The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun,   ISBN:9780547273426

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The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, the "new" book by J.R.R. Tolkien put together by his son Christopher, is a translation-slash-"unifying" of the great Norse story of Sigurd the dragon-slayer and what happens to his wife and his murderers after his death. The story is told in verse form, two "lays" surrounded by commentary that Christopher Tolkien has taken from his father's notes and lectures dealing with the Norse legend. Christopher also adds some of his own commentary, placing the translations into some context with regard to his father's writing as well as adding some historical and literary/critical context, often dealing with the source material Tolkien used.
The fact that the story is in verse will, I'm sure, be off-putting to many fantasy readers. Actually, let's be honest--most (I could almost fit the number of poetry books sold in this country on my own personal bookshelves). Even more of an obstacle, though, is that the form isn't simply verse but an attempt to be faithful to Norse epic verse, complete with its (to English ears and eyes) strange half-lines, heavy alliteration and stress pattern, and extreme concision
The faith to form makes it difficult reading at times. For instance, the need for alliteration and the requirement of meter means Tolkien sticks to a lot of archaic "ithms" and the like, and also means there is a lot of word/syntax inversion which can require some hard thinking at times to figure out just what is being said (and by whom and/or to whom). Meanwhile, the focus on the Norse love of concision (what J.R. R. Tolkien refers to as a desire to "strike a blow" like a "flash of lightning") leads to
some sudden leaps of "plot" or dialogue/monologue or some just plain confusing "now why did she do that" sort of narrative. The interspersed scholarly commentary can also be tough sledding, with its sometimes arcane references to variant names for instance.
But the book is, I have to say, surprisingly rewarding. One could summarize the "plot" in a few sentences (or in several long nights of opera per Wagner) and many elements will be familiar to fans of fantasy and mythology--though lost manuscripts, variant versions, idiosyncratic retellings (Wagner again) all mean that chances are good one doesn't know all the details as presented by Tolkien in his own personal version. But one doesn't read poetry for "plot" and the same hold true here. What Tolkien aimed at here (and one should note he never saw these as published works) was to capture the force, the energy, of the Norse epic form and the tale itself and he mostly succeeds. Despite the obscure moments of narrative (what just happened in that stanza?) or character (who is talking here? Why is she so upset?) the poems do tend to drive the reader forward and many a scene, such as the battle between Gudrun's brothers and Attila the Hun, are quite exciting, something that may surprise people who view poetry as only the stuff of drawing rooms and small moments of nature. There's blood and dragons and drum beating and swords, gods and demons and giants, betrayal and incest and if it isn't all crystal clear, it's all still self-evidently there. And while the commentary can at times be a bit dense or far-flung, it's mostly a welcome addition, adding much appreciated clarity and context.
Beyond the enjoyment of pace and rhythm and energy and story, Tolkien fans (and again, let's be honest--few others will pick this up, though luckily that's a huge number) will revel in those moments of recognition, flashes of linkage to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or his other Middle-Earth works, such as when we encounter Mirkwood the first time. More than just linguistics, though, it will be clear that Tolkien was working in just this sort of mythic vein when he devised his themes, characters, and basic narratives (the hanging of the sun and moon for instance can't help but recall images of the young world of the Silmarillion)--something he was always quite clear about.
I picked up this book as a Tolkien fan wanting to see just those links. And also as a fan of myth (I've read prose versions of this story several times). But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed the poems themselves in their own right. I can't say I'm going to stock my library with Norse Eddic poetry, but I found myself several times utterly captivated and catapulted by some of Tolkien's stanzas. As for recommendation--I'm more willing to tell folks to give it a shot even if they aren't diehard Tolkien fans---you may be equally surprised.

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Perfect condition, brand new book! Exactly what was described and promised! Fast shipping! Over all excellent experience, will definitely do business with again!

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Many reviewers had written that this book is more for die-hard Tolkien fans than the average LotR fan. I would agree. A lot of it was even too arcane for my taste (and I loved The Silmarillion). Yet, I can say that if you bear with it and read the actual lays, you will hear the beginnings of the Balrog, the story of Bilbo and Smaug, and more of the rich origins of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Odin might even remind you of Manwe.

One criticism: I'm not sure I would have titled the book "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun;" there's so much more to the book than just these two, and their fates are tied up in the fates of others as well.

One more point: In case you skip the lengthy foreword and introduction, if you are an opera fan and know the Wagnerian ring cycle, forget about those libretti. Wagner sanitized the story for his own purpose.

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Any fan of the Tolkien fantasy sagas will relish this largely unknown work, presented for the first time and written some years before The Hobbit appeared. It was inspired by Norse legends in poetry and provides drama and adventure in an unusual, powerful narrative verse. Very highly recommended for any general library with Tolkien patrons and fans - which is almost every collection.

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A book of interest, not so much on Sigurd and Gudrun as on J.R.R Tolkien himself. This is NOT a translation of the original Icelandic sagas, far from it. In fact it is a reduction of the original sagas to more or less an outline of the story. In order to make it logical, clear, J.R.R Tolkien just cuts off some episodes and some more or less important details. It is difficult to understand why, but it is a fact. It is thus not better than the standard translation by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson of 1888 which remains the reference edition. Why did he cut off the important phase of Sigmund's life concerning the relations between Sigmund and his twin sister Signy and particularly the killing of the two batches of sons she had from Siggeir, her official husband? Why did he cut off the last episode of the saga which concerns the killing of Swanhild, the daughter of Gudrun and Sigurd, or Gudrun's revenge for the killing of Swanhild by Jormurek and the final death of the three sons she had from her last husband Jonakr. There is no reason to simplify the saga, to shorten it or simply to modify it if it amounts to cutting off episodes. The second remark about this text is that the form itself is not good. It does not retain the strength and the flowing rhythm of the original sagas. Its attempt to write it in an original poetic form may be close to the Old Norse form, but it does not have the power of this original story essentially because English is not Icelandic or Old Norse. The other attempts at adapting an English poetic form to these sagas was to use the ballad form and that is a lot more expressive of the toughness and roughness of the stories, as well as of the poetic lyricism of some sections. But J.R.R Tolkien did not make that choice that was made by some other translators of these sagas or other sagas. What's more the form J.R.R Tolkien uses is irregular as for the iambic or non-iambic lines, and there seems to be no reason whatsoever for this or these irregularity(ies). It is just an imperfect poetic adaptation. More surprising is the cutting off of the lyrical passages, such the lamentations of Gudrun after Sigurd's death and some other poignant episodes like this one, such as Brynhild's long song when she gives the drink of love to Sigurd and that describes in full detail the eight types of runes. We could go on for a long time about these shortcomings, short-makings and plain shortenings of the original tales by J.R.R. Tolkien. The point then about the book is why Tolkien's son finally published this draft translation that his father did not publish, especially with the enormous corpus of notes he adds. These notes make the book a reference book because it gives details about the tricky and complicated blood lines and relations among the numerous characters. It also explains the original poetic form of the sagas. But that is not enough as a motivation, especially since the cut episodes and elements are not provided nor indicated in any way. The last question then is why J.R.R. Tolkien himself did not publish this translation. It is quite obvious: it is not complete and it is not poetically perfect, or even good. Yet it is interesting to have that translation as some document about J.R.R. Tolkien's creative work and mind. It shows how his own literature was born. It becomes a document about J.R.R. Tolkien himself but not about the concerned sagas. Luckily J.R.R. Tolkien decided to drop the poetic form and wrote his own fantasies in prose. He was a lot more successful in that form than in poetry.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID