Product Description
1969 - Ballantine Books - 1st Edition - Paperback - The Mezentian Gate - By E.R. Eddison - Adult Fantasy - Pages 270 - Cover has minor edge wear - Inside is light, tight, spine solid - VG Condition - Rare - Collectible ... Read more

Product Description
Eric Rucker Eddison (1882-1945) was an English civil servant and author, writing under the name "E. R. Eddison. " Eddison was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge and joined the Board of Trade in 1906, retiring in 1938 in order to work full time on his fiction. During a distinguished career he was awarded the CMG Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1924 and the CB Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1929 for public service with the Board of Trade. He is best known for his early romance The Worm Ouroboros (1922). His other works include Poems, Letters and Memories of Philip Sidney Nairn (1916), Styrbiorn the Strong (1926) and Egil's Saga (1930). He also wrote three volumes set in the imaginary world Zimiamvia, known as the Zimiamvian Trilogy: Mistress of Mistresses (1935), A Fish Dinner in Memison (1941), and The Mezentian Gate (1958). The Zimiamvia books were not conceived as a trilogy but as part of a larger work left incomplete by Eddison's death. In fact, The Mezentian Gate itself is unfinished, though Eddison provided summaries of the missing chapters shortly before his death. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (54)

Merits of the Classics-Unbound edition for Kindle
My review deals exclusively with the Classics-Unbound edition for the Kindle, which costs $1.05.It cost me much more than $1.05 in time to discover that this edition was, in my opinion, the best available for the Kindle, due to its linked table of contents, incorporation of figures, and linked endnotes.

The Amazon review system is deficient, I think, in aggregating all reviews of a book title, ignoring details of particular editions that show wide variations of quality.Not to dwell overlong on a rant, but "War and Peace" displays the most irritating example of this.Most reviews deal with the greatness of "War and Peace" - of which, owning two printed editions, I already know - what I am interested in, concerning the Kindle, is which is the best edition presented in that format.The Amazon system doesn't facilitate this, or perhaps I am missing something.

Anyway, the Classics-Unbound edition of "The Worm Ouroboros" is by far the best that I have found for the Kindle, for the reasons cited above.

I should also like to note that this is a book that is far easier for me to read on the Kindle than in hardcopy.The reason is, that it contains a large number of archaic words unfamiliar to me.I am amazed at how comprehensive the Kindle's built-in dictionary is in dealing with these -"blenched", "dole", "bain-marie", "combe", "levin-bolt", and many more.Having such an accessible and comprehensive dictionary on hand lends much enjoyment to the reading of this book.It demonstrates a significant advantage of the Kindle format.

Not good
First off the Forgotten Books edition has many errors throughout the book.Editors need to actually read the book instead of just running it through a spell checker that does not check punctuation or style.

Second it is a struggle to read.I have tried to read this book off and on over a 40 year period.It just does not get any easier each time.Heaps of praise on those that can stomach it.

Forsooth, a rollicking adventure awaiteh thee
Gainsay naught, will I, that this is a glorious tale indeed full of adventure, heroes and grammerie.However, I comprehend naught the hyperbolic complimenteries of some of the amazonian critiques that purport the tale beyond its pleasantries.For indeed, a rollicking adventure awaiteth thee but fain would be I to relate that the tale be more than it appeareth.The heroes who art the high heroes of old are demons with all that that nomenclature implies.Naught are they inclined to consider the fate of their masses.In fact, be it to their pleasure or aim, they are willing to sacrifice their kingdom and its inhabitants to pursue heroic whim.More heroic than any is the lady Mervain who, willing to sacrifice her own honor to save her heroic defenders, stands alone in this epic tale with true honor.The great heroic lords however demonstrate willingness to sacrifice anyone and anything in furtherance of their purported whim.

A glorious tale and rollicking fun await the uninitiated reader.I am fain to recommend it however as a morality tale.As to one amazonian critique-writer who purports that the author of the tale of glory be in the 15% of top writers in modern English, he be fain to prove his hyperbolic statements.

the lost "Worm" has turned and now is found.
This book was given to me when I was living in the jungles of Yucatan in the early 70's. I lost it in Merida I have looked for it off in on for the last 30 years in local bookstores to no avail. Glad to have found it on Amazon. The book was as described, used in good shape. Has been well read and enjoyed before me. I love that it has, though specifics are unknown to me, been around the block a time or two and has a history all of it's own.
peace, rls

