Bücher der Reihe Arc Classics: New Translations of Great Poets of the Past

A genuinely unique European treasure, this volume bristles with the Viking verses of Rognvaldr, Earl of Orkney, recorded in Orkneyinga Saga. Full of highly stylised, often grotesque images, Ian Crockatt's masterly translations convey the skill, vigour and daring of the original. Skaldic poetry is one of the most elaborate and original in European literature and this collection finally brings it to the deserved attention of the Englishlanguage reader. Rich narratives and old Norse mythology blend with familiar placenames and landscapes to create a peculiarly alluring, sometimes comic, world that never quite settles around the reader. Spirited and generous, these poems give us precious glimpses of a life lived to the full.

Jan Owen's masterly translation captures all of Baudelaire's passion and anguish in a selection that includes many of Baudelaire's best known poems - including those banned from 1857 edition - as well as some less familiar ones, with the volume leading up to his great long poem, 'The Voyage', and finishing with the much-loved sonnet 'Meditation'.