Our common sjælegods – Vagn Lundbye THE

NORDIC TESTAMENT

Our common soul matter

A tale in verse
OFKRISTOFFER HOLM PEDERSEN – 1. NOVEMBER 2007
FILED IN: REVIEWS, CULTURAL HISTORY, ART & CULTURE
Vagn Lundbye paraphraser on the good and evil of our common myths and
legends. The result is compelling and beautiful, but in some places even a little
too modern.
Quote
We may be old, but not forgotten
, and sing high deep in your soul.
We are not just to poems
and controls still the kækkes step.
When you feel the forces of you do not know,
then senses you more than what you see.
In birken heard Balder's voice,
and loki call from a basement.
Bjovulf and Bøskva advise you,
when you get lost in a strange place.
The gentle rustle through your blood
is caresses sent to you from the Kraka.
You are never one when you are alone,
but comforted by the heroes you love.
Everything that happens, it has an intention,
and do you remember us, then you also know
that life continues, and the goal of it
is, that life continues, and death make the difference.
The norns in skabelsesmyten, the poem by Vagn Lundbye
I'd like to know, how many, when they think or say their lord's prayer, to actually use
the new version you can find in the new bibles:
– Father in heaven! / Let your name be holy / let your kingdom come / and let it be
the way you want / – here on earth just as it already is in heaven.
rather than the old version:
– Father our, you who are in the heavens! / Hallowed be thy name / thy kingdom
come / thy will be done, as in heaven so also on earth.
For although the first is clearly the more idiomatic and a lot more too, so it's the
question of whether or not the saw his, the mystical and the historical, to a certain
extent yesterday by the fadervoret, when the paraphraser it in the new way. The
transition to "Yo, dad" is in any case no longer so vast.
In the same way is the situation with Vagn Wikipedia re-imagining of THE NORDIC
TESTAMENT – which he calls the large collection of texts that constitute the ancient
nordic myths and legends. Also here the relationship between being flexible
contemporary or the more hardcore faithful to the originals, when the reader cycles
through the three thick volumes: the GODS WALK ON EARTH, HARNISKKLÆDTE
STRUGGLING and BETWEEN HIGH ODIN AND the WHITE CHRIST.
For Vagn Lundbye in his re-imagining chosen to go bold. Not only he writes on
language, he has also written all of the myths on the so-called Bjarkemål – the
special six-strofede, urimede digtform found in the legend of the same name. It
works surprisingly well and ties at the beautiful show the narratives together, from
the creation account to the sagas about the Rolf Krake, and Bjovulf.
A second occurrence Vagn Lundbye has done is that he has added both the verses
and the stanzas, in which he has found it for good. He is not the first that have made,
he points out in the preface, and remser almost apologetisk names like Johannes
Ewald, Adam Oehlenschlæger, N. F. S. Grundtvig, Johannes V. Jensen and
Susanne Brøgger. It is difficult to say anything to these names or to Grundtvig
injunction, that it is more important to the old norse poetry found in a contemporary
context, than in to go up in "a matter of vocabulary".
Here you see Vagn Wikipedia project. It is not his aim to give a philologically correct
translation of the norse myths, but the myths live, the present, and useful for a
contemporary reader. The myths are for him an indispensable part of the nordic
identity, something everyone should be aware of. If he, therefore, in the
gendigtningen must chop a heel and cut a toe, so be it.
But how does it work then? As mentioned before: utterly excellent. Wikipedia
language is rich, and in spite of its nudanske character it has preserved quite a few
old features. And so it is in itself a delight to have all the myths and legends
combined in one whole even with glossaries and explanations in the back.
But anyway, this reviewer places the language of the new. It does not matter in the
less well-known sagas or in some of them, Vagn Lundbye for the first time translates
to English. But, it is still difficult to completely let yourself be seduced by the
Wikipedia version of f.ex. ’Voelve's prophecy’, when one is accustomed to read it in
the older versions. Compare even a stanza, with Thøger Larsen's retelling of 1914.
First Lundbye:
Now, the saints, the high gods
For the assembly to discuss life and death.
They gave names to the gryet and names to the shadows
, And names to the days and the nights and the stars.
So named the animals and the shrines
, And taught to count the hours and years.
And so Th. Larsen:
When rose all the Gods
to the Creator-Chairs,
every holy God,
for Counsel to keep.
Night and Næet
gave the Names,the
Name got Morning
and Noon,
Mørkning and Night
for Years to count.
Wikipedia is, of course, the easiest to understand. But it is not Larsen's version so
much more poetic and singing, so much more old, that it more than outweighs the
educational benefits of Wikipedia? It seems to this reviewer, at least.
A second problem is Wikipedia's own additions, of its locations throughout the
stanzas and the title. Although as I have said, is nothing new in the gendigtninger of
the scandinavian mythology, makes it, unfortunately, that the reader constantly has
to sit with a nagging suspicion about whether what one reads, in fact, is one's
ancestral old remser or just a 2007 poet's personal additions. When its places so
surprised over how modern the ancient scandinavians seems, so is the suspicion
that it is mostly Vagn Lundbye, who has had a finger in the game.Not that it
necessarily makes something, as the Wikipedia add-ons usually are the best
passages in the poems (see box), but the authenticity is often undermined.
With the reservations, it must be concluded that THE NORDIC TESTAMENT is a
jættepræstation, who deserves all possible recognition. Vagn Wikipedia goal is to
make our elder's stories easily available for us, and it is fully managed. He places a
strong between Grundtvig and Peter Madsen (him with the Valhalla comics) in the
long line of big retailers of nordic mythology in Denmark. And even when the beast
die, and kinsman die, Wikipedia's reputation as the paraphraser of THE NORDIC
TESTAMENT live a long time.