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The Lay of the Nibelungs
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's summary
One of the finest German medieval epic poems, The Lay of the Nibelungs is perhaps best known now as one of the principal sources for Wagner’s four-part music drama The Ring of the Nibelung. It is easy to see how Wagner was enthralled by the story and the poetry for the power of the tale drives the narrative: intense love, loyalty, jealousy, murder, duty, honour and massacre are all interwoven into a classic.
Many of the figures known to us by Wagner’s opera cycle are here: Alberich, Siegmund, Sieglind, Siegfried, Brunhilda, Gunther and Hagen, sometimes in familiar roles, sometimes very different from expectations.
The tragedy is driven by the enmity between two women who were originally friends - Brunhilda, who becomes the wife of Gunther, and Kriemhilda, Siegfried’s wife. A feud between the sisters-in-law leads to conflict and mayhem. Hagen has the dark persona which prompts him to commit treacherous murder, leading the protagonists to a final terrible end.
Unlike the Wagnerian version (he drew in the main from the Volsung Saga version, but also made the saga his own), there is no interference from gods or giants, and apart from the appearance of the ‘hood of darkness’, Tarnhelm, which confers mysterious powers on its wearer, there is little magic.
But this does not lessen the immense power of The Lay of the Nibelungs, as it moves inexorably forward to its climactic conclusion. The structure of the poem is crucial to the drama of the telling.
The anonymous poet established a form based on a steady four-line stanza with rhyming couplets. But the strength of it lies in the metre, three metrical feet, a caesura, and another three metrical feet, for the first three lines, adding an extra metrical foot for the last line for emphasis.
This classic verse translation by Alice Horton, edited by Edward Bell and revised for this recording, is still regarded by scholars as perhaps the most faithful to the 13th century German original. Though modern prose versions are available, they do not have the poetic grandeur befitting such a tale, and Horton’s verse is ideal for an audio recording. David Rintoul brings his decades of experience in classical theatre to bear in his stirring performance.
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The Legend of Ragnar Lodbrok
- Viking King and Warrior
- By: Christopher Van Dyke
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions love the hit television show Vikings - but how many fans know that its main character, Ragnar, is based on an actual Viking king whose ambitious and terrifying exploits have been legend since the ninth century? The Legend of Ragnar Lothbrok presents fascinating new translations of ninth, 12th, and 13th-century writings - including sagas, poems, and historical accounts - that describe, in vivid detail, the adventures of Ragnar, his sons, and his formidable wives.
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Sages of Ragnar
- By Kristina M McDaniel on 02-17-17
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The Mabinogion
- By: Charlotte Guest
- Narrated by: Richard Mitchley
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The Mabinogion, the earliest literary jewel of Wales, is a collection of ancient tales and legends compiled around the 12th and 13th century deriving from storytelling and the songs of bards handed down over the ages. It is a remarkable document in many ways. From an historical perspective, it is the earliest prose literature of Britain. But it is in its drama that many surprises await, not least the central role of King Arthur, his wife, Gwenhwyvar, and his court at Caerlleon upon Usk.
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A Wonder Whose Origin is Unknown
- By John on 07-28-17
By: Charlotte Guest
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Don Quixote
- Translated by Edith Grossman
- By: Edith Grossman - translator, Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 39 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixteenth-century Spanish gentleman Don Quixote, fed by his own delusional fantasies, takes to the road in search of chivalrous adventures. But his quest leads to more trouble than triumph. At once humorous, romantic, and sad, Don Quixote is a literary landmark. This fresh edition, by award-winning translator Edith Grossman, brings the tale to life as never before.
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My Fourth Try at an Audible Quixote
- By James on 12-24-12
By: Edith Grossman - translator, and others
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Tales from Shakespeare
- By: Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb is a retelling of 20 of Shakespeare’s most beloved stories. Within the pages of this book, the 19th-century authors bring to life the Shakespearean plots and characters of another age in an easy-to-understand prose of a newer generation.
