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Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain by Amy Jeffs

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ceeharley's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

3.5

poorlywordedbookreviews's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

…𝔴𝔢𝔫𝔞 𝔪𝔢 𝔭𝔦𝔫𝔢 𝔰𝔢𝔬𝔠𝔢 𝔤𝔢𝔡𝔶𝔡𝔬𝔫, 𝔭𝔦𝔫𝔢 𝔰𝔢𝔩𝔡𝔠𝔶𝔪𝔞𝔰, 𝔪𝔲𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔫𝔡𝔢 𝔪𝔬𝔡, 𝔫𝔞𝔩𝔢𝔰 𝔪𝔢𝔱𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔢.

…𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘭𝘭; 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘮𝘦.

In Wild, we journey from landscapes of desolation to hope, offering an insight into a world at once distant and profoundly close to home…. From the Old English elegies to the englynion and immrama of the Celtic world - these are stories that represent figures whose voices are not generally heard in the corpus of the times (medieval women, outcasts, animals).

Wild is a collection of short story reimaginings of Old English poems from the 10th century Exeter Book, followed by a contextualising history. The appendix also includes some of the main poems discussed in full (or key sections for the larger ones) for your reference- in both the original Old English and modern translation.

It’s the same format as her previous, Storyland, and I enjoyed it as an interesting way to introduce the poems - however I didn’t love it as much as Storyland, but I think that’s because the myths lend themselves better to the concept, with less opaque narratives / niche interest. That said it’s still an engaging and accessible way into learning more about these examples of early Anglo-Saxon literature. The stories here evoke the lives and times vividly, but I felt it’s a bit mis-sold as being focused on the natural world. It’s more that these tales are from before humanity and nature became so divergent, so its presence looms far larger.