Title Legends of the Ring Series --- Author Elizabeth Magee Cover Art --- Publisher Folio Society - 2004 First Printing --- Category Mythology Warnings None Main Characters Sigurd/Siegried, Brynhild/Brunnhilde, Gudrun/Kriemhild Main Elements Gods, dragons, dwarves, giants Website ---

Selected and edited by Elizabeth Magee. Illustrated by Simon Brett. Divided into two sections: the ring legends of Scandinavia and the ring legends of Germany.

While I'm fairly learned in the Greek myths, I knew little of the Norse tales. Sure I knew the names of a handful of gods and creatures and how the world was broken down in various realms and how warriors go the Vahalla to await the final battle of Ragnarok which they are fated to lose and the world will be destroyed and reborn. But there were many gods I knew little about (Tyr, Baldur and I mixed up Freya and Frigg). Heck, I learned the name of Thor's hammer from the Marvel movies (for what its worth, those movies/comics aren't that bad a place to learn about some basics). So I looked forward to expanding my knowledge with this beautiful Folio Society book.

The book is split in two, one for the Scandinavian version of the legends, and the second part dedicated to the Germanic version.

In the Scandinavian part, we learn mainly about the fate of Sigurd, who slays the dragon and takes the treasure, promises himself to a Valkyrie but marries another woman and helps another man marry the Valkyrie instead. There are gods and dwarves, shape-shifting and magical cloaks. Oddly, the "ring" plays very little role at all. In addition to reading Sigurd's tale in both prose and verse, we are given some tales of the gods, of the prophecy of how they came to be and how the world will end, and amusingly, Thor and Loki in drag. And where women, when they are wronged, take up their swords and start severing heads.

In contrast, the Germanic version follows Siegfried. There is a lot less magic, and while he does still take his treasure from a dragon, it sort of happens in the background. One thing about these tales is that the reader/listener was expected to already be familiar with the tale so sometimes they'll leave things out or mention them in passing. And just like the Arthurian legend, the story is jumped forward in time and Siegried grows up in a medieval court and is a knight in shining armour. Everyone is obsessed without courtly honour, and much time was spent worrying about what one would wear, even the men (somehow no matter where they went, they managed to dress up even more magnificently than they had just a couple pages ago), and the women...well they cry a lot? But then the men spend a lot of time crying too. And the battles are ridiculous, did people really travel to visit other kingdoms with 9 thousand men in tow? And of course a handful of heroes can take on thousands upon thousands of enemy men and still remain standing. I did a fair amount of eye rolling in this section it was so over the top. This time we go through the same story in prose, in poem, and as a play!

Magee makes some fun footnotes, pointing out bits that don't make sense (like in one paragraph someone was a child, but in the very next he was supposedly a full grown man), or tries to fill in a gaps that you were expected to know in advance.

If you enjoy reading Christopher Tolkien's books where he published the evolution of his father's works and don't mind reading the same story over and over again with varying amounts of variations between them, you would have no problem here, but I could also see how this could get kind of boring. I actually stopped between the two books to take a break and read something else before starting over again with the same story but different names.

And while I enjoyed the Sigurd/Siefried tale and was interesting to see how it changed over time and place, I wished there had been more regarding the Norse pantheon. On the other hand I had the pleasure of watching an episode of The Vikings and a mother was telling her daughter the story of Thor going fishing and catching Jormungandr and I nearly jumped up and said "I know that story!", so it appears I did pick up something.

Thus, while this book is gorgeous, as all Folio Society books are, I can concede that it is repetitive, and being ancient writings, can take a bit of effort to work one way's through. While some of the poems rhyme they mostly do not since they are translations and one has to sacrifice being true to the content or being true to the rhyme. It can sometimes be hard going through the language and flowery dialog (in the Germanic one about half the dialog is dedicated to saying how wonderful everyone is, or how much greater oneself is compared to everyone else...or crying of course) so this isn't a light read. But I love reading books about mythology and felt it was time to go back to the original sources where I could. And hey, winter during a pandemic, when else do you get the opportunity to not be distracted by other things?

Oh, and speaking of light reads? This book is huge, and of course the paper is thick and good quality...frankly it weighed a ton and I couldn't hold it while I read it, was too much even for placing in one's lap. I had to put it on a pillow and sit cross-legged in front of it, if I had been in an attic I would have imagined myself as Bastian in the Neverending Story movie! But these tales can be found in many forms, and almost certainly you can find them free for an ereader. And if you only want to read one version, I recommend the Scandinavian one, after all if you are reading this review you are probably a fantasy fan and want some gods and monsters mixed in with your heroes!