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A classic
- By Jacque Eddy on 10-07-19
By: Charles Lamb, and others
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The Mabinogion
- By: Sioned Davies - Translator
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and an intriguing interpretation of British history - these are just some of the themes embraced by the anonymous authors of the eleven tales that make up the Welsh medieval masterpiece known as The Mabinogion. They tell of Gwydion the shape-shifter, who can create a woman out of flowers; of Math the magician whose feet must lie in the lap of a virgin; of hanging a pregnant mouse and hunting a magical boar.
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The names and read-along
- By Tad Davis on 10-10-18
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The Arabian Nights (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Andrew Lang
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The vengeful King Schahriar agrees to stave off the execution of Queen Scheherazade until she finishes a particularly compelling story. Her plan? Bleed one tale into another. Through fanciful histories, romances, tragedies, comedies, poems, riddles, and songs, Scheherazade prolongs her life by holding the king’s rapt attention. With origins in Persian and Eastern Indian folklore, the stories of The Arabian Nights have been reworked, reshaped, revised, collected, and supplemented throughout the centuries by various authors and scholars.
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Very edited version
- By HDVE on 11-13-18
By: Andrew Lang
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Don Quixote
- By: Miguel de Cervantes, Gerald J. Davis - translator
- Narrated by: John Hanks
- Length: 20 hrs
- Unabridged
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Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, follows the adventures of Alonso Quijano, a hidalgo who reads so many chivalric novels that he decides to set out to revive chivalry, under the name Don Quixote. This is the story that a Nobel Prize Committee survey of one hundred of the world's best writers named "the greatest book of all time."
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A wonderful, magical listen
- By K on 12-01-13
By: Miguel de Cervantes, and others
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The Story of King Arthur and His Knights
- By: Howard Pyle
- Narrated by: David Thorn
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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American author Howard Pyle (who also wrote The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood) weaves the tales of chivalrous knights, the magic sword of Excalibur, the magician Merlin the Wise, and the legendary Arthur, later to become King of Britain. Pyle describes bouts of jousting and knightly jealousies played out in grand style.
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An Entertaining Account of Arthur’s Early Days
- By Jefferson on 12-03-11
By: Howard Pyle
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Beowulf
- By: Robert K. Gordon, translator
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Beowulf is considered the finest heroic poem in Old English. It celebrates the character and exploits of Beowulf, a young nobleman and warrior, as he proves his superhuman strength and endurance. He also represents the ideal lord and vassal, rewarding his men generously and accomplishing glorious deeds to honor his king.
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Translator Preferred
- By JerryT on 05-10-05
By: Robert K. Gordon, and others
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The Little Duke
- The Childhood History of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy
- By: Charlotte Yonge
- Narrated by: David Thorn
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on historical fact, full of intrigue and chivalry at a time when Normandy was not part of France, this is the romantic childhood history of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy. After his father was assassinated, when he was just nine years old, he is kidnapped and imprisoned by Louis of France, who wanted to annex Normandy. But thanks to the bravery and daring of Richard's loyal squire and knight, Osmond de Centeville, he makes good his escape.
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Makes Learning History Unforgettable!
- By Harriet on 07-31-12
By: Charlotte Yonge
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Mythology: Captivating Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Celtic and Roman Myths of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and Monsters
- By: Matt Clayton
- Narrated by: Randy Whitlow, Dryw McArthur
- Length: 19 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook collection includes five captivating books, a huge collection of the best myths and stories of gods, goddesses, monsters, and mortals.
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Not what I expected
- By Wayne Willmore on 12-11-18
By: Matt Clayton
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Parzival
- By: Wolfram von Eschenbach
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The greatest of all the medieval romances about the Holy Grail, Parzival was written in the early 13th century. The narrative describes the quest of the Arthurian knight Parzival for the Holy Grail. His journey is filled with incident, from tournaments and sieges to chivalrous deeds and displays of true love.
