Intro to Sigurd and Gudrun

Tolkien’s Sigurd and Gudrun consists of two long poems: Volsungakvida en nyja, the “New Lay of the Volsungs, and Gudrunarkvida en nyja, the “New Lay of Gudrun.” They are not translations of Old Norse poems or sagas but a re-working of the ancient Norse myths. They are in his words, from a letter to W H Auden, something he did “many years ago when trying to learn the art of writing alliterative poetry: an attempt to unify the lays about the Volsungs from the Elder Edda” (6). They are written in modern English but using the Old Norse alliterative 8-line stanza, a form called “fornyrdislag” (This “d” as those in the titles, ought to be the ON or OE “eth” but I haven’t figured out how to do that in this program yet.) J R R T mentions that he read in William Morris (another of my favorites) that these Northern myths ought to be to the British “what the tale of Troy was to the Greeks” (13). So even here we see T’s interest in providing a myth for his homeland, something some readers believe he attempted in The Lord of the Rings.

This book is edited by T’s son, Christopher Tolkien, who has included several helpful sections that will be of use to readers not familiar with Old Norse poetry. One especially nice surprise is a lecture given by his father on the subject; it is delightful to hear the topic treated in T’s own voice. There is also a substantial commentary on each poem, which I haven’t delved into yet, but these are presented as endnotes, so they don’t interfere with the reading of the poems; however, I’m sure I’ll be using them throughout my reading.

Looking forward to actually getting to the poems now but am thankful for the preparation afforded by the (rather long) Intro.