The verse of the Edda is highly alliterative and stanza-based, generally told in the first person or as dialogue. It reads much like "Beowulf" in any good poetic translation, filled with pungent consonants and forthright statements. Auden's rendering anticipates Seamus Heany's acclaimed "Beowulf" in its readability and beauty in English, producing passages like the following:

"Doughty Thor drew boldly The hideous serpent up on board, Struck with his hammer the high hair-mountain Of the writhing Coiler, Kin of the Wolf." (p. 92)

Familiarity with Norse mythic cosmology helps in passages such as that, of course, and the Introduction by Taylor and Peter Salus explains both the meter and the world of the poems. It is somewhat more scholarly in bent than Heany's introduction to "Beowulf", but is nonetheless quite helpful to a non-specialist like myself.

I don't know any Icelandic and thus cannot speak to the truth of the translation in sound or sense. However, its beauty in English is gripping.

Any reader of Tolkien will have a shock of recognition in encountering this book. Several names, including both Thorin and Gandalf, will be instantly familiar, as will a certain ethos of hall, host, mighty deeds, and far-off doom. Anyone wishing to explore Tolkien's literary roots should read the Edda and "Beowulf"; this rendering of the Edda, the work of one of the great poets of the twentieth century (and a Tolkien acolyte to boot) is a superior choice.

It's a real shame that this book is out of print. Given the bestseller status of the Heany "Beowulf", another first-quality rendering of alliterative Northern verse could well have a successful life in today's market. As things stand the book is worth searching for. I recommend it as highly as I may.

Gronke's study compares campaigning and voting behavior in the U.S. House and Senate over a two decade period, from 1980 through 1996. He covers such varied topics as media markets, campaign spending, candidate characteristics, voter evaluations of the House and Senate, and models of electoral choice. By use of a rich archive of contextual, campaign, and survey data collected over two decades, Gronke dismisses many of the conventional accounts of House and Senate differences. Instead, Gronke shows that common elements dominate. Except for the higher profile and higher spending rates in Senate races, U.S. House and Senate elections are marked less by differences than they are by similarities.

Paul Gronke's path-breaking study compares electoral contexts, campaigns, and voter decision-making in House and Senate elections. Gronke's book offers new insights into how differences - and similarities - across the U.S. House and Senate help us understand American elections, showing that congressional elections are united more by common elements than they are separated by an institutional gulf

Ross Baker calls Gronke's book "audacious" and "fresh", written with a "felicity of expression."

This is more of a collection of individual papers or topics than a text book. It is basically a continuation of Ragnar Holm's famous work.

If you are in the field of electrical contacts this is a book you can't live without!