Reviews for The English Poets

The average rating for The English Poets based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-06-07 00:00:00 Dan Williams Though more than 20 years old now, this is still an incredible overview of the "state of the field" for the major divisions of Norse Literature. I haven't read the new edition, so I don't know how much it has been updated, but things move slowly enough in our field that these essays are still required reading for anyone in the field, in my opinion. The essays do not cover the entire history of the field, but limit themselves to I believe about a 20-30 year period of research for which there was at the time no other summary or bibliographic essay. And the comprehensive bibilographies are extremely helpful! Even if they haven't been updated for the last 20 years, you need look no further for lists of the major publications in the field from the 50s through the mid 80s.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-04-25 00:00:00 Azzam Muhammad Highly scholarly, second edition, collection of critical essays of Old Norse - Icelandic Lit. Do not look for the actual stories of gods or heroic sagas, but rather explanations of how these came to be, how they came to be re-told, what happened when the stories were put down on paper. My favorite essay concerned the impact of courtly literature and Christianity on the later period of Norse literature. Very interesting from a historical perspective. Definitely a college-level text, and I would recommend it as a valuable secondary source should I ever teach an advanced course on Norse myth and saga. It also comes in handy if you want to understand some of the Norse influence in the work of Tolkien or George RR Martin. That's right, GoT fans, an understanding of both Norse and Celtic myth will help you make predictions for Seasons 7 and 8!