Beautiful Book, Teribble Edition (Forgotten Books).
The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison is a sweeping, important, thoroughly enjoyable book. This, however, is not the reason I am submitting this, as enough praise has been lavished upon this work by critics and fans alike for years (not least among them J.R.R. Tolkien.) What I am reviewing specifically is the abominable edition put out by Forgotten Books (of which, suspiciously, there is no publishers info beside a web address). The "Publisher's Preface" is credited as a quote from sacred-texts.com, the "About the Author" is likewise only credited with a URL, this time answers.com. This is all unconventional and seemingly amateurish but forgivable enough for a cheaper edition. Unfortunately, this bizarre inattention or blatant disregard to detail (and what else is a publisher for than paying the strictest possible attention to the minutia of a work?) runs rampant throughout. Spelling errors are rampant and unforgivable. For example, one of the books principal characters, Lord Juss, is called "Lord fuss" three times in as many pages (104, 105, 106). I consulted my 1999 edition of this book by Replica Books, London, and no such errors appear. The beautiful illustrations bu Keith Henderson are strangely washed (grayish) out in comparison to the Replica edition, and the type setting (I can only assume Forgotten Books uses a standard font for all it's publishing) is more suited to a technical journal than a fantasy novel. The laundry list of complaints could continue, but for the sake of brevity I won't go into them. Suffice it to say, Forgotten Books has shoddily pieced together and shipped out a wildly irresponsible printing of a classic book, and I can see no reason for this edition to be bought over any other. Oscar Wilde once said that "Cheap editions of great books may be delightful, but cheap editions of great men are absolutely detestable.",in this case, it's the cheap edition that's detestable. ... Read more

Product Description
USED. PB in good condition. Some wear to covers/edges. Previous owner's name on inside page. Minor yellowing to page edges. (#L128) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Book That Made Me Fall in Love with Fantasy
Ok, I confess I read this book in the series first.I bought myoriginal copy at a roadside flea market for a dime in the early 70's in a rural county in an appalachian state.No idea how it got there.I still have that copy sitting on my shelf beside the Worm Ouroboros, Mistress of Mistresses and The Menzentian Gate.

Eddison created this baroque world similar to the plots and counterplots of Renaissance Europe.It is guaranteed to appeal to adolsecent anqst but there is also enough meat to hook the inquiring mind for a lifetime.I haven't read it in a long time because I don't need to do so, I carry it around in my mind-- from which it peeks now and then when something calls it up.

His prose is deliberately archaic.His books are not an easy read but they well repay reading.

Read Book #3 first, then #2 and finally #1
A great series.Suggest you start, howeverwith Book #3 of the Trilogy, The Mezentian Gate and then this book, A Fish Dinner in Memison, and then finally Book #1, Mistress of Mistresses last. This order is how the books progress #3,2,1, but not how they were written.

Even better is to read The Worm Ouroboros first a couple of times before the Zimiamvian Triology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The arrogance of genius
king wolf offers a first review of this work with the kind of arrogance that may put off a potential reader. However, its an arrogance that Eddison himself would doubtless admire. The review, for all its naked boasts, simply tells the truth. Eddison is brilliant with a brilliance that shines from many angles, and with a light that at once terrifies and appalls

That Eddison is not studied at high levels of education, that he is barely read and marginalised, is a depressing condemnation of the literary world. I feel personally fortunate I was exposed to Eddison's work as a youth. Lucky old me.

greatest esoteric novel in the history of literature
It shouldn't even be necessary to point out that Eddison's books are the high point of twentieth century literature.

It should go without saying that he is the best prose artist in the history of the English-language novel; his writing, and his dialogue in particular, are at least fifteen percent better than whichever lesser genius comes in second (Lord Dunsany, perhaps?).

In a saner world, every college freshman would be expected to read his books, and to at least pretend to understand that the themes Eddison presents within them - the cycles of time, the duality of the godhead, human life lived as a work of conscious art - are the closest approach to Truth that are possible in fiction. (And they are only expressible in fantastic fiction, for we must come at these things indirectly and through the side door of Myth.) Eddison's novels are not mere works of fiction: above all else, they are works of esotericism. Mistress of Mistresses is the best esoteric novel ever written. The essential message of mysticism is contained in its very structure.

But not one man in a thousand can hear the real message this book contains. The reason that Eddison is obscure and his infinite virtues remain almost unsung is, of course, because ours is a civilization, and indeed a world, so unrepentantly degenerate that it isn't capable of understanding his works. A typical professor presented with The Worm or Mistress of Mistresses is in the position of an ape given a laptop computer: the best he can do is to bang his head against it. For what Eddison brings us is truth, at both the spiritual and mundane levels, and truth is more than little men can bear.

