The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise

by Christopher Tolkien (Editor)

A fiftieth anniversary reissue of Christopher Tolkien’s masterly translation of the Icelandic Heidrek’s Saga, including the dramatic Battle of the Goths and the Huns, the lyrical Waking of Angantyr, and the unique riddle-contest between King Heidrek and the god Odin. Heidrek’s Saga is a medieval entertainment - a ‘romance’, but a romance that derives little of its matter from the literature of France or Germany. It is an example of a kind of story-telling that was flourishing in Iceland by the beginning of the twelfth century, and which (in contrast to the more celebrated ‘Sagas of the Icelanders’) told of legendary figures whose origins lie far back in time beyond the settlement of the country. The elements of the story, diverse in age and atmosphere, are unified in the theme of a possession bearing an ancestral curse, as it passes down the generations; but the saga’s peculiar value lies in the older poems which the unknown author set into the framework of his narrative, including The Battle of the Goths and the Huns, perhaps the oldest of all the Northern heroic lays, The Waking of Angantyr, source of many eighteenth-century ‘Gothic Odes’, and the unique riddle-contest between King Heidrek and the god Odin in disguise. Translated from the Icelandic with Introduction, Notes and Appendices by Christopher Tolkien, then Lecturer in Old English at New College, Oxford, The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise was first published in 1960 in Nelson’s Icelandic Texts series and has since become extremely difficult to obtain. Marking its fiftieth anniversary of publication, this new hardback edition reproduces the original text so that new academics and devotees may once again study and enjoy the prose and the poetry of this famous saga from the same tradition as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, which under Christopher Tolkien’s editorship became a worthy best-seller in 2009. This edition is available exclusively as a print-on-demand hardback from www.tolkien.co.uk

Genres: Mythology, Medieval, History, Classics, Poetry, Historical, Epic Poetry

100 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Christopher Reuel Tolkien was the youngest son of the author J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973), and is best known as the editor of much of his father's posthumously published work. He drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings, which he signed C. J. R. T. The J. stands for John, a baptismal name that he didn't ordinarily use.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a great deal of material connected to the Middle-earth mythos that was not published in his lifetime. Although he had originally intended to publish The Silmarillion along with The Lord of the Rings, and parts of it were in a finished state, he died in 1973 with the project unfinished.

After his father's death, Christopher Tolkien embarked on organizing the masses of his father's notes, some of them written on odd scraps of paper a half-century earlier. Much of the material was handwritten; frequently a fair draft was written over a half-erased first draft, and names of characters routinely changed between the beginning and end of the same draft. Deciphering this was an arduous task, and perhaps only someone with personal experience of J.R.R. Tolkien and the evolution of his stories could have made any sense of it. Christopher Tolkien had admitted to having to occasionally guess at what his father intended.

Reviews

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hervarar saga ok Heidreks is one of my favourite sagas in all of Old Norse literature. It is such a timeless mythic piece of writing. A fantasy book from Medieval times, and it even went on to become both a main inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien in constructing the stories of his own mythos, and a grand task for his son to work upon.

As one of the fornaldarsögur (legendary/heroic sagas), there is little if any historical accuracy; rather, it is pure work of fantastic fiction that has withstood the test of time.

It is quite short and readable to the experienced and uninitiated alike, but has unfortunately not received the popular attention it so deserves. Most of the saga is written in simple, yet beautiful prose, with the occasional poetic exception, the most important one being The Waking of Angantyr:

Wake, Angantyr! Hervor wakes you, 
sole daughter of you and Tofa. 
Give out from the grave your sharp sword, 
which dwarfs hammered out for Svafrlami.

Hervarth, Hjorvarth, Hrani, Angantyr! 
I wake you all below the tree's roots, 
with helmet and byrnie, with sharp sword, 
with shield and harness, with reddened spear.

You, sons of Arngrim, violent kin, 
have changed greatly for the heaping up of earth, 
while none of the sons of Eyfura will 
speak with me in Munarvag.

