Overview

This volume presents a collection of the Faroese ballads about the Völsung hero Sjúrður, the pre-eminent dragon-slaying hero of the Germanic Middle Ages, in English translation accompanied by the Faroese original. The ballads show that far from being culturally isolated, the Faroe Islands were an integral part of the Germanic storytelling tradition in the Middle Ages and later. The in-depth introduction explores the Faroese storytelling tradition as preserved in the ballads, which are still danced and performed today, and highlights the vibrancy of the tradition in contemporary culture. The publication and research history of the Faroese ballads is outlined, and summaries of each ballad are provided. These translations are an essential resource for anybody interested in medieval heroic literature.

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9781802703313

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Author Information

Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen is associate professor of Old Norse philology at the University of Bergen. From 2021 to 2023 she led the Young CAS project “Ballads Across Borders: The Faroe Islands in the Norse Story-Telling World” at the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She currently leads the CAS Alumni Project “Ballads Across Borders: Theoretical Approaches and Research Infrastructure.”

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