Bloodhoof
Description of book
Bloodhoof is a compulsively modern recasting of the ancient Eddic poem Skírnimál – a minimalist epic telling of the abduction of Gerður Gymisdóttir from a land of giants and her eventual return from the court of Freyr with her beloved son. The journey is full of iron-hard rocks, ice and serpents, and fields of corn whispering in the breeze.
Bloodhoof is a story of "ghosts and long-dead heroes" – a game of thrones that will linger in the memory. Parallel-text verse in Icelandic and English.
Gerður Kristný was born in Reykyavik in 1970. She has produced 18 books of fiction and non-fiction, as well as children's books and poetry. Her work recently featured in the anthology
Best European Fiction 2012, and in the October 2011 issue of
Words Without Borders. She has also been a Featured Poet in
Eyewear magazine. Her numerous prizes include the Icelandic Literature Prize in 2010 for Bloodhoof.
Rory McTurk is Emeritus Professor of Icelandic Studies at the University of Leeds, and the editor of the
Blackwell's Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture (2007).
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