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Rating: 
Summary: The second installment of this trilogy is quite depressing
Review: By the end of the first book, The Wolf and The Raven, Brunahild and Sigfrid have made plans for a glorious future together. Sadly, that future never comes to pass. Instead they are treacherously separated and end up married to other people. This is basically what happens in the original saga, but this is a difficult book to read because the characters go through such horrendous psychological trauma. The Burgundians want to bind Sigfrid to their clan. Queen Mother Grimahild and her son Hagano administer a magic potion to Sigfrid which causes him to fall madly in love with Gudrun, Grimahild's daughter. After they are married, Sigfrid then helps his new brother-in-law Gundohar win Brunahild for his wife. (Gundohar has been hopelessly in love with Brunahild for ages.) They play a dirty trick on her and Brunahild is oathbound to marry Gundohar. Eventually she realizes that she has been tricked and she bides her time and plots her revenge. Admittedly, this book made me cry, and very few books have had that effect on me. The story is really quite heart-wrenching. But, somehow, because Sigfrid and Brunahild are never able to live that glorious life they had in mind, the whole book has sort of an anti-climactic feel to it. There's certainly a lot of things happening, but it doesn't really live up to the promise of the previous novel.
Rating: 
Summary: An approachable adaptation
Review: Despite repeated forays into sex and sexual acts (parts of this read far more like a dime-store harlequin novel than one of historical fiction), this gets the major thrust of the story across, and in fairly approachable terms. The conflict between pagan and Christian is well played-out, with the sympathies obviously lying with the latter. A good companion to the Arthurian sagas, though it dwells somewhat overmuch on the plottings and manipulations of women (probably a result, I think, of the author's gender). Still, enjoyable, and worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: The Tragedy of the Volsung and Burgund lines
Review: In Dragons of the Rhine the second portion of the ancient tale is told with intense emotion and detail. While the story is slightly different in how certain things are carried out than in the eddic writings, it's still an excellent novel which brings the story alive in a way which can be enjoyed by all in this century.Diana Paxon truly delves deep into each of the charachters and thier reasoning and emotions so that each side of this tragedy is understood even while the playing out is heartbreaking. In this book, as in the last, I still found myself thinking there could be another way out, a hope still left although I've read this story in many forms many times before. The tension of each moment is fully played out so one could see possible alternatives, though fate must lead the charachters on to what the Norns have woven for them. A version of the story I'd reccomend, along with the more ancient tellings of this story.
Rating:
Summary: The Tragedy of the Volsung and Burgund lines
Review: In Dragons of the Rhine the second portion of the ancient tale is told with intense emotion and detail. While the story is slightly different in how certain things are carried out than in the eddic writings, it's still an excellent novel which brings the story alive in a way which can be enjoyed by all in this century. Diana Paxon truly delves deep into each of the charachters and thier reasoning and emotions so that each side of this tragedy is understood even while the playing out is heartbreaking. In this book, as in the last, I still found myself thinking there could be another way out, a hope still left although I've read this story in many forms many times before. The tension of each moment is fully played out so one could see possible alternatives, though fate must lead the charachters on to what the Norns have woven for them. A version of the story I'd reccomend, along with the more ancient tellings of this story.
Rating:
Summary: The second installment of this trilogy is quite depressing
Review: Paxson repeats Richard Wagner's experiment in retelling the classic Germanic sagas. I loved Wagner's trilogy, and felt the same way about Paxson's as well. These books will definitely have a place in my library, next to the authentic Nibelungenlied.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful retelling of the Nibelung and Volsung sagas
Review: Paxson repeats Richard Wagner's experiment in retelling the classic Germanic sagas. I loved Wagner's trilogy, and felt the same way about Paxson's as well. These books will definitely have a place in my library, next to the authentic Nibelungenlied.
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