations as a new edition titled Norse Mythology: The Elder Edda in Prose Translation (Archon Books). Readers can find reviews of this edition above.