Five pieces of runic poetry

by Anonymous, Thomas Percy (Translator)

Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore and linguist, translated several Chinese works from Portugese manuscripts; however, his most famous work is Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). His interest in early English work, however, appears to stem from this translation of several Icelandic works, containing: "The incantation of Hervor"; "The dying ode of Regner Lodbrog"; "The ransome of Egill, the scald"; "The funeral song of Hacon"; and "The complaint of Harold".

126 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 27, 2014

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Mårtens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very important for its time and a great influence on later culture, but the English translation does not hold up. It is full of errors and makes no attempt to replicate the flow of the original poetry; yet it still manages to convey some of its force and speed.

Mistranslations serve to exaggerate the bloodthirst of the originals. Two examples:

1. Rainer's comparisons between war and making love (p. 34) are inversed. In the original he says that the battles vas-at "were not" like kissing a beautiful woman, but in Percy's translation the negation is left out!

2. Another mistranslation renders the Norse drekkum bjór af bragði / ór bjúg-viðum hausa, literally "We will soon drink beer out of the curved woods of skulls [HORNS]" as "Soon [...] we shall drink Beer out of the sculls of our enemies." (p. 40) These were certainly warlike times, but such cannibalism is never attested in Old Norse sources.