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Saturday, July 26, 2014

Poetic and Prose Edda print recommendations?

Can anyone recommend a good, complete, reader-friendly book version of the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda?

Bonus points if it also includes Egil's Saga.

It's about time I finally read the thing, having read so many bastardized versions, edited versions, kids versions, and homage-to versions of the Norse myths (including one by David Drake, two by Glen Cook, and others.) I'm interested in seeing the original material, such as is out there. Without learning 13th-16th century Icelandic, though.

Reading all of this in text form off my laptop screen, like from Project Gutenburg, is pretty intimidating. I'll get distracted - print will be better, and printing that out will cost me way too much in ink or toner.

The libraries my inter-library loan system only have the edited and shortened version of the Prose Edda.

I've heard good things about this version: Edda (Everyman's Library). I may get that, but it doesn't have all the bits that I want, as far as I can tell.

6 comments:

  1. I know this isn't the advice you are quite looking for but I strongly recommend getting a e-ink kindle for under $100 and just load up it up with Gutenburg and anything else you may find on amazon and other sites.

    For general use a laptop or led tablet (like the iPad) is far more useful. But for reading text, the latest e-ink Kindles can't be beat. They come in with a built in night light, which allows them to be read at night as well as in full sunlight. And the battery life is unbelievably long (weeks if the light is turned off).

    More importantly for you they take ordinary text file like from Gutenberg and turns them into readable books through the clever use of fonts and sizing.

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    1. I'm not in the market for an e-reader, though. That's not going to happen right now.

      Plus, I don't even know if that Gutenberg e-text is a good translation or complete version or not. I'd still rather buy a book I know is what I'm looking for than buy an e-reader to more easily one I'm not sure is good or not.

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  2. You could try a university library. If you've got the time you can sit at a carrel and read. Also, at least some university libraries will count you as university-affiliated (i.e. give you a card and let you request stuff and check out stuff from the stacks) in return for a little donation.

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    1. Thing is, none of the university libraries in NJ are showing the one version I've heard is pretty good. We've got a statewide loan system I can access - and all I turn up is the abridged version.

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  3. i enjoyed this edition i got from amazon
    http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9780199538386?redirected=true&viewCountry=AU&selectCurrency=AUD&gclid=CJft6Yb75r8CFVh6vQodvTYA7g

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