So be it for you all within your ribs, 
as if you waste away in an ant hill, 
unless you give the sword which Dvalin hammered; 
it is not fitting for ghosts to hide the precious weapon.'

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks is an Icelandic Fornaldarsaga from the 13th century that contains various Scandinavian traditions combined with a poem called Hlöðskviða which seems to preserve much older traditions based on events featuring battles between Goths and Huns in Migration Period Europe. Certain characters from Hlöðskviða also find parallels in the Old English Widsith.

The Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks tells the story of the mythical cursed sword (each time the sword is drawn from its scabbard it must kill a man) called Tyrfing and how it was forged by the Dwarves Dvalinn and Durin for king Svafrlami and how he lost it to the berserker Arngrim from Bolmsö who gave it to his son Angantyr. Angantyr died during a fight on Samsø against the Swedish hero Hjalmar, whose friend Orvar-Odd buried the cursed sword in a barrow together with Angantyr. In a particularly haunting section of the saga Angantyr's Valkyrie daughter, Valkyrie daughter, the shieldmaiden Hervor visits the barrow and retrieves the sword Tyrfing by summoning her dead father from the barrow to claim her inheritance. The the saga continues with her and her son Heidrek, his banishment from his father's kingdom and adventures with the sword Tyrfing. Heidrek's adventures take him to Reidgotaland, where he marries the kings daughter and has a son named Angantyr. Eventually Heidrek becomes ruler of the Goths and defeats the Hunnish king Humle in battle and captures his daughter Sifka, whom he raped. When Sifka becomes pregnant, she is sent back to her father's kingdom, where she has a son named Hlöd.

The saga now tells the story of how Angantyr inherits his father's kingdom in Gothland and how his stepbrother Hlöd with Hunnish backing arrives to claim half of the Gothic kingdom from his brother. Upon Angantyr's refusal of Hlöd's claim a huge battle ensues between Goths and Huns. The battle commences with an old and grizzled Gothic warrior named Gizur (Odin?) taunting the Huns. In the ensuing battle, Hervor, Angantyr's Valkyrie sister is slain by the invading Hunnish forces. The battle reaches its climatic conclusion with Hlöd's death at the hands of his half brother Angantyr. The final section of the saga is taken up by a somewhat dry section that links the saga to Scandinavian history.

The last section of the saga that includes the Hlöðskviða has become something of scholarly preoccupation with numerous scholars trying to identify the poem with various battles from the Migration Period. Candidates have included everything from the Battle of Nedao to Attila's Battle on the Catalaunian Plains. In this edition Tolkien puts forward is theory that the events in the poem "contain legend and not history" and that "the matter of legend has roots, however much transformed by poets" also that "no actual event has been found in the meagrely recorded history of those times, and surely never will be." The inclusion of a section in the Old English Widsith that mentions Heidrek (Heathoric) together with his sons Angantyr (Incgentheow) and Hlöð (Hlith) is ample proof that the story was well known throughout the Germanic speaking areas of Europe in the Middle Ages.

Christopher Tolkien's edition of this saga is excellent and contains an informative introduction, the Norse text of the saga and an English translation on the opposing page. There's also a few useful appendices that include translations from the beginning of a variant manuscript of the saga and parallels to the work from Örvar-Odds saga. Due to the Tolkien connection the original first edition of this book has become something of a collectors item and fetches high prices on the secondhand market, but the Official Tolkien Bookshop have recently released print on demand copies at a more reasonable price and are available to order on their site. Alternatively there's free downloadable pdf versions available from the Viking Societies online publications site.




Battle of the Goths and Huns, extracted from The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise



The Battle Of The Goths And Huns

Of old they said Humli
of Huns was ruler,
Gizur of the Gautar,
of Goths Agantyr,
Valdar the Danes ruled,
and the Valir Kjar,
Alrek the valiant
the English people.