You, dear reader, are probably already a cut above, to even have taken time to find out that Eddison exists and to bother to read a review of his books.

If you haven't read any of these works, you now have a great opportunity to evolve further away from the "common muck", as Eddison might call them, and perhaps later on, even agree with the tone and substance of this review. Or, you can do what the common muck will do: instead of attempting to rise to Eddison's level, resent the fact that he is simply smarter, better and more enlightened than you, or any other novelist you've ever come across. And most of all, of course, resent that he doesn't care if you know it.

The chance, and the choice, are yours.

Re: what a great mini-series this would make
I read E.R. Eddison's books many years ago, but they are still vivid in my memory.I loved the way the author could write Elizabethan dialogue as if he had lunch with Shakespeare everyday. The characters were so colorful, the scenes richly painted, and the strange, time-and-space-roving Lessingham had another life here in this other Europe, that seems to me now like something Tolkien might have wanted for his Fifth Age of Middle Earth.
I yearned for years that someone would make a film or films of The Lord of the Rings.I grew old waiting, but then it happened. Maybe someday there will be a Worm Ouroboros or a Mistress of Mistresses. I know the language would have to be made more simple and most of the philosophy dumped, but to see Lord Gro, of Ouroboros, doomed always to be a traitor, come to his end, or that grand villain of Mistresses, the Vicar of Rerek take time out from his plotting to be 'a washing of his cursed dogs' in his casstle yard, would be a mad treat.
Winston Chruchill once said that schoolboys should be allowed to study Latin as a reward, and Greek as a treat.Readers with imagination and an appreciation for language should be made lighter nad dizzy with the richness of Eddison's prose.

A fantasy world for the grown up thinking reader
If you tire of Lord of the Rings or endless triologies then Mistress of Mistresses is for you. It is set in a fantasy world similar to 16th Century Europe. The book demands concentration, a knowledge of philosophy and poetry. But beware. It will send you off on a lifelong hunt into these fields. You may end up learning Ancient Greek or Latin. You will fall in love with the women and follow the heroes blindly. Read, enjoy and return to. Like a good wine it matures well.

Perfection in romantic fantasy
This is a book of unearthly beauty.While I felt that Eddison's THE WORM OUROBOROS was somewhat on the light side, MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES captures the vision of romantic heroism, both in its peaks of joyful experience and its dark ambiguity.It is almost impossible to describe rapture in such a way as to actually evoke it in the reader---Eddison does this not once but several times.Yet looming behind the pleasures of flesh and spirit is a wintry grandeur, a coldness of sheer height and a thanatosis that makes one shiver.

The book begins and ends with death and the plot is standard.There is no character development---the characters are (sometimes literally) archetypes.It is not really a story.It is a vision---a painting that one would gaze at for hours.The value of this book lies in the strength of that vision and the beauty with which it is portrayed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

the highest summit of art
It shouldn't even be necessary to point out that Eric Eddison's books are the high point of twentieth century literature.

It should go without saying that he is the best prose artist in the history of the English-language novel; his writing, and his dialogue in particular, are at least fifteen percent better than whichever lesser genius comes in second (Lord Dunsany, perhaps?).

In a saner world, every college freshman would be expected to read his books, and to at least pretend to understand that the themes Eddison presents within them - the cycles of time, the duality of the godhead, human life lived as a work of conscious art - are the closest approach to Truth that are possible in fiction. (And they are only expressible in fantastic fiction, for we must come at these things indirectly and through the side door of Myth.)

The reason that Eddison is obscure and his infinite virtues remain almost unsung is, of course, because ours is a civilization, and indeed a world, so unrepentantly degenerate that it isn't capable of understanding his works. A typical professor presented with The Worm or Mistress of Mistresses is in the position of an ape given a laptop computer: the best he can do is to bang his head against it. For what Eddison brings us is truth, at both the spiritual and mundane levels, and truth is more than the little men of this world can bear.

You, dear reader, are probably already a cut above, to even have taken time to find out that Eddison exists and to bother to read a review of his books. (And be assured that this door is shut to the modestly endowed, as a survey of reviews on the web will reveal. Books on the level of Eddison, particulary the Zimiamvia trilogy, cannot be written with the masses in mind. This is the very definition of elite literature.)

If you haven't read any of these works, you now have a great opportunity to evolve further away from the "common muck", as Eddison might call them, and perhaps later on, even agree with the tone and substance of this review. Or, you can do what the common muck will do: instead of attempting to rise to Eddison's level, resent the fact that he is simply smarter, better and more enlightened than you, or any other novelist you've ever come across. And most of all, of course, resent that he doesn't care if you know it.

