Tag: Elizabeth Magee

The Lay, And The Tragedy, Of Horn-Skinned Siegfried

We have now reached Parts Three and Four of “The Legends of The Ring”. Each tells the story of Siegfried; Part Three as a poem and Part Four as a seven act play. Each of these has been translated by Elizabeth Magee who has done remarkably well to maintain the rhyming couplets and rhythm of the originals.

In her introduction to The Lay of Horn-Skinned Siegfried she tells us that it “is an anonymous work, written around 1500, probably in south Germany and possibly in Nuremberg itself…..Despite its popularity, no-one has ever suggested that [it] is world-class literature. Neither the quality of the poetry nor the structure of the poem would qualify for such an epithet.” I agree with her entirely. The lines are in ponderous iambic hexameter. Magee goes on to describe the work as “cobbled together……joints and couplings are so obvious, the starts and restarts, interpolations, contradictions and repetitions, that one begins to conceive an affection for the poet’s modus operandi and to regard these characteristics as part of the poem’s charm.”

The work does recount Siegfried’s full story of birth, adventures, achievements and death. “The youngster was so headstrong, so big and strong and tough/ , His father and his mother had soon had quite enough./ He wouldn’t serve another in all his livelong day,/ And all he thought and cared for was getting right away.”

The Tragedy of Horn-Skinned Siegfried, A Tragedy with Seventeen Characters in Seven Acts, by Hans Sachs, following the tale in the Lay, was written in 1557, with much smoother rhythm also in rhyming couplets. The speeches given to the dramatis personae, for example in the hammering of the anvil, add a certain comedy to the tragedy.

We have a prologue announced by the Herald who tells what the audience will be given and recounts the lessons learned in the Epilogue.

Both works explain “Horn-Skinned”

Here is a repeat of Simon Brett’s relevant engravings.

This completes my focus on The Legends of The Ring.

The Heroic Poems Of The Elder Edda

This is Part Two of Book One of Legends of the Ring, taken from Patricia Terry’s “Poems of the Elder Edda” which she has translated apart from three versions from Elizabeth Magee. “compiled in Iceland round 1270 by an anonymous collector or copyist, the collection contains poems composed somewhere in Scandinavia during the tenth and eleventh centuries”. (Magee)

“Originally the poetry collection had no title. The name Elder Edda was adapted from the term Snorri Sturluson coined: Edda, which he used for his own prose work recounting Scandinavian pre-Christian beliefs…..the poems are clearly older than the prose, even if they were written down later……The poems fall into two main groups. One is a set of mythological poems, which we shall return to later. The second group is heroic, and it is these poems that interest us here.” (Magee)

These poems tell the story of Sigurd and his dynasty as mirrored by the Saga of the Volsungs, expressing the key moments and emotions in a much more beautifully poetic manner than could the prose narrative.

Whoever has been primarily responsible for the poetry in this book has presented luscious, flowing, language with a love of alliteration following the original expressive form of verse. Highlights of the story display intense emotions of passion, drama, and action, linked together with short prose passages.

Leaving the details of the tale for those wishing to read for themselves, I can say that these poems are in four groups: Of Heroes, Swanmaidens and Valkyries; Sigurd Ascendant; Sigurd’s Death; Death of the Niflungs; and End of the Line.

As has been seen in https://derrickjknight.com/2024/07/12/the-saga-of-the-volsungs/ myth plays a large part in the sagas.

“Swanmaidens fly through the air wearing their feathers; once they have landed, however, they set their feather cloaks aside and become as other women. A mortal man can gain power over a swanmaiden by hiding her feather cloak so that she can no longer fly away. ……….

….”the valkyries are Odin’s wish-maidens, who ride through the heavens, sway battles, select those heroes selected for Valhall, and serve the inexhaustible brew of ale to them when they arrive. Some are said to be Odin’s own daughters….” (Magee)

I offer a few phrases from the verses in order to illustrate the complexity of the alliterations:

“Blades were burning in bloody wounds,/ Long swords lowered….” from The Lay of Hakon

“He set bear steaks to roast on the fire -/ high blazed the faggots from seasoned fir trees,/ wind-dried wood, warming Volund.” from The Lay of Volund

“……….Grani’s bride/ gold-bitted, good at galloping; ” from The First Lay of Helgi Hunding’s Bane

“What kind of fish can swim the falls/ but fails to ward off woe?” from The Lay of Regin

“few things worry a worthy king” from The Lay of Fafnir

The poetry is rich in simile and metaphor.

Advice given to Sigurd by Sigrdrifa, the valkyrie in her eponymous lay is almost identical as that of Brunhild in https://derrickjknight.com/2024/07/12/the-saga-of-the-volsungs/

Here are Simon Brett’s muscular illustrations pertinent to this section.