Hlod, the son of King Heidrek, had been brought up in the halls
of King Humli, his mother's father, and he was the most valiant of all
men, and the most beautiful in appearance, There was an old saying
at that time, that a man was born with weapons or horses; and the
explanation of this is that it was said of those weapons which were
being made at the time when the man was born, and so likewise with
beasts. sheep, oxen, or horses, which were born at the same time: all
this was gathered together in honour of men of noble birth, as is told
here concerning Hlod, the son of Heidrek:

In the Hun-kingdom
was Hlod's birthplace,
with sword and cutlass
and corslet hanging,
ring-adorned helmet
and harsh-edged sword,
horse well-broken
in the holy forest.

Now Hlod learnt of the death of his father, and learnt too that
Agantyr his brother had been made king over all the realm which
their father had held. Then Humli the king and Hlod resolved that
Hlod should go and demand his inheritance from Agantyr his brother,
using fair words at first, as is thus told:

Hlod rode from the east,
heir of Heidrek,
he came to the court
claiming his birhtright,
to Arheimar,
the homes of the Goths;
there drank Agantyr
arval for Heidrek.

And so Hlod came to Arheimar with a great following, as is told in
this verse:

A man he found lingering
late in the open
by the high dwelling.
and hailed him thereafter:
Friend, now hasten
to the high dwelling,
demand of Agantyr
that with me he speak!

The man went in, up to the king's table, and hailed Agantyr with
fair words, and then he said:

Hlod is come here,
Heidrek's offspring,
your own brother,
for battle eager;
mighty this youth is
mounted on horseback;
king! he claims now
converse with you.

When the king heard that, he cast down his knife upon the board
and rose from the table; he put on his coat of mail, and took his white
shield in one hand and the sword Tyrfing in the other. Then there
arose a great din within the hall, as is thus told:

Clamour woke in the court,
with the king rising
each would hearken
to Hlod's greeting
and learn what answer
Agantyr gave.

'You are welcome, Hlod my brother! said Agantyr then. 'Come
in and drink with us; and first let us drink in memory of our
father, for concord between us, us for the honour of us all, with all
the dignity we have!'
But Hlod answered,'We have come here for something other than
the filling of our bellies.' Then he said:

Half will I have
of Heidrek's riches,
of cow and of calf,
of creaking handmill,
tools and weapons,
treasure undivided,
slave and bondmaid
and thier sons and daughters;

the renowned forest
that is named Mirkwood,
the hallowed grave
in Gothland standing,
the fair-wrought stone
beside the Dneiper,
half the armour
owned by Heidrek,
lands and leigemen
and lustrous rings!

Then Agantyr said,'You have no title to this land, and you are
resolved to deal unjustly'; and then he said:

The bright buckler
shall break, kinsman,
the cold lances
clash together,
grim men unnumbered
in the grass sinking,
ere the heritage I share
with Humli's grandson
or ever Tyrfing
in twain sunder!

Yet more Agantyr uttered:

I will give you
gleaming lances,
wealth and cattle
well to content you;
thralls a thousand,
a thousand horses,
a thousand bondsmen
bearing armour.

Each shall get of me
gifts in plenty,
nobler than all that
he now possess;
to every man
shall a maid be given,
the neck of each
by necklace clasped.

I will measure you in silver
as you sit in your chair,
upon your departing
I will pour down gold,
rings shall go rolling
round about you;
a third of Gothland
shall you govern over.

Gizur Grytingalidi, the foster-father of King Heidrek, was at
that time at the court of King Agantyr; he was now very aged.

When he heard Agantyr's offer it seemed that he offered too
much, and he said:

A bountiful offer
for a bondmaid's child-
child of a bondmaid.
though born to a king!
The bastard son
did sit on a mound
while the prince was
parting the heritage.

Hlod became greatly enraged at being called a bastard and the son
of a slave-girl, if he should accept his brother's offer, and immediately
he went away with all his following, and returned home to the land of
the Huns, to King Humli his mother's father, and told him that his
brother Agantyr has refused him an equal division of the inheritance.

Humli the king asked then concerning all that had passed, and he
was very angry that Hlod, his daughters son, should be called the son
of a bondmaid; and he said:

In winter unstirring
let us sit content,
in converse drinking
the costly wine;
let us teach the Huns
to tend their wargear,
which bold-hearted
we shall bear to war.

