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. ( )

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.
( )

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

(Spoilers within)

This is a short book with translations of Scandinavian folk ballads and some explanations of what they're about and what is happening in them.

On one hand, it's not the type of book for me because I've never been fond of things like poetry and such. On the other hand, it's probably the perfect type of book for me to review because I translate and I can appreciate how difficult it is to try and keep a rhythm and rhyming scheme while keeping the same meaning. It's hard. I can imagine the amount of effort it took to try and put it together in English and I'd say it came together pretty well.

Before each ballad, there are short explanations discussing what happens in the ballad, whether they're based off real historical figures and who they were, and what happened to them in reality or in other ballads. I would say this is akin to studying Shakespeare, because it's not necessarily obvious what's going on in the ballad's themselves without an explanation.

I think the one that amused me the most was when Thor crossdressed as the troll's bride. I also liked that a guy ran home with an oak tree tied to his back. Old tales really didn't make a lot of logical sense.

Others are pretty sad and telling of the times, like when a woman is kidnapped and forced into a brutal marriage and dies, only for one of he daughters to be kidnapped the same way later.

Like I said, it's fairly short, and there's not too much of note to say. The sources that he translated from are documented. If you're interested in this subject it would be a good book to look into - I didn't really see any problems with it. It was neatly put together and had a clean Table of Contents and all. It did everything it set out to do. ( )

The hardest thing to do when translating ballads into another language is trying to keep the rhyme and rhythm of the ballad without losing the original meanings during the translations. Ian Cumpstey’s little collective of Scandinavian ballads, Warrior Lore, mostly finds a comfortable medium between the two.

Before each ballad, Cumpstey takes time to introduce the story and the characters involved; taking time to explain the different ways the names may be spelled or pronounced. This is very helpful for anyone who just wants a quick read and doesn’t want to think through the ballad on their own, or for beginners reading ballads (or for those brain dead moments where you just plain don’t get it. Admit it, we all have those).

The ballads themselves are full of heroes, tragedy, kings, and romance (with an appearance by a cross dressing Thor). Sadly my namesake didn’t make the list, but there is a good grab bag of stories in this book to shovel through.

Overall it’s a good read for a rainy day for those who read ballads, and a good starter book for those who haven’t yet discovered them.

www.readingbifrost.com ( )

Wonderful! A great addition to my collection of historical writings. Well done. ( )