The Saga of the Volsungs: With The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok trans. by Jackson Crawford (review)

The Old Norse version of the Sigurd story has been translated into English numerous times since the first complete translation in 1870 by William Morris and Eiríkr Magnusson, most recently by Kaaren Grimstad in a diplomatic edition in 2000 with a second edition in 2005, by Jesse Byock in an entry in the Penguin Classics series in 1990 and 1999, and by George Anderson in 1982. Thus, Crawford's translation makes it four decades in a row that the Völsunga saga has been translated into English. Interest in all things medieval and northern seems to be at an unusual height and still growing: the imaginative use of the medieval in Game of Thrones aside, the book and television series The Last Kingdom, as well as the History Channel's Vikings, give medieval and Scandinavian stories a particularly large presence in popular media and imagination. In 2009 even, Professor Tolkien's rewriting of the Sigurd story was published as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. It is then perhaps a fortuitous time for Crawford's translation of the Saga of the Volsungs.

But, Crawford's translation is not merely a capitalization on the market; despite the numerous translations of the Völsunga saga, and especially those in recent decades, Crawford's is the first to be published together with Ragnars saga loðbrókar (The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok) since Margaret Schlauch's translation in 1930. This is significant because although the second saga has received less attention (and fewer translations into English), Ragnars saga loðbrókar follows Völsunga saga in the manuscript (Copenhagen, Royal Library, MS NKS 1824 b 4to). Though the two stories were composed at different times, they were copied together in the manuscript and were most likely meant to form a cohesive whole. Perhaps the two sagas' differing styles led to their separation: the Saga of the Volsungs follows many generations of a great family; the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok primarily concerns the title character, and there is less of the mythic element that is present in the Volsungs. But, inclusion of the second saga is important. Reading the The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok immediately following The Saga of the Volsungs, as intended by the manuscript's scribe/compiler, provides the opportunity for a clearer reading of how a medieval audience might have encountered the tales and why they were copied together.

The introduction contains the traditional but useful apparatuses: the all-too-necessary genealogical chart, descriptions of the major characters, and a synopsis of the sometimes tenuous plots of the sagas, which will prove particularly helpful for students encountering these works for the first time. Likewise, the sections on "The Making of the Sagas" and "Cultures and Values" provide basic information on everything from culture to language in an easily digestible format. The introduction as a whole is notable for managing breadth and depth as well as accessibility, which will surely be appreciated by students new to the genre as well as a general audience.

In language and orthography, Crawford makes some interesting choices. He gives a lengthy explanation for his decision to split the difference between an anglicized orthography and a more traditional one: he renders thorn, (Þ) as "th," but eth (ð) he retains while using a less common form, the straight-backed "d" with a crossbar, rather than the usual round-backed letter. This is to avoid confusion with the letter "o," but one wonders if the straight-backed "eth" offers more confusion with "d." Nevertheless, the stakes of this quarrel are quite low. He also opts for anglicized versions of common nouns that are already popular—thus "Valhalla" instead of "Valholl"—but opts not to do this for some of the names of characters—thus we have Sigurð and Guðrún rather than the more common Sigurd and Gudrun (xxix). The long vowel marker in "Guðrún" is also typical of...