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Why does it matter what version of the Eddas I read?

There is an Italian phrase, "Traduttore traditore" which makes its own point by losing most of its impact when translated into English. It depends for its effect on the similarity in Italian of the words for one who translates and one who betrays. It thus perfectly illustrates the problems of translation which is by its nature always reductive. No matter how careful the translator is, the translation is always a very different beast from the original.

The ideal situation is of course to read the text in the original language but for most people this is not a serious option. Hence when selecting a translation of the Rune poems or Eddas one must take into account a number of factors which determine the nature and usefulness of the translation

First is punctuation. For the modern reader punctuation is a necessity to ensure clarity, yet placing it risks changing meaning or emphasis. An exclamation mark may seem appropriate at the end of a dramatic statement but adding it can make that sentence have greater significance within the text as a whole than the original author intended. In translating an ancient text, the position of every comma, period, question mark etc is important and the reader must recognise that it reflects the views of the translator every bit as much as it does the intentions of the text's author

Equally the nature and style of the translation has a huge impact on the quality of the resultant translated text. Poetry has heightened language and emotion which is achieved through stylistic devices that can prove extremely difficult to translate. In terms of simply conveying the sense of the original it can be much easier to translate poetry into prose where escaping the restrictions of the poetic structure means emphasis can be given instead to the meaning of the words of the original text. Doing this though, especially to something like the Elder Edda transforms it. Though the translation may be true to the sense of the original, it has lost its soul. The drama and passion is gone. Translating it as poetry though is far from unproblematic and presents additional and different difficulties. Seeking to maintain poetic devices such as imagery, meter, assimilation etc means than the clarity of the translation can suffer. Since modern English is an entirely different language, the translator runs a risk of producing doggeral in trying to preserve the poetic qualities of the original. Even if the poetry is acceptable, things may not be fully understandable. For instance Norse and Saxon poetry contains imagery called "kennings" which are complex compound word-pictures, such as a man being described as a "tree of battle". These are sometimes elaborated by replacing one of the elements in the original kenning with another kenning. Kennings then can be extremely problematic to translate especially if the intention if that the output should remain poetic.

Finally all translation involves omission. What is left out are the gaps and ambiguities which exist in all ancient texts and which can heavily occupy scholars. In order to produce a coherent translation the translator has to make decisions and smooth out those textual irregularities, often to the extent that they are no longer visible to the reader. In all ancient writings there will be phrases and images about which there is uncertainly because the only way to resolve the arguments would be to ask someone from that period, and of course there is no one left to ask. Since this is not possible each translator has to make decisions which can give their work a certainty which it does not always have.

Anyone translating any ancient text such as the Eddas faces difficulties. The quality of the translation is dependent on many factors including the intentions of the translator. Were they seeking to be as true in meaning to the original as possible? or were they more concerned the translation should sound good? Someone just interested in reading and getting a feel of the tales in the Eddas will prefer the second type of translation whereas someone studying Norse literature will prefer the former. It is a good idea then to look at several diferent translations if possible to see where translations vary. However if this is not possible care should be taken in deciding on the translation you choose.