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This one didn’t work for me
- By Tad Davis on 11-01-21
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Dead Souls
- By: Nikolai Gogol, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Gogol's great Russian classic is the Pickwick Papers of Russian literature. It takes a sharp but humorous look at life in all its strata but especially the devious complexities in Russia, with its landowners and serfs. We are introduced to Chichikov, a businessman who, in order to trick the tax authorities, buys up dead 'souls', or serfs, whose names still appear on the government census. Despite being a dealer in phantom crimes and paper ghosts, he is the most beguiling of Gogol's characters.
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Hilarious and well done, but massive sections of the manuscript are missing?
- By C. E. Johnson on 11-19-18
By: Nikolai Gogol, and others
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The Door
- By: Magda Szabó, Len Rix - translator
- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Intense, brilliant and moving, The Door is a compelling story about the relationship between two women of opposing backgrounds and personalities: one, an intellectual and writer; the other, her housekeeper, a mysterious, elderly woman who sets her own rules and abjures religion, education, pretense and any kind of authority. Beneath this hardened exterior of Emerence lies a painful story that must be concealed.
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Challenging, but an engrossing, literary work.
- By Earnest on 09-05-17
By: Magda Szabó, and others
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Romola
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 22 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Set in the turbulent years following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, George Eliot's fourth novel, Romola, moves the stage from the English countryside of the 19th century to an Italy four centuries before her time. It tells the tale of a young Florentine woman, Romola de' Bardi, and her coming of age through her troubled marriage to the suave and self-absorbed Greek Tito. Slowly Tito's true character begins to unfurl, and his lies and treachery push Romola toward a more spiritual path, where she transcends into a majestic, Madonna-like role.
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Listened to it 4 times in a row
- By Theodoc on 12-14-21
By: George Eliot
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Sparrow
- By: James Hynes
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a brothel on the Spanish coast during the waning years of the Roman Empire, a young enslaved boy of unknown parentage is growing up. His world is a kitchen, then an herb-scented garden, followed by a loud and dangerous tavern, and, finally, the mysterious upstairs where the “wolves” do their business. The wolves, named after the muses and coming from across the vast empire, are Sparrow’s surrogate family. They are his mothers and his sisters, his guides in a rough life, his solace from it.
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Top notch historical fiction
- By echolocation345 on 04-17-24
By: James Hynes
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Solenoid
- By: Mircea Cărtărescu, Sean Cotter - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 34 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Based on Cartarescu's own role as a high school teacher, Solenoid begins with the mundane details of a diarist's life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork? On a broad scale, the novel's investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines reconcile the realms of life and art.
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Our Universal Phantasmagoria
- By Isaac Linder on 03-11-24
By: Mircea Cărtărescu, and others
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Parzival
- By: Wolfram von Eschenbach
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The greatest of all the medieval romances about the Holy Grail, Parzival was written in the early 13th century. The narrative describes the quest of the Arthurian knight Parzival for the Holy Grail. His journey is filled with incident, from tournaments and sieges to chivalrous deeds and displays of true love.
-
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This one didn’t work for me
- By Tad Davis on 11-01-21
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Dead Souls
- By: Nikolai Gogol, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gogol's great Russian classic is the Pickwick Papers of Russian literature. It takes a sharp but humorous look at life in all its strata but especially the devious complexities in Russia, with its landowners and serfs. We are introduced to Chichikov, a businessman who, in order to trick the tax authorities, buys up dead 'souls', or serfs, whose names still appear on the government census. Despite being a dealer in phantom crimes and paper ghosts, he is the most beguiling of Gogol's characters.
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Hilarious and well done, but massive sections of the manuscript are missing?
- By C. E. Johnson on 11-19-18
By: Nikolai Gogol, and others
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The Door
- By: Magda Szabó, Len Rix - translator
- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Intense, brilliant and moving, The Door is a compelling story about the relationship between two women of opposing backgrounds and personalities: one, an intellectual and writer; the other, her housekeeper, a mysterious, elderly woman who sets her own rules and abjures religion, education, pretense and any kind of authority. Beneath this hardened exterior of Emerence lies a painful story that must be concealed.
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Challenging, but an engrossing, literary work.
