EDDIC TO ENGLISH
LEE M. HOLLANDER, 1928 & 1962
Please note that this entry refers solely to Lee M. Hollander's 1962 second revised edition unless otherwise noted.
The Poetic Edda
1928
University of Texas Press
(First edition)
396 pages
Public domain
The Poetic Edda
1962
University of Texas Press
Second edition, revised
343 pages
Publisher website
Translated poems (36):
Second edition
Codex Regius (31)
Vǫluspá, Hávamál, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál, Skírnismál, Hárbarðsljóð, Hymiskviða, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Vǫlundarkviða, Alvíssmál, Frá dauða Sinfjǫtla, Grípisspá, Reginsmál, Fáfnismál, Sigrdrífumál, Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Helreið Brynhildar, Dráp Niflunga, Oddrúnargrátr, Atlakviða, Atlamál, Guðrúnarhvǫt, Hamðismál, Helgakviða Hundingsbana (I, II), Helgakviða Hjǫrvarðssonar, Guðrúnarkviða (I, II, III)
Non-Codex Regius (5)
Baldrs draumar, Rígsþula, Hyndluljóð, Grottasǫngr, Svipdagsmal
Other notable contents: Like some other translators, in both editions Hollander removes the so-called "Catalogue of Dwarfs" (sometimes translated into Old Norse as Dvergatal) from Vǫluspá and provides it a section of its own (second edition: pp. 322-323, also in the first edition). Hollander also includes a section dedicated to the eight missing manuscript pages of the Codex Regius manuscript (the "Great Lacuna", second edition: pp. 241-242). These pages no doubt refer to the Vǫlsung cycle in some manner and may be to some extent paraphrased in Vǫlsunga saga.
Introduction page length: First edition: 25, second edition: 29
Note format: Footnotes (both editions)
Dual Edition? No (both editions)
Rendering: jǫtunn = "etin" (cf. second edition: p. 67), þurs = "thurs" (cf. p. 71)
Censorship: Mixed (cf. second edition: p. 72; p. 97)
Original illustrations? None (both editions)
I. TRANSLATION SAMPLES
Hollander’s translation shows a variety of slight changes between his first and second editions, as demonstrated by the following three samples:
a.) Vǫluspá (first edition: p. 4 in both editions):
First edition:
An ash I know, hight Yggdrasil,
the mighty tree moist with white dews;
thence come the floods that fall a-down:
evergreen stands at Urth’s well this tree.
Second edition:
An ash I know, hight Yggdrasil,
the mighty tree moist with white dews;
thence come the floods that fall adown;
evergreen o'ertops Urth’s well this tree.
b.) Helgakviða Hundingsbana II (p. 200):
First edition:
Sigrún went into the mound to Helgi and said:
“As fain I am to find thee, Helgi,
as óthin’s hawks, hungry for meat,
when war they scent and warm corpses,
and dew-besprent the daylight see.”
Second edition:
Sigrún went into the mound to Helgi and said:
“As fain am I to find thee, Helgi,
as Óthin's hawks, hungry for meat,
when war they scent and warm corpses,
and dew besprent the daylight see.”
c.) Rígsþula (first edition: p. 149, second edition: p. 127):
First edition:
With Ríg the Earl in runes he matched him,
with wires he warred, and outwitted him;
thus got for him, and gained to own,
the name of Ríg, and runes to know.
Second edition:
In runes he rivaled Ríg the Earl;
with wiles he warred, outwitting him;
thus got for himself, and gained to have,
the name of Ríg and runic lore.
II. Reviews
Flom, George T. 1929. Review of first edition. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, p. 543-547.
Excerpt:
I regret that I have been obliged to find that this translation, like so many others before it, has succeeded only in part. I hope I have done justice to the book; there is much in it that is good indeed; I call attention again to the stanza quoted above from the Greelandic Atli Lay, as an example of what Hollander has accomplished when he is at his best. In spite of the shortcomings noted I welcome the volume for what it has achieved that is good in so difficult a task. I am sure it will be found useful to many.
Beck, Richard. 1939. Review of first edition and Hollander’s Old Norse Poems: The Most Important Non-Scaldic Verse not included in the Poetic Edda. Skírnir, p. 191-194. Viewable online at Timarit.is. Icelandic. Accessed November 29, 2020.
Excerpt:
Af því, sem að ofan er talið, þótt eigi sé fleira nefnt, er auðsætt, að dr. Hollander hefir unnið merkileg störf í þágu fræða vorra vestan hafsins. Skuldum vér honum miklar þakkir fyrir þá iðju hans, og færi vel á því, að Íslendingar sýndu honum einhvern sóma fyrir fræðimannlega starfsemi hans, sem fært hefir út landareign bókkmenta vorra og aukið á hróður vorn.
Blaisdell, Jr, Foster W. 1963. Review of second edition, revised. Scandinavian Studies, vol. 35, no. 1. February 1963, p. 64-55.
Excerpt:
The present translation naturally invites comparison with that of Henry A. Bellows (published by the American-Scandinavian Foundation, first printing 1923). Bellows also attempts to preserve something of the original metrical patterns but allows himself more freedom. Ignoring numerous differences in details, I might venture the generalization that Bellows' translation is more readable while Hollander's is more poetic. An instructor who must select an edition for a course should consider both carefully.The choice will be dictated in part by the level and aims of the course and the quality of the students. To no small extent this circumstance is due to the attitudes of the two translators toward the choice of vocabulary.
Wolf, Kirsten. 1987. Review of second edition, revised. Scandinavian Studies, vol. 59, no. 3. Summer 1987, p. 388.
Excerpt:
Hollander thus manages to capture the flavor and the tang of the original, but often at the expense of the work's accessibility, and his diction is by no means simple.
III. OBSERVATIONs
A former faculty head of the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, American scholar Lee M. Hollander's translation of the Poetic Edda remains widely available. Like some other translators, Hollander attempts to convey the alliterative verse of the original Old Norse texts, primarily by way of reliance on archaism. For example, Hollander employs fossilized pronouns such as "thee" and "thou" throughout his translation, along with obscure terms such as "thole" (cf. p. 73). Hollander realized how alien these archaisms would be to even the most educated reader, and so includes a glossary for these obscure terms (p. 325-326). Whether the reader embraces or rejects this approach is ultimately a matter of taste, but readers new to the Poetic Edda will no doubt find Hollander’s rendering decisions to be particularly challenging. This hurdle greatly restricts the utility of Hollander's translation.
Notably, before completing his translation of the Poetic Edda and while still among the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, Hollander authored a brief piece describing why he felt the time was ripe to produce a translation of his own. Published in 1919 in Scandinavian Studies and Notes, "Concerning a Proposed Translation of the Edda" describes aspects of Hollander's approach and provides insight into how Hollander felt about the works of his predecessors (for example, Hollander refers to Benjamin Thorpe's 1866 translation as "a rather poor performance at the time" and dismisses Olive Bray's 1908 translation as "pedestrian").