The Saga of the Volsungs; The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, Together with the Lay of Kraka

Translated from the Old Norse by Margaret Schlauch. First Printing 1930. Third Printing 1964. Because of its important connection with the Nibelung legend, the 'Völsunga saga' is of unusual interest to students of comparative literature and folklorists, no less than to students of the sagas and of Old Norse lore generally. A new English translation of this saga would seem amply justified on that ground alone. There are other reasons which make such an undertaking still more desirable. As the translator points out in her introduction, the Morris version of the saga "is no longer as accessible as such an important text surely deserves to be"; and she adds: "the excessively archaic language he chose to employ, out of very respect for his original, is unfortunately all but incomprehensible in places, especially to a reader who does not know Old English." Although far below the 'Völsunga saga' in literary excellence, 'Ragnars saga loðbrókar' deserves to be placed with the former, of which it is in a sense a continuation. Together with these here appears a new English version of 'The Lay of Kraka' ('Krákumál'), better known in English as 'The Death Song of Ragnar', a forceful expression of the spirit of the vikings.