Publisher's notice

Information about this book was provided by its publisher in 2011. The description given is not an independent review. All details are subject to change, especially pricing. Please use the contact links at the top of this page to notify any innacuracy.

---

Sandra Ballif Straubhaar, ed.
Old Norse Women's Poetry: The Voices of Female Skalds.
Publisher: D. S. Brewer.
Series: Library of Medieval Women.
Publication due: April 2011.
Size: 21.6 x 13.8.
Page count: 158pp.

Publisher's recommended price
Hardback ISBN 9781843842712, £60.00

Description:

The rich and compelling corpus of Old Norse poetry is one of the most important and influential areas of medieval European literature. What is less well known, however, is the quantity of the material which can be attributed to women skalds. This book, intended for a broad audience, presents a bilingual edition (Old Norse and English) of this material, from the ninth to the thirteenth century and beyond, with commentary and notes. The poems here reflect the dramatic and often violent nature of the sagas: their subject matter features Viking Age shipboard adventures and shipwrecks; prophecies; curses; declarations of love and of revenge; duels, feuds and battles; encounters with ghosts; marital and family discord; and religious insults, among many other topics. Their authors fall into four main categories: pre-Christian Norwegian and Icelandic skáldkonur of the Viking Age; Icelandic skáldkonur of the Sturlung Age (thirteenth century); additional early skáldkonur from the Islendingasögur and related material, not as historically verifiable as the first group; and mythical figures cited as reciting verse in the legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur).

Contents:
1 Introduction
2 Part 1: Verse Translations and Commentary
3 Real People, Real Poetry
4 Quasi-Historical People and Poetry
5 Visionary Women: Women's Dream-Verse
6 Legendary Heroines
7 Magic-Workers, Prophetesses and Alien Maidens
8 Trollwomen
9 Part 2: Prose Translations
10 Glossary of Names: Persons and Weapons
11 Time Line
12 Bibliography