The chance, and the choice, are yours.

If this is fantasy I prefer reality
It's really hard to express how bad this book is. And to think that on his cover I read a praise from "the master" himself (ie Tolkien). I wonder what they put in his pipe that day! This story is a repulsive conglomerate of wanna-be fantasy scenarios, victorian fashions, latin and greek reminiscences. The characters are stereotypical (beautiful, strong, etc.) and seem to be all taken from some idiotic"high society" club. You get no impression of a living, warm, pulsating, lively world, but just of a few snobs wasting their time and yours. And how logically irritating can be to have characters citing latin and greek verses of our world? The prose tries desperately to sound ornate and elegant but is just convoluted and cold.

Mature British Fantasy that Predates The Hobbit
The Zimiamvian trilogy is a philosophy beautifully realized through Eddison's deftly extruding a world based on Beauty, his "fundamental value" of the universe (but how it's accomplished you'll just have to read for yourself). The fact that he starts with a philosophy means that his mindset throughout Zimiamvia is consistent and allows him to progress confidently through plot, prose, and poetry.

He describes environments with sumptuous imagery, but the best of his writing is in how he conveys that which is left unsaid: in the wonderful, bantering conversations, in the way Fiorinda conveys so much in the simple tilt of her head. Indeed, transitory beauty found in the fleeting moment was one of Eddison's obsessions, and important to the books. Simple gestures create changes in mood and atmosphere and it's fascinating to see Eddison impart these sweeping temporal phantasms again and again.

My only criticism is that Eddison's Victorian sentiments towards the roles of men and women can be quaint. But he obviously loved these characters and his commitment to them and to the philosophy behind Zimiamvia makes them utterly convincing, and such anachronisms are easily forgiven. After all, he fully admitted that his idea of utopia might not be everyone's.

This edition of the Zimiamvian books (Mistress of Mistresses - published in 1935, A Fish Dinner in Memison, and The Mezentian Gate all in one volume) also has the benefit of an introduction and wonderful footnotes by Paul Edmund Thomas which helped me since I'm uninitiated in the scholarship of Scandinavian and Viking sagas and a little rusty on some of the classics, to which Eddison makes copious references. I don't know if the individual books have the benefit of such notes, but I would recommend seeking out a copy with them if you're not intimately familiar with those subjects (also with Renaissance Italian political intrigue, European art history, and, in one passage, cricket match terminology). But please don't let this deter you from reading these marvelous books. Thomas' notes are conversational and even funny sometimes, which makes them very accessible. As of the writing of this review, the book is out of print, but I easily found a cheap used copy online and I encourage you to find one, too.

This should not be out of print - head for the library
... and look for it, or the individual titles:Mistress of Mistresses, Fish Dinner in Memison, The Mezentian Gate.This is fantasy of the highest order, and unlike anything else you might read.The prose itself is unusually beautiful.Though not writing the same as any of them, I place him in my pantheon of writers with Gene Wolfe, Thomas Pynchon, Kazantzakis (more than a few similarities there), perhaps Sam Delany.I first got recommended his less subtle, but still great, book The Worm Ourobouros back in the late 60's as a follow-on to Tolkien.This is a much more grown-up vision.

Awesome, unique, larger than life - but demanding - fantasy.
Ornate and splendid, Eddison's trilogy is by far the most audacious andambitious fantasy I've read. The third volume is sadly incomplete, Eddison(like Peake) having died before he could finish it; but fortunately he hadwritten the final sections, and it is the middle that is fragmentary. Eventhe plot summaries which do exist show that some of the best scenes infantasy were, tragically, never written! The books are set in the world ofZimiamvia, where superhuman noblemen and women love, die, fight and endureintricate political wrangling. What is unusual about the books is theirunderlying philosophy, whose gradual revelation and embellishment is thereal purpose of all this plot-mongering. To say more would be to reduce theintellectual excitement of discovering it. This is not an easy,story-teller's yarn, but a demanding AND REWARDING project. Its very proseis rich, dense and ornate, appropriate to the grandeur and seriousness ofthe author's intent. This is high fantasy for grown-ups. I like a bit ofescapism as much as the next person, but it is also good to see the genre(before it WAS a genre) being used to a much higher purpose. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Eddison for the masses
This is Eric Eddison's first novel. It is shorter than the masterpieces that followed, and has a rather tacked-on last chapter entitled "Valhalla", of which Eddison himself later said should not have been added. He writes in his usual faux-jacobian prose, and while it still blows the doors off of anything any other writer could come up with, in this one it is not quite up to the superhuman standards set in his later books. Nor are the philosophical themes as deep, the story quite as engaging, the characters quite so well-wrought.