- By Earnest on 09-05-17
By: Magda Szabó, and others
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Romola
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 22 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Set in the turbulent years following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, George Eliot's fourth novel, Romola, moves the stage from the English countryside of the 19th century to an Italy four centuries before her time. It tells the tale of a young Florentine woman, Romola de' Bardi, and her coming of age through her troubled marriage to the suave and self-absorbed Greek Tito. Slowly Tito's true character begins to unfurl, and his lies and treachery push Romola toward a more spiritual path, where she transcends into a majestic, Madonna-like role.
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Listened to it 4 times in a row
- By Theodoc on 12-14-21
By: George Eliot
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Sparrow
- By: James Hynes
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a brothel on the Spanish coast during the waning years of the Roman Empire, a young enslaved boy of unknown parentage is growing up. His world is a kitchen, then an herb-scented garden, followed by a loud and dangerous tavern, and, finally, the mysterious upstairs where the “wolves” do their business. The wolves, named after the muses and coming from across the vast empire, are Sparrow’s surrogate family. They are his mothers and his sisters, his guides in a rough life, his solace from it.
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Top notch historical fiction
- By echolocation345 on 04-17-24
By: James Hynes
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Solenoid
- By: Mircea Cărtărescu, Sean Cotter - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 34 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Based on Cartarescu's own role as a high school teacher, Solenoid begins with the mundane details of a diarist's life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork? On a broad scale, the novel's investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines reconcile the realms of life and art.
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Our Universal Phantasmagoria
- By Isaac Linder on 03-11-24
By: Mircea Cărtărescu, and others
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Beast
- Werewolves, Serial Killers, and Man-Eaters: The Mystery of the Monsters of the Gévaudan
- By: Gustavo Sánchez Romero, S. R. Schwalb
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Something unimaginable occurred from 1764 to 1767 in the remote highlands of south-central France. For three years, a real-life monster, or monsters, ravaged the region, slaughtering by some accounts more than 100 people, mostly women and children, and inflicting severe injuries upon many others.
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Repetitive
- By Octavia on 10-24-24
By: Gustavo Sánchez Romero, and others
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Pessoa
- By: Richard Zenith
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 42 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly a century after his wrenching death, the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) remains one of our most enigmatic writers. Believing he could do "more in dreams than Napoleon," yet haunted by the specter of hereditary madness, Pessoa invented dozens of alter egos, or "heteronyms," under whose names he wrote in Portuguese, English, and French. Unsurprisingly, this "most multifarious of writers" (Guardian) has long eluded a definitive biographer—but in renowned translator and Pessoa scholar Richard Zenith, he has met his match.
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Captivating
- By J. M. Batista on 03-09-24
By: Richard Zenith
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Our Man in Havana
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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MI6's man in Havana is Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Charles Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true....
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Story was intriguing
- By Anonymous User on 08-14-24
By: Graham Greene
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The Roman Emperor Aurelian
- Restorer of the World: New Revised Edition
- By: John F. White
- Narrated by: Keval Shah
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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The ancient Sibylline prophecies had foretold that the Roman Empire would last for 1000 years. As the time for the expected dissolution approached in the middle of the third century AD, the empire was lapsing into chaos, with seemingly interminable civil wars over the imperial succession. The western empire had seceded under a rebel emperor and the eastern empire was controlled by another usurper. Barbarians took advantage of the anarchy to kill and plunder all over the provinces.
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Coins- Early and Often
- By Colin MacKenzie on 12-16-23
By: John F. White
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The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses
- By: Patrick Hastings
- Narrated by: Patrick Hastings
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses, Patrick Hastings provides comprehensive support to readers and listeners of Joyce's magnum opus by illuminating crucial details and reveling in the mischievous genius of this unparalleled novel. Written in a voice that offers encouragement and good humor, this guidebook maintains a closeness to the original text and supports the first-time reader or listener of Ulysses with the information needed to successfully finish and appreciate the novel.
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Enlightening
- By Demoyung on 01-24-24
By: Patrick Hastings
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The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
- A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikaya
- By: Bhikkhu Bodhi
- Narrated by: Taradasa
- Length: 57 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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This volume offers a complete translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, the third of the four great collections in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pāli Canon. The Saṃyutta Nikāya consists of 56 chapters, each governed by a unifying theme that binds together the Buddha's suttas or discourses.
