This Book Is Worth It (Patreon)

Before I disappear for a few days, let me show you all what I'm working on while I'm out. My complete translation of The Saga of Hervor and Heidrek, with The Saga of Hrolf Kraki (I think we're repositioning Hervor as the "main" saga) was due to Hackett earlier this week, but my editor gave me a small extension due to my medical crisis. Nonetheless I need to get this done. Like with The Poetic Edda and The Saga of the Volsungs, with The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok, the two sagas have been translated into English before, but no Old Norse scholar has ever made an accessible, authoritative modern translation.

The sample you see here is a favorite scene from the beginning of ch. 44 of The Saga of Hrolf Kraki; our Danish hero the king Hrólf Kraki and his comrades have been trapped by their treacherous Swedish hosts in a hall that was set on fire. They make their escape, and it turns out that Hrólf's hawk, Hábrók, has also been busy with his own Swedish enemies. Note that in the Poetic Edda, Óðinn himself calls Hábrók the best of hawks at Grímnismál st. 44, in the same breath as he says Sleipnir is the best horse or Bilrǫst is the best bridge (or Óðinn is the best god, of course)!

Of course, the ranch is a good place for me to work because it's so ultimately quiet, but beyond that, it's a place with no cell phone reception and no internet, and no meaningfully close neighbors, where that knock at the door is just a grazing horse or elk who wandered too close, where I only recently learned my alarm clock is literally a pack of wolves (see pinned comment on that video). Maybe not everyone needs that sometimes, but I need it a lot more than I'm getting lately.

All the best,

Jackson Crawford