The Saga Of The Volsungs

This is Part One of Book One of The Ring Legends of Scandinavia. “We begin with what promises to be the furthest-reaching, fullest possible version on the human side of the Ring legends. The Saga of the Volsungs stretches from end to end of the story, telling of the two great families: the Volsungs, into which Sigurd is born, and the Gjukungs, into which he marries….. The Saga… was composed by an anonymous author between 1200 and 1270, probably 1260 and almost certainly in Iceland. As such it belongs to the flourishing Icelandic saga culture of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries.” (Elizabeth Magee)

This version is based on the text edited and translated by R.G. Finch in London 1965.

This story involves myth, magic, superstition, deception, trickery, treachery, love triangles, family history, bloodthirsty conflicts, rivalry, and mystery.

Reminiscent of the death of William Rufus on a deer hunt in England’s New Forest, the tale begins with Bredi’s murder by Sigi, reputed to be a son of Odin. Throughout the saga Odin appears as a “man” with various descriptions and significant actions. Thus reality merges with myth, and magic, as in “….a large pair of stocks was fetched, and at a certain spot in the forest the ten brothers had their legs clamped in, and there they sat all day, and night came on. And at midnight an old she-wolf came out from the forest to where they were sitting in the stocks. She was large and evil-looking. What she did was to bite one of them to death, thereupon devour him, then go away…….on nine consecutive nights the same wolf appeared at midnight, and each time she she killed and ate one of them until all were dead and Sigmund alone remained.” Trickery is employed by Signy, daughter of King Volsung to outwit and destroy the wolf.

“Numerous spears hurtled through the air, and arrows, too, but his norns looked after him, so he remained unscathed….”. “Norns, according to Magee, “are semi-divine female beings who weave the web of fate: past, present and future; the valkyries are Odin’s wish-maidens, who ride through the heavens, sway battles, select those heroes selected for Valhall, and serve the inexhaustible brew of ale to them when they arrive. Some are said to be Odin’s own daughters….”

Most confusing for readers such as me is that names are variable and interchangeable. The Icelandic Sigurd is the German Siegfried. The Sigmund of the above paragraph is the father of Sigurd who also has a son Sigmund. I doubt that I will get my head around all these, although the translation is fluent and very readable, and there is a good glossary of names in the appendices; it is splendid story anyway.

In addition to the fluid prose we have much poetry such as “Gold is now rendered,/ recompense for you,/ much for my head./’Tis not luck will be/ the lot of your son:/ Death to you both it brings.” put in the mouth of Loki, the mischief maker of the gods. Brunhild’s comprehensive advice to Sigurd, beginning “War runes you must know/ if wise you would be. / On sword-guard grave them,/ on hilt sockets, / on hilt’s iron grip, / and twice say Tyr’s name” and continuing with such stanzas as “Speech runes you must know,/ to be spared, if you wish/ repayment of grief rendered./ Wind them about,/ weave them around,/ side by side set them/ there at that Thing/ where throngs shall come,/ all to full session faring”. Tyr is the god of war; Thing is the parliament. Further such advice such as “Watch out for trickery from your friends” is delivered in fluent prose.

As I explained earlier, Simon Brett’s powerful illustrations are given in a block between pages 360 and 361. This is because there is so much overlap in the stories that each engraving could serve more than one part of the book.

Here are today’s offerings which may well be repeated as we progress through the work.

This evening we dined on more of the roast lamb with the addition of mushrooms and fresh vegetables. Neither of us imbibed.

Reading And Listening

This afternoon Elizabeth visited for a while wishing me well as she was at a wedding on my birthday.

After this I listened to the Test Match between England and West Indies on BBC News when not reading the introduction to

The first of these images is of the boards, back and front, of my edition; the second the Title Page and Frontispiece by Simon Brett.

Elizabeth Magee has gathered and woven together the array of saga, myth, and legend from the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples drawn on by Wagner in his Ring series. Because of the nature of the collection, involving similar but differently told stories from differing sources, Simon Brett’s powerful illustrations are gathered together in one block.

In Scandinavian mythology Yggdrasil, the frontispiece image, is most significant. “Underlying it is a whole cosmos, a universe created by the interaction of fire and ice and embedded in the great void. Central to the cosmos is the World Tree, Yggdrasil. According to Snorri, the three roots securing it reach down to the underworld Niflheim, out to the frost ogres and up to the sky among the gods and light elves. Its branches spread up to heaven and over the earth. The world is formed of concentric circles, surrounded by sea. Midgard is the home of humankind; rimward are the giants, and right at the hub is Asgard, seat of the gods on earth. Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, brings the gods every day from earth to heaven. Within the earth dwell dwarfs and dark elves.” (Magee)

I will follow the editor’s sections and add the pictures as I work my way through the book.

This evening we dined at The Lazy Lion in Milford on Sea, where I enjoyed fish pie with a minted melange of peas and other green veg followed by a summer fruits créme brulée with which I drank Flack’s Double Drop; Jackie’s choice was sun-dried tomato and pesto with halloumi cheese with which she drank Diet Cola.