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Easy to understand...
- By Munair on 04-09-21
By: Bhikkhu Bodhi
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Under the Java Moon
- By: Heather B. Moore
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Java Island, 1941. Six-year-old Rita Vischer cowers in her family’s dug-out bomb shelter, listening to the sirens and waiting for a bomb to fall. Her charmed life on Java—living with other Dutch families—had always been peaceful, but when Holland declares war on Japan and the Japanese army invades Indonesia, Rita’s family is forced to relocate to a POW camp, and Rita must help care for her little brother, Georgie.
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This book is an important must read!
- By Nelli Lakatos on 11-25-23
By: Heather B. Moore
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Tending the Heart of Virtue
- How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination, 2nd edition
- By: Vigen Guroian
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In Tending the Heart of Virtue, Vigen Guroian illuminates the power of classic tales and their impact on the moral imagination. He demonstrates how these stories teach the virtues through vivid depictions of the struggle between good and evil, while he also unveils components of the good, the true, and the beautiful in plot and character. With clarity and elegance, Guroian reads deeply into the classic stories.
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So many wonderful suggestions for parents
- By Adrienne p on 11-08-23
By: Vigen Guroian
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Christmas and Other Horrors
- An Anthology of Solstice Horror
- By: Ellen Datlow - editor
- Narrated by: Carrie Coello, Andrew J. Andersen
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Hugo Award-winning editor, and horror legend Ellen Datlow presents a terrifying and chilling horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring chillers by Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, and many more. This anthology of all-new stories invites you to huddle around the fire and revel in the unholy, the dangerous, the horrific aspects of a time when families and friends come together—for better and for worse.
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Excellent and Eclectic
- By D. Evert on 06-21-24
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Parzival
- By: Wolfram Von Eschenbach, Jessie L. Weston - translator
- Narrated by: Adriel Brandt
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Parzival is a romantic poem written by Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. Regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, the romance was the most popular vernacular verse narrative in medieval Germany. Dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, the poem tells the story of the Arthurian hero Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail. The most notable elements of the work are an emphasis on the importance of humility, compassion, and sympathy. Richard Wagner based his famous opera Parsifal on Parzival.
By: Wolfram Von Eschenbach, and others
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The Darkest Shore
- By: Karen Brooks
- Narrated by: Willow Nash
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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1703. The wild east coast of Scotland. Returning to her home town of Pittenweem, fishwife and widow Sorcha McIntyre knows she faces both censure and mistrust. After all, this is a country where myth and legend are woven into the fabric of the everyday, a time when those who defy custom like Sorcha are called to account. It is dangerous to be a clever woman who 'doesn't know her place' in Pittenweem - a town rife with superstition. So, when a young local falls victim to witchcraft, the Reverend Cowper and the townsfolk know who to blame.
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Against all Odds
- By Dawn Umstot on 11-21-22
By: Karen Brooks
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The Go-Between
- By: L. P. Hartley
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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During the long, hot summer of 1900, young Leo Colston is invited to stay for a month at a lordly, aristocratic manor in Norfolk. There he falls in love with his friend's older sister, who commissions him to ferry secret messages to the local farmer, her lover. His naiveté sustains their affair until ultimately leading to an event that will change their lives irrevocably.
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Great walk back in time.
- By Linda Ward on 01-19-17
By: L. P. Hartley
What listeners say about The Lay of the Nibelungs
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dr. C
- 01-22-23
Stupendous
A remarkable reading of a powerful piece. David Rintoul executes a passionate performance with a skillful mix of gravitas, humor, and excitement. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the classic story.
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- Matthew
- 08-08-23
Exceptional
Ending was kinda drawn out and only moderately satisfying, but otherwise absolutely amazing. Didn't feel AT ALL like 11h.
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- John
- 02-03-20
Another Fabulous Grab Bag
While a mere third of the length of Spenser’s Faerie Queene and without that poem’s heady blend of Catholic, Protestant, mystical, mythical and legendary elements, I’m going to reprise my headline for that work: this is indeed another fabulous grab bag.
