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THE HAUSTLQNG OF DJOD6LFR OF HVINIR. Edited and translated by Richard North. ,Enfield Lock, Middlesex: Hisarlik Press, 1997. Pp. lxvii + 105. $29.95.
pjodolfr of Hvinir's "Haustlong" (`autumn-long') is one of the oldest extant Old Norse skaldic poems. It is traditionally dated to the ninth century, but it is preserved in fourteenth-century manuscripts of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. "Haustlong" is a so-called shield poem, that is, a narrative poem in which the skald commemorates the gift of a shield from a benefactor by detailing mythological tales that were painted on the shield; in this case, Loki's adventures with the giant pjazi and Dorr's fight with the giant Hrungnir. "Haustlong" is a notoriously difficult poem, and over the years it has attracted considerable scholarly attention. So far there has been no critical edition of the poem available to the English-speaking reader, and because the earlier editions are outdated and most of the scholarship on "Haustlong" is in German or Scandinavian, the present volume would certainly be welcome to both specialists and non-specialists. Unfortunately, North's edition and translation of "Haustlong" is substandard and cannot be recommended.
The volume consists of a foreword (pp. v-vii), an introduction (pp. xi-lxvii), an edition and translation of the poem on facing pages (pp. 2-1 1), a lengthy commentary to each stanza (pp. 13-87), a glossary (pp. 89-0o2), and a select bibliography (pp. 103-5). The introduction comprises the following sections: "Synopsis of Haustlong" (pp. xiv-xxii); "Style and Genre of Haustl(mg" (pp. xxiii-xxxi); "ejoc1olfr of Hvinir: Life and Times" (pp. xxxi-xli); "Transmission of Haustlpne' (pp. xli-liii); "Treatment of Haustlong in Snmra Edda" (pp. liv-lxiii); "Contextual Prose Passages" (pp. lxiii-lxvii).
As emerges from the following statement in the "Foreword" it is not North's intention to produce a critical edition of "Haustlong" based on a careful sifting and evaluation of previous research; rather, his goal is to present a new edition and a translation that reflect his own interpretations of the text. He writes (p. v): "There is the overwhelming number of suppositions rather than facts which...