We shall for you, Hlod,
the host be armed,
fearless-hearted
shall we fight this war,
with twelve year-old warriors
and two-winter foals,
so shall we muster
the might of Hunland.

All that winter Humli and Hlod remained quiet; but in the spring
they gathered together an army so vast that afterwards the land of the
Huns was utterly despoiled of all it's fighting- men. All men went,
from twelve years old and upwards, who were able to bear weapons in
war, and all their horses went, of two years old or more. So great was
the multitude that the men of the phalanxes could be counted by their
thousands only, and by nothing less than thousands; a captain was set
over every thousand, and a standard over every phalanx. There were
five thousands in every phalanx, each thousand containing thirteen
hundreds, and in each hundred were four times forty men; these
phalanxes were thirty-three in number.

When this host had gaethered together they rode through the forest
called Mirkwood, which divided the land of the Huns from the land of
the Goths; and when they came out of the forest they were in a land
of broad populous tracts and level plains. On the plains stood a fair
stronghold, over which Hervor, the sister of Hlod and Agantyr, had
command, together with Ormar her foster-father; they were set there
to defend this land against the army of the Huns, and they had a strong garrison.

One morning at sunrise Hervor stood on a watchtower above the
fortress-gate, and she saw a great cloud of dust from horses' hooves
rising southwards toward the forest, which for a long time hid the sun.
Presently she saw a glittering beneath the dustcloud, as though she
were gazing on a mass of gold, bright shields overlaid with gold,
gilded helms and bright corslets; and then she saw that it was the
army of the Huns, and a mighty host.

Hervor went down swiftly and called her trumpeter, and ordered
him to blow a summons to the host; and then she said,'Take your
weapons and make ready for battle; but do you, ormar, ride to meet
the Huns and challenge them to battle before the south gate of the
stronghold.

Ormar answered:

Surely shall I ride,
my shield holding,
to give battle
for the Gothic people!

Then Ormar rode out of the fortress towards the Huns; he called
out in a great voice and told them to ride on to the fortress--' and out-
side the stronghold-gate, in the plains to the south, there I offer you
battle; and let them await the others, those who first come there'

Now Ormar rode back to the fortress, and Hervor was ready, and
all her army. They rode out of the stronghold with alll the garrison to
meet the Huns; and there a mighty battle arose. But since the
Huns had by far the larger army the slaughter became heavier in
Hervor's host; and at last Hervor fell, and a great compamy around
her. When Ormar saw her fall he fled away, and all the rest, who were
fainthearted. Day and night Ormar rode, as fast as he could, to reach
King Agantyr in Arheimar; but the Huns began now to ravage and
burn far and wide accross the land.

When Ormar came before Agantyr the king, he said:

From the south have I come
to speak these tidings:
fire in the marches
of Mirkwood is raging,
with the gore of men
all Gothland's sprinkled!

And more he spoke:

I know that Hervor
Heidrek's daughter,
your own sister,
has sunk to the earth;
the Hun foemen
felled the maiden
and many more
of your men by her--

In war more happy
than in wooer's converse,
or at a bridal banquet
on bench to seat her.

When King Agantyr heard this, he drew back his lips, and was
slow to speak; at last he said,' In no brotherly fashion have you been
treated, my noble sister.' Then he cast his eye over his following,
and no great company was there with him; and he said:

Full many we were
at the mead-drinking;
when more are needed
the number is smaller.

I see not the man
among my lieges, not though I begged him
and bribed him with rings,
who would surely ride,
his shield bearing,
to seek the host
of the Hun people.

Then Gizur the old spoke:

No single ounce
do I ask from you,
no single coin
of clinking gold;
yet ride I shall,
my shield bearing,
and to the Hun army
offer the war-staff.

Now it was the law of King Heidrek that if an army were invading
a land and the king of that country marked out a field with hazel-poles
and ordained a place of battle, then the raiders should do no ravaging
before the battle's issue was decided.