In other words, this is a great writer warming up to the task of creating the 20th centuries' greatest masterpieces, Ouroboros and Zimiamvia.

The question is, is it worth buying for the Eddison devotee, or for someone interested in Viking literature, seeing as how it's long out of print and rather pricey? The answer is, absolutely, if you can get it at any kind of reasonable price. I frankly don't see why this one is out of print. This is a far more accessible novel than the Zimiamvia books and one would think the mass public would be more inclined towards this one than any of Eddison's books. In short, Eddison at 70 percent is still better than just about anyone else at 100 percent, so don't hesitate for a moment if you are a fan of his.

Flawed but one of the Best "Saga" Novels
Affecting the ornate cadences of King James English, which was the common usage of 19th century saga translations, E.R. Eddison here recreates the saga that might have been (had one survived) of Styrbiorn Olafsson, heir to one-half of the Swedish throne in the tenth century. Styrbiorn, surnamed "the Strong" for his remarkable size and physical accomplishments, is mentioned only briefly in Snorri Sturlasson's Heimskringla (the Norse Book of Kings) and elsewhere, and does not seem to have merited a saga of his own to chronicle his rather brief and tumultuous life. At the least, no such saga has survived.

Early on Styrbiorn establishes his viking credentials when he goes into a voluntary three-year exile at the urging of King Eirik, his uncle, who will not consent to share the throne with him until he has demonstrated a certain amount of Norse maturity. Although a youth of prodigious strength, who amuses himself by wrestling with his pet ox in his spare time, and of unusual fairness, Styrbiorn is also somewhat of a dullard by modern standards -- unable to fathom the deeper matters of policy and human interaction. Still he is an honorable fellow and not unintelligent in his own way as he demonstrates in his dealings with the Jomsburg vikings, who accept him as one of their leaders, despite his extreme youth, after a dramatic shipboard duel and, later, in his encounter with the legendary Danish King Harold Gormsson (surnamed "Blue-Tooth" for his rather prominent dental problems).

Still, Styrbiorn is ultimately undone by his own impetuousness and susceptibililty to the allure of the young and beautiful wife of his uncle, the legendary Sigrid the Haughty. Having returned to Sweden from his voluntary exile earlier than promised and discovering himself drunk in Sigrid's bed, after a dream-like carousal of the night before, Styrbiorn is unable to suppress his shame and despair at having cuckholded Eirik, his uncle and benefactor. Enraged by Styrbiorn's apparently brutish rejection of her after their steamy nighttime tryst, Sigrid now plays Potiphar's wife to Styrbiorn's Joseph and cries out that she has been raped and violated by him.

Eirik, knowing Styrbiorn's past arrogance only too well, is more than willing to believe the worst of him, and swiftly chases Styrbiorn from the palace and kingdom, leaving his nephew with no other means to reclaim his patrimony but the sword. Nor does Styrbiorn scruple at this, though it galls him to do it, and, in a dramatic confrontation with his uncle, casts his hopes in a final toss for all or nothing on Fyrisfield. But Styrbiorn is undone as the battle goes against him and falls in the conflict while those of his followers who survive must flee into the woods to save their lives.

Despite the power of the language of this tale, which is both beautifully wrought and heroically evocative, the book ultimately leaves one unsatisfied. The last great battle occurs almost as an afterthought, off-stage, while the final scene is like a deus ex machina in reverse with Odin, the chief god of the Nordic pantheon, seated like some old testament vision on his throne above the earth, prononuncing his verdict -- that he has taken Styrbiorn for his own. We are transported abruptly and without fair warning from the domain of the saga to another place, which is somehow discordant with all that has gone before. It is as though Eddison, who had labored so mightily and with such skill to render this epic tale, had suddenly grown tired of his own words and ended it as best he could, for want of anything more to say.

The book, though finely crafted and with characters who come brilliantly to life in the high-toned speeches placed in their mouths by the author, ultimately totters and stumbles to an awkward and unsatisfying end. Still, for some of the finest prose in English literature (old or modern) or one of the purest evocations of the old Norse sagas and tales, few books have done it better.

