Recommend translation of Nibelungenlied?

[Extollager]

It might be about time for me to read a translation, so can someone here recommend a good one? Thanks.

 

[Pyan]

Are you looking for prose or verse? I've got the Penguin Classics Hatto translation in prose, but there's a verse translation by one George Henry Needler available (free!) at Project Gutenberg, which is definitely more sagaish.*

Nibelungenlied (trans. Hatto)

Nibelungenlied (trans. Needler)

*And if that's not a word, it damn well ought to be...

 

[Extollager]

Good clarification, Pyan. I'll be first-time reader, so I suppose I mean an accessible translation that's written by someone who knows the work well. Prose would be fine. I wouldn't be surprised if Hatto will be my choice.

 

[J-Sun]

Yeah, I can't speak to the original of course, or even other versions, but I've read the Hatto/Penguin one and didn't have any problems with it. I agree with Pyan's "sagaish" (sagastic?) note in that I'm usually willing to sacrifice a little of the fidelity of prose to get the better feel of verse but, as prose translations go, this seemed to have more of the advantages than the deficits.

 

[Pyan]

Came he softly/ to the forums
Seeking knowledge/But they answered
With more questions/...