Search results for: 'jackson crawford'

The Wanderer's Journal, a pocket-sized (4" x 6") notebook, features a smyth-sewn binding with a ribbon marker and a flexible hardcover with a copper foil embossed image of Odin's ravens, Hugin and Munin, stamped on the front. In addition to 148 blank ruled pages, the journal includes 13 illustrated rune pages with rune translations on the reverse pages. The rune illustrations by E.L. Wilson are based on Dr. Jackson Crawford’s handwritten runes from 13 verses he selected from the Norse poem Hávamál. The translations are sourced from Dr. Crawford’s frank and down-to-earth translations from "The Cowboy Hávamál," included in his 2019 Hackett Publishing book, The Wanderer’s Hávamál. The Old Norse was written with the sixteen-letter Younger Futhark runic alphabet, which is used in this journal.

This Expanded Second Edition of Jackson Crawford’s 2015 translation of the Poetic Edda offers a wider range of poems (now including the Eddic Old Norse poem “Svipdagsmal” and four related non-Eddic Old Norse poems, “Eiriksmal,” “Hakonarmal,” “Krakumal,” and “Lokrur”) as well as a revised translation and enhanced editorial apparatus. Set in a new page design, it also features samples from the Old Norse texts written in the Old Norse runic alphabet known as the Younger Futhark (in Jackson Crawford’s hand) along with original Old Norse-inspired Latin alphabet typographical ideograms (by E. L. Wilson).

"The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a Modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!) and well worth the wait. These amazing texts from a 13th-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological and literary importance, containing the lion's share of information that survives today about the gods and heroes of pre-Christian Scandinavians, their unique vision of the beginning and end of the world, etc. Jackson Crawford's modern versions of these poems are authoritative and fluent and often very gripping.  With their individual headnotes and complementary general introduction, they supply today's readers with most of what they need to know in order to understand and appreciate the beliefs, motivations, and values of the Vikings."  —Dick Ringler, Professor Emeritus of English and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

Audiobook: An audiobook edition, narrated by Jackson Crawford, is also available from Downpour, Audible, and other audiobook retailers.

"This is a wonderfully supple and idiomatic modern translation of the most important account of the legendary Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer and his family in Old Norse-Icelandic literature. Crawford's version is vivid, clear, and exciting, tracing the intrigues, killings, battles, and magic that shape the lives of Sigurd’s kindred. Coupled with it is the brilliant sequel, the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok. Rarely translated into English before, the saga tells of Sigurd's daughter and her husband, the unparalleled Viking king and hero, Ragnar, who is also a dragon-slayer. Lively and fresh, with gripping dialogue and intense scenes of action, the saga has long deserved to be better known. In Jackson Crawford it has found the perfect translator." —Carolyne Larrington, Professor of Medieval European Literature, University of Oxford

Audiobook: An audiobook edition, narrated by Jackson Crawford, is available from Downpour, Audible, and other audiobook retailers. Learn more about the audiobook here.

"Hávamál, ‘Words of the High One’—purportedly delivering the wisdom of Odin in his own voice—is one of the most important mythological poems of the Poetic Edda and simply the most important witness to early Norse cultural ethics. Jackson Crawford has now given us a clean text and a new facing-page translation in contemporary idiom. A highly trained linguist, Crawford has already published with Hackett a complete translation of the whole of the famous ancient anthology, the Poetic Edda, and acquired many fans for his YouTube videos teaching Old Norse. Crawford is a poet in his own right with a recognizably Western voice. A scholarly commentary on the whole poem is an accomplishment made palatable for the general reader by Crawford’s informal style. All in all, a fresh start on the mysteries of this classic." —Joseph Harris, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of English Literature and Professor of Folklore, Emeritus, Harvard University