SWM

Other saga novels if you're interested:

Eric Brighteyes: The Works of H. Rider Haggard

The Golden Warrior

Saga: A Novel Of Medieval Iceland

The King of Vinland's Saga

Two Ravens

The Greenlanders

Flawed but one of the best "modern" saga recreations.
Affecting the ornate cadences of King James English, which was the common usage of 19th century saga translations, E.R. Eddison here recreates the saga that might have been (had one survived) of Styrbiorn Olafsson, heir to one-half of the Swedish throne in the tenth century. Styrbiorn, surnamed "the Strong" for his remarkable size and physical accomplishments, is mentioned only briefly in Snorri Sturlasson's Heimskringla (the Norse Book of Kings) and elsewhere, and does not seem to have merited a saga of his own to chronicle his rather brief and tumultuous life. At the least, no such saga has survived. Early on Styrbiorn establishes his viking credentials when he goes into a voluntary three-year exile at the urging of King Eirik, his uncle, who will not consent to share the throne with him until he has demonstrated a certain amount of Norse maturity. Although a youth of prodigious strength, who amuses himself by wrestling with his pet ox in his spare time, and of unusual fairness, Styrbiorn is also somewhat of a dullard by modern standards -- unable to fathom the deeper matters of policy and human interaction. Still he is an honorable fellow and not unintelligent in his own way as he demonstrates in his dealings with the Jomsburg vikings, who accept him as one of their leaders after a dramatic shipboard duel, and later in his encounter with the legendary Danish King Harold Gormsson (surnamed "Blue-Tooth" for his rather prominent dental problems). Still, Styrbiorn is ultimately undone by his own impetuousness and susceptibililty to the allure of the young and beautiful wife of his uncle, the legendary Sigrid the Haughty. Having returned to Sweden earlier than promised and discovering himself drunk in Sigrid's bed after a dream-like carousal of the night before, Styrbiorn is unable to suppress his shame and despair at having cuckholded Eirik, his uncle and benefactor. Enraged by his apparently brutish rejection of her after their steamy nighttime tryst, Sigrid now plays Potiphar's wife to Styrbiorn's Joseph and cries out that she has been raped and violated by him. Eirik, knowing Styrbiorn's past arrogance only too well, is more than willing to believe the worst of him, and swiftly chases Styrbiorn from the palace and kingdom, leaving his nephew with no other means to reclaim his patrimony but the sword. Styrbiorn does not scruple at this, though it galls him to do it, and, in a final confrontation with his uncle, casts his hopes in a final toss for all or nothing on Fyrisfield. But Styrbiorn is undone and falls in the conflict while those of his followers who survive must flee into the woods to save their lives. Despite the power of the language of this tale, which is both beautifully wrought and heroically evocative, the book ultimately leaves one unsatisfied. The last great battle occurs almost as an afterthought, off-stage, while the final scene is like a deus ex machina in reverse with Odin, the chief god of the Nordic pantheon, seated like some old testament vision on his throne above the earth, prononuncing his verdict -- that he has taken Styrbiorn for his own. We are transported abruptly and without fair warning from the domain of the saga to another place, which is somehow discordant with all that has gone before. It is as though Eddison, who had labored so mightily and with such skill to render this epic tale, had suddenly grown tired of his own words and ended it as best he could, for want of anything more to say. The book, though finely crafted and withcharacters who come brilliantly to life in the high-toned speeches placed in their mouths by the author, ultimately totters and stumbles to an awkward and unsatisfying end. Still, for some of the finest prose in English literature (old or modern) or one of the purest evocations of the old Norse sagas and tales, few books have done it better. By Stuart W. Mirsky The King of Vinland's Saga ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ian Myles Slater on: The Caviar of Translations?
The story of Egil son of Grim the Bald (Skalla-Grim) is one of the prose works from medieval Iceland known as sagas, and of the major sagas it probably most closely approximates the image popularly associated with the word. The story is multi-generational. It features Viking adventures, and its primary hero is a devotee of Odin, god of kings, warriors, and poets. The hero's grandfather is rumored to be a werewolf, and the hero, himself both warrior and skald (poet), has thrilling encounters with berserkers and outlaws, and engages in a feud with a king, Eric Bloodaxe, whose wife (later the Queen-Mother) is a sorceress.

Anyone expecting the hero to be a handsome Norseman from a storybook is going to be in for a shock, though. There are several such, including Egil's beloved brother, but, like some of his relatives, Egil himself is outstandingly ugly. (An explanation has been proposed recently, pointing out stray details in the verse and prose that suggest a now-recognizable medical disorder, possibly genetic.)

The work-a-day life of medieval Iceland, with law-suits arising from it, central to the majority of the Sagas of the Icelanders, shows up only at intervals, as the action ranges from the Arctic Circle to England, and the central North Atlantic to the eastern Baltic.