Though the Nibelung poet blended a mere two elements (that I can see), these are so radically disparate that the effect is fascinating. Here we have an old Norse/Germanic saga replete with mighty men and even stronger-willed women, passion, murder and the inevitable cycle of revenge, told with all the chivalric trappings of a Medieval romance. Lances are shattered. Masses are heard. Yet behind it all broods the relentless, untrammeled fury of the pre-Christian northern stories.
David Rintoul serves it up perfectly. Unfortunately, the “modernized” text eliminates an occasional rhyme, but that’s about the only flaw in this otherwise flawless production.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Tad Davis
- 12-09-20
Beautiful
I could listen to David Rintoul reading junk mail, so having him read this is a particular treat. His voice rises and falls with the narrative, rushing forward into a gallop for the battle scenes, slowing down for the victory parades and love scenes. The characters are all clearly differentiated, at least as far as the steady beat of heroic couplets allows. (An unrelated footnote: Colin Firth won well-deserved plaudits for his performance as Darcy in Pride and Prejudice; but people of a certain age have an even greater fondness for David Rintoul in the same role. People of an even more certain age remember him as the corrupt, mood-setting Jehan in a televised production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” with Warren Clarke as Quasimodo.)
There's plenty of galloping to be done in the shattering climax to this sad and bloody tale. I’m no fan of Wagner, so I’ve never “done” the Ring cycle, which was partly inspired by this. It's not a complicated story, at least in this telling. Siegfried marries Kriemhild. Serving her family, he helps her brother win the shield maiden Brunhild of Iceland as his wife. But Brunhild develops a hatred for Siegfried and Kriemhild, and she engineers Siegfried’s murder. (Part of this involves the backstory of Siegfried’s fight with a dragon, which plays a major role in the Volsunga Saga, but is only briefly mentioned here. The action of the Lay of the Nibelungs takes place in this mundane world.)
The verse translation is by Alice Horton. I wasn’t able to find out much about it, except that it dates back at least as far as 1898, putting it in the public domain — always a plus for audiobook publishers. It’s a good listen, very clear in its exposition and vigorous in its dialogue; for the most part the rhymes flow naturally, only occasionally seeming forced. (A number of rhymes are visual, a common strategy of the period: for example, “ground” and “wound” — as in “bloody wound” — are deemed to rhyme.) The verse does have a certain quaintness characteristic of the time, when late Victorian translators tried to sound like Thomas Malory. (For example, there are “thees” and “thous” aplenty; “eke” is used in the sense of “even,” as in “his wife and eke his daughter”; “six hundred gallant wights” survive the climactic fire; and Kriemhild mourning the fallen Siegfried feels “mickle sorrow.”) I think if I were reading it on the page I’d be irritated, but David Rintoul’s beautiful voice covers a multitude of archaisms.
The story proceeds rapidly from one “adventure” to another — “adventure” in this case being equivalent to a chapter in the overall story, such as “How Siegfried and Kriemhild Came to Worms” or “How Siegfried Was Betrayed.” Five or six times in every chapter the poet drops in a line reminding the audience that this is all going to end badly and that everybody is going to die. There are many trips back and forth between kingdoms. Most are handled as summaries, but the final trip of the Burgundians to the court of Etzel the Hun, where that final conflagration will occur, becomes an adventurous travelogue full of bridges and plains and armies, some friendly and some not so friendly.
Ukemi Audio is to be commended for their efforts in bringing out some of these great works of literature — until now mostly strangers to the audiobook world — with first-class narrators, and translations that are pleasing to listen to if not the latest and greatest on the market. I had long wanted to re-read this medieval epic, but I'm not sure that I would have if the audio hadn't become available. (Ukemi seems to be peeking at my reading list. Recently they completed their Chrétien de Troyes collection, and they've also published The Lays of Marie de France, a poet I only heard of recently — in the Great Courses discussion of Arthurian literature from Dorsey Armstrong.)
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