Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur
American medievalist, translator of Snorri's Prose Edda (1916)
- Born
- 1888
- Died
- 1971
- Known for
- The Prose Edda (1916) translation
- Position
- Professor of English, UC Berkeley (1916–1955)
- Other work
- The Art of Beowulf (1959)
Berkeley professor who translated Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda in 1916, the year he finished his Harvard doctorate.
What is Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur known for?
Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur was an American scholar of Old English and Old Norse literature. He earned his doctorate at Harvard in 1916 and joined the University of California, Berkeley, the same year, becoming a full professor in 1930 and retiring in 1955. His book The Art of Beowulf (1959) is a standard study of the Old English poem.
In 1916 he published an English translation of the Prose Edda, the handbook of Norse mythology written in Iceland around 1220 by Snorri Sturluson. Snorri was a Christian writing down older pagan stories, and his book is the main source for many famous myths, including the creation of the world from the giant Ymir, the bridge Bifrost and the folding ship Skidbladnir.
Brodeur's translation is now public domain and widely available online.
The site quotes Brodeur's Prose Edda for the ship Skidbladnir, the Bifrost bridge and Freyja's feather cloak.
Sources
- Internet Sacred Text Archive, 'The Prose Edda', tr. Arthur Gilchrist BrodeurPrimary text
- Wikipedia, 'Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur'Reference
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