"Jackson Crawford offers his readers an excellent entry into the world of Hávamál, where the high-god Óðinn from the Old Norse Pantheon mediates some age-old wisdom to his audience. Crawford provides a clear translation that points directly into the original text itself, while his extensive commentary emphasizes its nuances and ambiguity, strips away popular notions of paganism, and draws attention instead to the poem’s universal down-to-earth attitude. The humorous and entertaining cowboy-version that Crawford offers at the end serves as a tribute to the wisdom of his own grandfather, a fitting epilogue that updates this ancient poem which the Christian people of Iceland assembled from oral tradition into a book in the thirteenth century." —Gísli Sigurðsson, Research Professor and Head of the Folklore Department, Árni Magnússon Institute, University of Iceland

Inherited through the line of the berserker Angantýr and his war-loving daughter Hervor, the ever-lethal, shining sword Tyrfing and its changes of hands frame the uncanny story of The Saga of Hervor and Heiđrek. A second heroic saga, Hrólf Kraki and His Champions, recounts the daring deeds of the members and entourage of the ancient Danish house of Skjoldung. Passed down orally in pre-Christian Norse times, transmitted in writing in medieval Iceland, and here wielded by the hand of Jackson Crawford, the tales told in this volume retain their sharp edges and flashes of glory that never fail to slay. 

"Hervarar saga and Hrólfs saga kraka are among the best of the Icelandic mythical heroic sagas and are both highpoints of medieval literature. Jackson Crawford’s new translation is eminently readable and with its accompanying Introduction and notes will serve as an excellent introduction to this fascinating material." —M. J. Driscoll, Professor of Old Norse Philology, University of Copenhagen

Volume 1 of a 2-volume set. Volume 1 covers origins through the Civil War. Volume 2 covers reconstruction to the present. Together the two-volume set offers an unparalleled selection of key texts from the history of American political and constitutional thought. North American rights only.

Download the TOC (PDF) of volume I.

"Although an audience of enamored nonspecialists embraced Heaney's version . . . other scholars gave only grudging respect to the poet whose 'Heaneywulf' often seemed to represent an Anglo-Saxon world re-created in the Irish poet's own image. Since 2002, new and revised translations have come and gone, none attracting as much attention as Heaney's. That should change with Ringler's new translation, and not just because scholars such as Tom Shippey, Frederick Rebsamen, and John Niles vouch for it. The proof is in the reading, whether one does so silently or aloud. In his comprehensive, insightful introduction and rhythmic replication of Old English poetry, Ringler offers the specialist what Heaney did not; this is a performative translation that re-creates the world of Beowulf as accurately as may be possible. Accessible and exciting for specialists and nonspecialists alike, this is the edition professors should be using to introduce the venerable poem to a new audience. Summing up: Essential." 
—A.P. Church, CHOICE

Second (Nov. 2022) & final third (June 2023) printings -- NOW SHIPPING and available to order on the Hackett website for customers in the U.S. & Canada, while supplies last. The reprint copies are unnumbered, but otherwise identical to the first printing, including the bookplate in The Poetic Edda personally signed by Dr. Crawford.

Customers in the U.K. & Europe -- a limited number of reprint copies are available for sale from Gazelle Book Services. 

Since the 2015 publication of The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes, Old Norse specialist Dr. Jackson Crawford has delighted readers with his English-language translations of Old Norse sagas and poems that tell the tales of Odin, Thor, Loki, dragon-slayer Sigurd, Brynhild the Valkyrie, Hrólf Kraki, and many more. This limited-edition set collects three of Dr. Crawford's Hackett Publishing books, The Poetic Edda (2015), The Saga of the Volsungs (2017), and Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes (2021) in a beautifully designed hand-crafted slipcase box. Each book in the set features smyth-sewn hardcover bindings with new custom artwork for the front covers. The Poetic Edda features a medallion of the wolf Fenrir, The Saga of the Volsungs a medallion of the dragon/serpent Fafnir, and Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes a medallion of a bear.

Each volume in the set begins with a phrase hand-written by Dr. Crawford that best exemplifies the text to follow or Dr. Crawford's favorite passage from the book. The quotes in The Poetic Edda and Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes also contain the runic "originals." The Poetic Edda also includes a bookplate personally signed by Dr. Crawford and hand-tipped into the front of the book.