Gizur now clad himself for war with good weapons. and leapt upon
his horse as if he were a youth. Then he said to the king:

Where shall the Huns be
to war bidden?

The kind answered:

On the Danube-heath
below the Hills of Ash
shall you call them to fight,
their foes meeting;
there often Goths
have given battle,
renown gaining
in noble victories.

Now Gizur rode away until he came to the host of the Huns; but
he rode no nearer than within earshot, and called out in a great voice:

Daunted are your legions,
doomed your leader,
banners rise over you,
Odin is wrathful!

And then he said:

On the Danube-heath
below the Hills of Ash
I call you to fight,
your foes meeting;...
may Odin let the dart fly
as I prescribe it!

When Hlod heard the words of Gizur, he cried:

Seize you Gizur
Gryntingalidi,
Agantyr's man
come from Arheimar!

But Humli the king answered him, We must not harm heralds
who ride alone.'

Then Gizur said,' Neither the Huns nor their hornbows make us
afraid!' Then he struck spurs to his horse and rode back to King
Agantyr, and went before him, and greeted him with fair words.
The king asked whether he had met with the king of the Huns, and
Gizur answered, ' I spoke with them, and summoned them to the
battlefield on the Danube-heath, in the dales of strife.'

Agantyr asked how great was the host of the Huns, and Gizur
replied, ' Huge is their multitude':

Of soldiers have they
six phalanxes,
every phalanx
has five thousands,
every thousand
thirteen hundreds,
and a full hundred
is four times counted.

Agantyr learnt now of the strength of the Hunnish host, and then
he sent out messengers to every quarter, summoning to him every man
who could bear arms and would give him service. He marched then
to the Danube Heath with his army, and it was very great; and the
Hunnish host came against him, and it was as great again.

On the next day they began the battle, and all that day they fought,
and in the evening they went to their tents. They fought thus for
eight days without the captains being wounded, but no-one could
number the fallen. But both by day and night men thronged in to
Agantyr from every quarter, and thus it was that he had no fewer
men than at the beginning of the battle. And now the fighting grew
yet more bitter than before; the Huns were ferocious. seeing their
case, that only in victory lay hope of life, and that it would be of little
avail to ask quarter of the Goths. But the Goths were defending their
freedom and the land of their birth against the Huns, and for this they
stood firm, and each man urged on his comrade. When the day was
far spent the Goths pressed on so hard that the Hunnish legions gave
way before them; and seeing this Agantyr strode out from behind
the shield-wall and up into the foremost rank, and in his hand he held
Tyrfing, and he cut down both men and horses; then the ranks fell
apart before the kings of the Huns, and brother struck at brother.
There Hlod fell and Humli the king, and the Huns took to flight; but
the Goths slew them, and made such carnage that the rivers were
choked and turned from their courses, and the valleys were filled with
dead men and horses.

Agantyr went to search among the slain, and finding his brother
Hlod he said:

Treasures uncounted,
kinsman, I offered you,
wealth and cattle
well to content you;
but for war's reward
you have won neither
realm more spacious
nor rings glittering.

And then he said:

We are cursed, kinsman,
your killer am I!
It will never be forgotten;
the Norns doom is evil.

Christopher Tolkien translation.

[Isabella Leake · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you're married to my husband, you learn a lot about Old Norse literature without trying to. You gain familiarity with the genres and names of the texts, and you pick up on which ones are considered best. After twelve years of listening (mostly enraptured) to this guy talk, you start to assume that there are no more unknowns. Even if you haven't read it all, you know about everything that exists.

So I was pretty surprised when Joseph told me about a legendary saga that I couldn't remember ever hearing about. I was excited to read it, because the only other legendary saga I know is The Saga of the Volsungs, which I have struggled to read and struggled to like from my college days until now. (It's "a mess," Joseph says, which doesn't prevent him from loving it, but maybe justifies my aversion.)

