13th century
2 books
- You get a medieval epic with sea voyages, feuds, long separations, and a heroine whose endurance never makes her passive. Gudrun can feel episodic and ceremonious, but its attention to Hilde and Gudrun gives the old heroic machinery a surprisingly human pulse.
- This isn't one you read straight through, it's 1,330 tiny couplets you dip into, on anger, farming, friendship, lovers sulking at each other. Each one lands like advice from a shrewd grandparent.