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Bloodhoof
by Gerður Kristný
Bilingual English / Icelandic edition
Translated by Rory McTurk
Part of our Arc Translations series edited by Jean Boase-Beier
Bloodhoof is the re-casting into compulsively spare modern verse of an ancient Eddic poem — but this only begins to hint at its attractions. It is a minimalist epic telling of the abduction of Gerdur Gymisdottir from the land of giants to the court of Freyr of the 'wolf-grey eyes', and the subsequent events culminating in the birth of her son and her hopes of being saved by her own kin.
It is full of iron-hard rocks and ice, serpents in the breast gnawing at the harness of hope, but also wide-reaching fields of corn whispering in the breeze and a throne carved with beasts and dragons-heads. You could read the whole book in perhaps half an hour but it will take many months or years to begin to clear the ghosts and long-dead heroes from your mind.
Rory McTurk, Emeritus Professor of Icelandic Studies at Leeds University, has made a splendid translation of Gerður Kristný's spare modern masterpiece
978-1908376-10-7 (pbk)
978-1908376-11-4 (hbk)
978-1908376-37-4 (ebk)
Published June 2012
