Reddit reviews Poems of the Elder Edda (The Middle Ages Series)

Bellows' translation annoys me because of the forced archaic language. However, it's totally free. Can't argue with free.

Hollander is better than Bellows, I think. However, his is a bit more "academic" than most - meaning it's somewhat dry.

Ursula Dronke's version is supposed to be an exemplary academic work, but it's extremely difficult (and expensive) to get. Never laid my hands on it personally.

Larrington is less academically accurate, but does a good job of capturing the "feel" of the poems while also trying to adhere to the poetics. Not great if you want an intense academic study, but pretty accessible overall.

But my favorite translation right now is Patricia Terry's. She has edited and removed chunks that she thinks don't really belong with the stories, rendering this one virtually useless from a standpoint of strict academics. However, where she has succeeded is in making the stories interesting and accessible to a modern audience.

As a skaldic performer, I value a person's attempt to create that "bridge" between the audience and the material. Is it accurate? No. Then again, no single translator is "correct" anyhow - we have to extrapolate and fill in constantly. All translation involves some amount of getting a "sense" for certain phrasing, and different translators will make different choices for different reasons.

I use Terry when I want to consider how to re-word a stanza or section to make it more accessible. More often than not, I consult multiple translations in conjunction with the original text to come to my own decision about the meaning of a given passage.

So, really, there's no definitive translation, and it really depends on your purpose. Hollander can serve as your sort of multi-purpose translation, but if you're primarily interested in the lore, Terry or Larrington might be more your speed.