"Egil's Saga" is thought by some to be the earliest of the "Sagas of the Icelanders," and is in some ways a good, although atypical, introduction to them. Egil's circle of friends, enemies (especially Queen-Mother Gunnhild), and family members (most notably his equally formidable, if much more attractive, daughter, Thorgerd) show up in other sagas, especially "Njal's Saga' and "Laxdaela Saga."

Egil was counted as an ancestor by Snorri Sturluson, the author of the "Prose Edda," an explanation of myths, heroic legends and traditional verse forms, and of the "Heimskringla," a massive history of Norway through biographies of its kings. Snorri is one of the few Icelandic authors of the period whose name and attributed works both survive. The temptation to assign this saga to him is understandable, and has been championed by distinguished scholars. It doesn't seem to have been shared by the medieval scribes who transmitted the text.

The theory was accepted by the first English translator of "Egil's Saga," W.C. Green, whose version of 1893 was based on an obsolete edition of the text, and rendered it in a rather stuffy and prudish English. It has the advantage of being out of copyright, and various versions are available on-line, including at least one which claims to have been revised to bring it closer to the Icelandic original, not least by restoring some passages omitted to avoid giving offense to Victorian sensibilities. (In Reverend Green's world, men don't need to "go outside" after drinking all night for any *specified* reason...)

Green's translation also had some annoying minor features. He followed the dubious practice of tacking on vowels to names, to make sure his readers could tell the boys from the girls. So Gunnhildr -- everyone else's Queen Gunnhild -- shows up as Gunnhilda, and the lady Hildirid (Old Icelandic Hildiridhr) becomes Hildirida. Perhaps Reverend Green should have remembered that Gunnhild was reported to be a sorceress, and known to be spiteful (a prominent factor in this saga, and several others, including the great "Njal's Saga") before meddling with her name!

Anyone reading Green's translation, even an "improved" version, should remember that it is NOT a perfect introduction to the sagas in general, or to this one in particular. And the saga has been fortunate in its twentieth-century translators.

Green's version was followed, over a generation later, in 1930, by this careful, elaborately annotated, translation by E.R. Eddison, whose fantasy novel "The Worm Ouroboros" and historical novel of Viking-Age Sweden, "Styrbiorn the Strong," both had been published in the 1920s.

Eddison's version, originally issued by Cambridge University Press, is not for everyone, but has many merits. Although that original printing is hard to find, and expensive, it was reprinted by Greenwood in 1968, and that version is sometimes available. A new, reasonably priced, reprinting is much to be desired. Given the prices usually asked for it, my advice to the curious would be to try a library. (I count myself fortunate to have acquired a copy in the 1970s.)

Now, as far as the quality of the translation goes, views are mixed. It helped that Eddison was able to use an advance text of what was then the latest scholarly edition, published in 1933, which was still the standard for the next three translations.

However, Eddison's attempt to approximate the sounds and syntax of Old Norse with an English style using as many related words as possible, instead of more familiar equivalents derived from French or Latin, takes getting used to; and some people never do. Eddison is, of course, rather scornful of Green, both for his Victorian English and his prudishness.

On the whole, this translation is the sort of delicacy -- the caviar, if you will -- that some people love, and others never get a taste for, and wouldn't even if it should be readily available.

Now the sagas themselves are notable for an unadorned prose, so the very concept of Eddison's translation was criticized by scholars who reviewed it at the time -- although they added that they found that the result was better than Eddison's theory.

It undoubtedly helped that they had large English vocabularies, and were used to old Germanic syntax -- but, back in the 1960s, I managed to enjoy it without their advantages, although it took a couple of renewals before I finished the library volume.

They did not complain that Eddison's versions of Egil's major poems (which are extremely impressive) are carefully annotated because they badly need the explanations. The language of the skalds (the high-class poets of the medieval Scandinavian world) was esoteric and convoluted in its own time, Egil was renowned for impressively "hard" poems, and Eddison's choice of language and style is unquestionably appropriate for the verse, if not the prose.

As for alternatives:

A much more colloquial translation by Gwyn Jones, for the American-Scandinavian Foundation, was published in 1960, and reprinted in 1970. Jones' version is less "full-bodied" than Eddison's, but still an impressive rendering of the saga's lean prose. (Although I can't agree with Christine Fell's view that his was "the first readable English version." After all, I read and enjoyed Eddison's!)Jones' treatment of Egil's poems is lucid, but hardly even attempts to emulate Eddison's feat of producing verse in something like the original meters. It too, unfortunately, is out of print, but, unlike the 1930 edition of Eddison's translation, Jones' is sometimes available at comparatively reasonable prices. It too could do with a reprinting!