Heidrek's Saga is a fine piece of writing with fascinating elements. It tells a long-ago legendary story of a king's son dispossessed of his inheritance because he (accidentally?) killed his brother by throwing a stone at him in anger. Heidrek leaves his father's house and ends up becoming the son-in-law of both the Gothic and Hunnish kings, a man of immense wealth, power, and prestige, but his life is cursed and ends in slaughter at the hand of his slaves. Then his sons, one a Goth and the other a Hun, fight over their inheritance. The book ends with a long series of genealogies showing how the medieval Scandinavian monarchies were descended from Heidrek.

The narrative style with its terse humor is more like those family sagas that I dearly love, and less like the aforementioned not-so-loved Saga of the Volsungs. Heidrek is a gem of a saga from beginning to end, enlivened with a considerable amount of poetry, both a long segment where Heidrek's battle-loving mother summons up her dead father to hand over the ancestral sword he's been buried with, and a very long and entertaining riddle contest between Heidrek and Odin.

The saga gave me a lot to think about in terms of the instability of monarchy in the medieval world. I had been used to think of, say, the Wars of the Roses and the utter volatility of power in 15th century England as a historical anomaly. But as I read this book and contemplated similar stories and histories, I realized that stable monarchy is much more the exception than the rule. The assumption that kings hold incredible power and wealth and can expect retain it and pass it on to their heir is quite a modern one, I think. All the volatility makes the medieval world what it is.

Contemplating the volatility led me, of course, to ponder that bestseller of the Middle Ages, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, and its famous image of the Wheel of Fortune. I don't think I've ever before grasped just how meaningful that image must've seemed, and how captivating these stories of downfall would have been in a world where power was so volatile. Fortunes for those in lofty positions perched atop the Wheel can reverse with breathtaking speed and absolutely no warning. It makes for a very compelling, dramatic story, an ideal plot for someone like Shakespeare or the people who first began telling Heidrek's saga.

[Volsung]

An excellent fornaldarsaga (saga of legendary times): though less obviously famous than Völsunga Saga, it is full of good things, of which the Waking of Angantyr (an Eddic-metered poem inserted in the saga), the riddle-contest with Óðinn, and the Battle of the Goths and Huns (a prose account interspersed with verses believed to be of great antiquity) are the most famous. The saga itself is not without inconsistancies and inbalances: for example the saga shifts almost imperceptibly from the setting of maritime Scandinavia and draugr-haunted island barrows to the steppes and mountains of eastern Europe (hence the final conflict between Goths and Huns). Also the cursed-sword motif, which works out its doom throughout Angantyr's family, resulting in final tragedy, may be considered imperfectly realized because of some inconsistancies; but, ignoring this fact, it remains for the imaginative reader (as does the saga generally) a potent story.

This edition contains both the original Old Icelandic as well as a facing-page translation. The saga is justifiably a famous text among philologists, and the accompanying scholarly notes by Christopher Tolkien are excellent. Among other points of interest, the cursed sword's name, Tyrfingr, appears in one instance to refer to a people or a place, and may be a relic of the old Gothic tribal name "the Tervingi"; and in the name "Harvaða fjöllum" (Harvatha mountains) is preserved here alone the native Germanic name for the Carpathian mountains, with the stem "Karpat" as recorded by Ptolemy undergoing the regular sound-changes of Grimm's Law. (For Indo-Europeanists this means that whenever the Germanic consonant shift took place it was some time after the wandering Germanic tribes had encountered the Carpathian mountains, since the name was fed into the sound-shift -- not to mention indicating that the Germanic consonants are the innovations, not the original IE consonants.)

As a final evaluation, the saga (despite inconsistancies) makes for both an excellent read and a highly provacative scholarly exploration.

[pearl · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a lot of fun! Though much of the ending is now lost to me, obscured by the nonsensical (i.e. frustratingly stupid) riddling game between Gestumblindi and Heidrek that took place over an entire chapter.

The story was at its best when there were battles, suckers to be swindled, and prophecies afoot. Hervor was the best character by far. Kings are categorically terrible people. And who's carrying Tyrfing anyway?

[AnneMarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

sick as hell. big fan of odd the fellow who shows up for like three pages, fucks around, is a little evil, and apparently has his own saga?

major shoutout to mr bond for introducing me to the epic highs and lows of the fornaldarsögur

looks like i will be locking myself in the icelandic room at the library for the foreseeable future 🤓🤓

[Lauren Huff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is easily my favorite of the sagas that I've read so far. The story is engaging, dramatic, and at times hilarious. Christopher Tolkien's notes are thorough and very interesting. This would be a great introductory saga to anyone who has never read one before.

[Tess Bloxham · Rating 3 out of 5]

why so many riddles??

[Dan McCollum · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's somewhat a shame that Christopher Tolkein's main writing output throuhgout much of his life was related solely to the editing of his father's works. As much as I would have to have the world deprieved of those works, based on the quality of Tolkein's translation of "The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise" I can't help but think we lost the output of an amazing scholar of Norse literature. After reading this work, the Saga has become one of my absolute favorites - it's a great story with amazing characters (Hervor!!!!), all helped by C. Tolkein's own literary abilities. For those Middle-Earth enthusiasts, this Saga contained references to Mirkwood and other concepts whichwould later reappear in Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. Plus the translation of the poetry contained within the Saga is excellent as well.

[Levi Gadd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Tolkien (the son of the acclaimed J. R. R. Tolkien) faithfully translates this saga, filling in the gaps by meticulously comparing other manuscripts in order to deliver a coherent and readable Norse classic.

The story concerns the curse of the sword Tyrfing and the subsequent generational effects it has upon the royal family to which it is bestowed. This sword was forged by Dvalin and Durin as a peace offering to a passing warrior who attempted to kill them. However, they tell him that this sword (great though it is) will be the death of all who wield it. Thus the curse is set in motion.

Hervör, an exceedingly beautiful woman, ailed by her lust for battle, goes to her father’s grave. With him is buried Tyrfing, which he inherited. Hervör, in selfish ambition, takes the sword from her father’s grave, caring not for the curse it will bring upon her progeny. Tyrfing, taking control of its own fate, passes through Hervör’s offspring, thus becoming the bane of her line.

This saga is haunting, dark, and filled with the essence of true northernness. It will surely descend you into the state of Faërie that J. R. R. Tolkien so often speaks of in his essays. Furthermore, it is complemented by an essay by Christopher Tolkien himself on the historicity of the Battle of the Huns and the Goths.

[Levi Gadd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Tolkien (the son of the acclaimed J. R. R. Tolkien) faithfully translates this saga, filling in the gaps by meticulously comparing other manuscripts in order to deliver a coherent and readable Norse classic.

The story concerns the curse of the sword Tyrfing and the subsequent generational effects it has upon the royal family to which it is bestowed. This sword was forged by Dvalin and Durin as a peace offering to a passing warrior who attempted to kill them. However, they tell him that this sword (great though it is) will be the death of all who wield it. Thus the curse is set in motion.

Hervör, an exceedingly beautiful woman, ailed by her lust for battle, goes to her father’s grave. With him is buried Tyrfing, which he inherited. Hervör, in selfish ambition, takes the sword from her father’s grave, caring not for the curse it will bring upon her progeny. Tyrfing, taking control of its own fate, passes through Hervör’s offspring, thus becoming the bane of her line.

This saga is haunting, dark, and filled with the essence of true northernness. It will surely descend you into the state of Faërie that J. R. R. Tolkien so often speaks of in his essays. Furthermore, it is complemented by an essay by Christopher Tolkien himself on the historicity of the Battle of the Huns and the Goths.

[Thirza · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can f ind my summary of this beautiful saga here. I love this story, it's so adventurous and tragic!

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite sagas, it's both short and jam-packed with crazy action and plot points.

[Thijs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very great translation (but how would I know how well it was translated?) from a cool old Norse tale.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful mess of a saga. Riddles, narrows, Goths and Huns, dwarves, cursed sword, and more!

[Michael Eklund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the scenes and lyrics are very strong.

This is partly a very old saga. But how old? And is any of it traceable to persons, geography or historical events?

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The parts I enjoyed the most were the riddles and the footnotes on linguistic artifacts.