Rating: 
Summary: A "MUST-READ" for Anyone Interested in Vikings!!
Review: "The Saga of the Volsungs : The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer" is a MUST READ for anyone with interest in the Vikings and their lore! There are a number of translations out there. But, in my opinion this one is clearly the best!
Rating:
Summary: Major Source
Review: "The Saga of the Volsungs : The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer" is a MUST READ for anyone with interest in the Vikings and their lore! There are a number of translations out there. But, in my opinion this one is clearly the best!
Rating:
Summary: A "MUST-READ" for Anyone Interested in Vikings!!
Review: "The Saga of the Volsungs : The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer" is a MUST READ for anyone with interest in the Vikings and their lore! There are a number of translations out there. But, in my opinion this one is clearly the best!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Translation
Review: A very different book from the Niebelungenlied (a courtly epic), this book shows a much more tribal mentality and a soul of a people that is much closer to nature. It makes for interesting comparisons with other similar cultures, such as that of the American Indians. The story is mostly fable and is hard to follow, but the images are powerful. This is one of the best places to start if you are interested in any sort of ancient Norse literature.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: Great introduction to Norse Saga, even if it was written after the golden-era of those works. The Volsungs are a proud lineage, made great and brought to their knees by courage and by fate. Their story is fascinating in both its historical context and the myths which anchor the saga. The glorious ideal of human nature meets and struggles the entire time with the base reality of what mankind can be. Several Norse Gods make their way into the novel, a different kind of divine intervention that what our society envisions. The notes in the back of the book are of tremendous help, concise, simple yet very useful in understanding the novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Regrettably Bland Translation
Review: I have discovered that Mr. Byock's translation is regrettably bland. It appears that he translates word-for-word, which gives the English prose a clumsy, "summarizing" kind of a feel.
The translation lacks a beautiful, flowing quality that might emerged had he tried to portray the spirit of the work through his own personal, subjective experience. Said again, he should have taken personal "ownership" of the story and written it in modern English according to his own inner feeling -- richly imagining the events and meaning, and then writing a faithful, but new story.
Instead, he rather logically translates word-for-word, with seemingly little care for the poetic quality of the tale. Thus the reading is bulky and unimaginative.
I believe that portraying one's own inner experience of a story is more "valid" than a scientifically-accurate rendering of it. Although the text is clear, to a fault, I was disappointed with it.
I recommend a different translation.
Rating: 
Summary: Overall, I enjoy Norse legends..this was no exception!
Review: I read this book in a class of mine while in high school. I enjoyed it so much that I bought a copy of my own...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: If you are looking for a plot synopsis, you won't find it in this review. I'm going to sing the praises of the translation instead and suggest why it might be worth your while to read this short but powerful work. First off, Jesse Byock has done amazing work with his translation as well as introduction and notes. Altogether it sounds like a lot of hyperbole but he has truly made this saga accessible. So yes, if you want to know where Tolkien and Wagner got some of their inspiration, reading this saga will be a painless way to find out. At the same time, it isn't necessary to have any earlier knowledge of Old Norse society; Byock lays it all out in his introduction, and copious endnotes will help you catch parallels and allusions in the text itself. For those who are interested in the Icelandic sagas, but who are wary of starting with the epic family sagas (Njala, Egil, and Laxdaela for example), Volsunga is a good place to start. While names may be elusive - and there is, as always, a profusion of characters, many of them minor - Volsunga is much shorter than any of the family sagas. This translation is also lively and active, and not as dry as some of the other saga translations put out by Penguin. I'm not going to say that Norse writing style wasn't terse and rarely descriptive - because that's just a fact of their prose - but Byock has rendered it in such a way that it's hardly problematic. This is the saga that decided my college major for me - medieval history. It's that powerful!!! :-)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: If you are looking for a plot synopsis, you won't find it in this review. I'm going to sing the praises of the translation instead and suggest why it might be worth your while to read this short but powerful work. First off, Jesse Byock has done amazing work with his translation as well as introduction and notes. Altogether it sounds like a lot of hyperbole but he has truly made this saga accessible. So yes, if you want to know where Tolkien and Wagner got some of their inspiration, reading this saga will be a painless way to find out. At the same time, it isn't necessary to have any earlier knowledge of Old Norse society; Byock lays it all out in his introduction, and copious endnotes will help you catch parallels and allusions in the text itself. For those who are interested in the Icelandic sagas, but who are wary of starting with the epic family sagas (Njala, Egil, and Laxdaela for example), Volsunga is a good place to start. While names may be elusive - and there is, as always, a profusion of characters, many of them minor - Volsunga is much shorter than any of the family sagas. This translation is also lively and active, and not as dry as some of the other saga translations put out by Penguin. I'm not going to say that Norse writing style wasn't terse and rarely descriptive - because that's just a fact of their prose - but Byock has rendered it in such a way that it's hardly problematic. This is the saga that decided my college major for me - medieval history. It's that powerful!!! :-)
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down--great saga, richly rendered
Review: It's rare to find a book that's a good read for readers of all stripes, but this is one of the them. History and saga fiends will love the maps and the way Byock's introduction ties the tale into other historical contexts. Lovers of literature will enjoy the prose and a fantastic episodic narrative that builds one story on top of another into a great epic. It helps that Byock's translation is superb--he catches the rhythm and flow of the original Old Icelandic while crafting a very readable text that isn't dry or overworked as some translations can be. The notes, too, provide a wonderful background that enriches the reader's experience of the saga. This saga is the one to start with. It's a fun saga--with lots of action, and also one of the most important stories in western literature, a Viking Age epic of the hero Sigurd and his wild Volsung kinsmen. Along the way, the famous Attila the Hun and the Gothic horsemen of the steppes enter the story along with others of their ilk. The Saga of the Volsungs is the core basis of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was a professor of Old English and taught Old Norse. In his creative way, he mined the Volsung story for the essential elements of his trilogy. If you want to understand Tolkien as well as Scandinavian myth and legend, then this saga is the best place to get started. The sword that was reforged, the ring of power and its connection with water, the Gandalf character, the origin of the Gollum and Aragorn, elves, dwarves, the riders of Rohan and much more all step off the pages of The Saga of the Volsungs. I heartily recommend Jesse Byock's translation of The Saga of the Volsungs for new and old readers of the sagas, and of course for the Tolkien fans out there!
| 
