Echoes of Valhalla
Subtitle: the afterlife of the eddas and sagas
By: Jón Karl Helgason ; translated by Jane Victoria Appleton
Contributors: Appleton, Jane, translator
Publisher: Reaktion Books Ltd
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781780237152
Subjects: History and criticism; Eddas; Adaptations; Old Norse poetry
Description: "Echoes of Valhalla tells the story of how disparate, age-old poetry and prose originally recorded in remote areas of medieval Iceland have come to be a part of our shared cultural experience today. J?n Karl Helgason looks at comic books, plays, travel books, music, and films in order to explore the reincarnations of a range of legendary characters, from the Nordic gods Thor and Odin to the saga characters Hallgerd Long-legs, Gunnar of Hlidarendi, and Leif the Lucky. Roaming the globe, Helgason unearths echoes of Nordic lore in Scandinavia, Britain, America, Germany, Italy, and Japan. He examines the comic work of Jack Kirby and cartoon work of Peter Madsen; reads the plays of Henrik Ibsen and Gordon Bottomley; engages thought travelogues by Frederick Metcalfe and Poul Vad; listens to the music of Richard Wagner, Edward Elgar, and the metal band Manowar; and watches films by directors such as Roy William Neill and Richard Fleischer, outlining the presence of the eddas and sagas in these nineteenth- and twentieth-century works" -- adapted from jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-221) and index.