Ian Cumpstey

Ian Cumpstey has produced three collection of translated Scandinavian folk ballads. In this collection, entitled 'The Faraway North,' are ballads with themes of fighting for honour and love, with particular emphasis on Christianity, and on the unspoiled virtue of young maidens.

This particular selection of ballads chronicles various heroic quests, such as those involving knights rescuing damsels from mythical beasts, suitors vying for the hand of a maiden, as well as those undertaken by legendary heroes, e.g. Sigurd the Dragon Killer, and Sven Felding.

The Christian men are painted almost as Saints, while the mythical creatures seem to be the personification of all that is evil. However, one could also infer that the Christian men are the devil in a guise, waiting patiently to strip young maidens of their innocents, while these 'monsters' seek mainly to protect instead.

This collection includes beautifully tragic scenes that are well written and will probe at your heart. Ian Cumpstey has done a marvellous job of translating these ballads into English so that countless others may go on to enjoy them.

A masterpiece of translation. Easily 4 stars.… (más)

These Scandinavian ballads are colorful and captivating. They will appeal to all ages. They provide especially good material for introducing poetry to young people and offer a culturally meaningful divergence from Harry Potter. More than that, however, they are a scholarly achievement reflecting a great deal of professional work.

Cumpstey prefaces each one in a readable and scholarly manner. His translations are all the more impressive for keeping a lyrical tone. A literary type will find the book useful as a starting point to better understand and research the history of the genre. He successfully grafts the academic to the entertaining.

The Faraway North is not suitable for bookswaps as it is the sort of text to be reenjoyed over years.… (más)

What a thoroughly delightful book this is. Ian Cumpstey, a chemist and litterateur from the Northwest of England who spent a number of years living in Sweden, set himself the challenge in this and his earlier volume, "Lord Peter and Little Kerstin: Medieval Ballads from Sweden," of conveying the energy and entertainment of medieval Scandinavian ballad poetry in vigorous, accessible, popular language. He has thoroughly succeeded in this goal.

In his Preface, Cumpstey situates these ballads at the intersection of poetry, song, storytelling, and legend. "Warrior Lore" focuses on fighting heroes and their memorable deeds, some of which end well, some tragically, some comically. The ballad form was (still is, to the extent that anyone wishes to exploit it) highly flexible in tone. Therefore, within an 81-page volume containing ten poems about great warriors, there is nonetheless considerable variety.

“Widrick Waylandsson’s Fight with Long-Ben Reyser” and “Twelve Strong Fighters” are a twinned pair of fighting ballads with a vein of high-spirited comedy, which together comprise a single story. Two ballads about the young sportsman Heming find him showing off his skiing skills, thwarting a troll, getting the girl, even besting a king.

“Hilla-Lill,” “Sir Hjalmar,” and “The Cloister Raid” look at women’s tragedies within the context of a warrior culture; “The Stablemates” has a more positive romantic outcome.

Confirmed medievalists and Scandinavian enthusiasts will eat all this up. Who else? Well, this material, and the Poetic Edda that came before it, has a lineage that extends into modern pop culture on several fronts. There is a Thor ballad here, “The Hammer Hunt,” that should charm fans of the Marvel super-hero, whether those who began with the comic books in the Sixties, or followers of the more recent movies. The Thor comics were my first exposure to this legendary world, so I can speak from personal experience.

J.R.R. Tolkien was also inspired by the traditional Scandinavian corpus of poetry. One sees Aragorn’s and Faramir’s forebears everywhere in "Warrior Lore." Cumpstey also includes a riddle song, “Sven Swan-White,” that irresistibly brings to mind the riddle scene between Bilbo Baggins and Gollum in "The Hobbit" that has such far-reaching implications in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Riddling appears to have lost some steam as a popular activity these days, but Cumpstey reminds us why it has been traditionally and deeply enjoyed in most human cultures.

I think it is far from accidental that a rural Englishman should find this poetry congenial. English poetry has its origins in Scandinavian poetry, after all – think of "Beowulf." A world of poetic adventure that has long been lost to most readers is perfectly recoverable with Ian Cumpstey’s enthusiastic assistance.… (más)

Warrior Lore is a set of translated Scandanavian folk tales. It is a short ebook, coming in at 41 pages on my ereader, but it is worth it.

I will admit that I wouldn't normally accept translated folk tales for review purposes, but I was intrigued by the premise and dived into them at the first opportunity. Ian Cumpstey has taken a very academic approach to this work. Rather than just translate each story and shove them down on paper, he has taken the time and trouble to place an introductory segment before each tale and to give a bibliography at the back.

These have the flavour of 'every' folk tale I have ever read. They are tragic, depressing, romantic and heroic all at the same time. Ian manages to make the translation gripping at the same time as providing a fairly solid start into Scandanavian myth. I started reading these tonight and did not stop until I had finished.
… (más)