This leaves three more recent versions. The translation, as "Egils' Saga," by Christine Fell, with the poems translated by John Lucas (a sensible division of labor), was published in the old Everyman's Library in 1975. It was included in Everyman Paperbacks in 1985, with some revisions, and reprinted in 1993 with additional bibliography, but seems to be out of print. It may be picked up in the current Everyman Paperback Classics series. I certainly hope so, since it is very readable, although I at first found the prose a little flat after long familiarity with Eddison. The notes and indexes are the closest approximation to Eddison's in a translation, and the scholarship is obviously much more up-to-date than 1930.

(For those who are truly serious students, the Viking Society for Northern Research has announced a new (2003) edition of the Icelandic text, as "Egils Saga," edited by Bjarni Einarsson, with annotations in English, available through Cornell University Press [not seen]. This should supersede the commentary in any existing English translation.)

The Fell / Lucas translation was followed immediately by a Penguin Classics version by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards (1976), which is quite enjoyable. The Glossary of Proper Names is a fairly good index of the characters, and the maps are usable. Footnotes provide translations of some place-names, and a few other details, but the legal issues at stake in various parts of the saga, and the major historical problems whenever Egil brushes up with documented events, cry out for annotation.

The five-volume translation series of"The Complete Saga of the Icelanders," published in 1997, includes Bernard Scudder's version of "Egil's Saga." His translation takes the lead place in a recent (2000) Penguin Classics volume, "The Sagas of the Icelanders," a massive trade paperback based on "The Complete Sagas." It is there one of ten sagas, and seven shorter tales.

It was also announced as a separate volume in the Penguin Classics for Spring 2005 (as "Egil's Saga," of course), which I have not yet examined. Scudder's version is similar in style to the Jones, Fell, and Palsson and Edwards translation, and his rendering of the poems aims at the meaning more than the style, following Jones and Palsson and Edwards, rather than Eddison or (the less extreme) Lucas in trying to give an impression of the artistry of the verse.

In practical terms, for most people this comes down to Green, in one an on-line or other digital version, and a translation from Penguin; probably Scudder's, if it is the only one Penguin keeps in their catalogue.

Reprintings of Eddison, Jones, and Fell would all be welcome.

I would NOT advise relying on any version of Green exclusively, but it might be consulted if convenient -- and its electronic forms may be searchable, which can be handy.

For those interested in a modern fiction writer's view of Egil and his associates, the late Poul Anderson's "Mother of Kings" is an interesting quasi-historical novel in which Egil is a major character. (I call it quasi-historical because, as Anderson warns, the story adopts attractive medieval legends about Gunnhild on some key points, instead of following the historical evidence; and a fantasy interpretation, although not required, is not ruled out.) ... Read more

Product Description
The Worm Ourorobos is second only to the Lord of the Rings in the pantheon of 20th century English fantasy. E.R. Eddison, who moved in the same literary circles as Tolkien, was praised by Tolkien as "The greatest and most convincing writer of 'invented worlds' that I have read".

The Worm Ourorbos was originally published in a very limited and now very rare edition in 1922. Eddison wrote three sequels set in roughly the same universe, but none of them have the sustained pacing and invention of Ouroboros.

Before diving in, there are a few things to be aware of. The rich language Eddison uses is based on Tudor and Jacobean English, with some modern anachronisms; it may take some getting used to, and occasionally a trip to the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary. The narrator, one Lessingham, who appears in a very brief framing sequence, disappears a few dozen pages in. The book is set on Mercury; however, keep in mind this is not science fiction, so this is not literally the planet Mercury. Eddison on several occasions in the body of the book calls the world 'Middle Earth', and the setting is recognizably the Midgard of the Norse myths and sagas, although for some unexplained reason the denizens worship the Greek pantheon. The cast of characters, like Tolkien, are principally masculine, albeit with a couple of standout female leads. And lastly the various nationalities (Demons, Witches, Pixies, Imps, etc.) are not really separate species as in Tolkien; they are all essentially humans.

Once you get past these details, The Worm Ouroboros is a thoroughly enjoyable book which will satisfy anyone who has finished the Lord of the Rings and wants a new immersive universe.

This Kindle edition includes a map not available in the original, for which I am solely responsible.--J.B. Hare ... Read more

Product Description
Illustrations by Keith Henderson ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1916.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
1968 - Ballantine Books - Paperback - 1st Edition - A Fish Dinner in Memison - By E.R. Eddison - Hard to Find Edition - Never Read - Inside clean, light, spine solid, pages tight, no tears, no creases, no spine creases - Classic Fantasy - Collectible ... Read more