THE YOUNGER EDDA:
also called
SNORRE’S EDDA, OR THE PROSE EDDA.
An English Version of the Foreword;
The Fooling of Gylfe, The Afterword;
Brage’s Talk, The Afterword to Brage’s Talk,
and the Important Passages in the
Poetical Diction (Skaldskaparmal).
with an
Introduction, Notes, Vocabulary, and Index.
By RASMUS B. ANDERSON, LL.D.,
Formerly Professor of the Scandinavian Languages
in the University of Wisconsin,
Ex-U.S. Minister to Denmark,
Author of “America Not Discovered By Columbus,”
“Norse Mythology,” “Viking Tales Of The North,” etc.
Chicago
Scott, Foresman and Company
1901
Copyright, 1879,
By S. C. Griggs and Company.
Press of
The Henry O. Shepard Co.
Chicago.
To
HON. THOS. F. BAYARD,
Ambassador to the Court of St. James,
in Grateful Recollection
of Pleasant Official Relations.
PREFACE.
In the beginning, before the heaven and the earth and the sea were
created, the great abyss Ginungagap was without form and void, and the
spirit of Fimbultyr moved upon the face of the deep, until the ice-cold
rivers, the Elivogs, flowing from Niflheim, came in contact with the
dazzling flames from Muspelheim. This was before Chaos.
And Fimbultyr said: Let the melted drops of vapor quicken into life, and
the giant Ymer was born in the midst of Ginungagap. He was not a god,
but the father of all the race of evil giants. This was Chaos.
And Fimbultyr said: Let Ymer be slain and let order be established. And
straightway Odin and his brothers--the bright sons of Bure--gave Ymer a
mortal wound, and from his body made they the universe; from his flesh,
the earth; from his blood, the sea; from his bones, the rocks; from
his hair, the trees; from his skull, the vaulted heavens; from his
eye-brows, the bulwark called Midgard. And the gods formed man and woman
in their own image of two trees, and breathed into them the breath of
life. Ask and Embla became living souls, and they received a garden in
Midgard as a dwelling-place for themselves and their children until the
end of time. This was Cosmos.
The world’s last day approaches. All bonds and fetters that bound the
forces of heaven and earth together are severed, and the powers of good
and of evil are brought together in an internecine feud. Loke advances
with the Fenris-wolf and the Midgard-serpent, his own children, with
all the hosts of the giants, and with Surt, who flings fire and flame
over the world. Odin advances with all the asas and all the blessed
einherjes. They meet, contend, and fall. The wolf swallows Odin but
Vidar, the Silent, sets his foot upon the monster’s lower jaw, he
seizes the other with his hand, and thus rends him till he dies. Frey
encounters Surt, and terrible blows are given ere Frey falls. Heimdal
and Loke fight and kill each other, and so do Tyr and the dog Garm from
the Gnipa Cave. Asa-Thor fells the Midgard-serpent with his Mjolner, but
he retreats only nine paces when he himself falls dead, suffocated by
the serpent’s venom. Then smoke wreathes up around the ash Ygdrasil,
the high flames play against the heavens, the graves of the gods, of
the giants and of men are swallowed up by the sea, and the end has come.
This is Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods.
But the radiant dawn follows the night. The earth, completely green,
rises again from the sea, and where the mews have but just been rocking
on restless waves, rich fields unplowed and unsown, now wave their
golden harvests before the gentle breezes. The asas awake to a new life,
Balder is with them again. Then comes the mighty Fimbultyr, the god who
is from everlasting to everlasting; the god whom the Edda skald dared
not name. The god of gods comes to the asas. He comes to the great
judgment and gathers all the good into Gimle to dwell there forever, and
evermore delights enjoy; but the perjurers and murderers and adulterers
he sends to Nastrand, that terrible hall, to be torn by Nidhug until
they are purged from their wickedness. This is Regeneration.
These are the outlines of the Teutonic religion. Such were the doctrines
established by Odin among our ancestors. Thus do we find it recorded in
the Eddas of Iceland.
The present volume contains all of the Younger Edda that can possibly be
of any importance to English readers. In fact, it gives more than has
ever before been presented in any translation into English, German or
any of the modern Scandinavian tongues.
We would recommend our readers to omit the Forewords and Afterwords
until they have perused the Fooling of Gylfe and Brage’s Speech. The
Forewords and Afterwords, it will readily be seen, are written by a
later and less skillful hand, and we should be sorry to have anyone lay
the book aside and lose the pleasure of reading Snorre’s and Olaf’s
charming work, because he became disgusted with what seemed to him mere
silly twaddle. And yet these Forewords and Afterwords become interesting
enough when taken up in connection with a study of the historical
anthropomorphized Odin. With a view of giving a pretty complete outline
of the founder of the Teutonic race we have in our notes given all the
Heimskringla sketch of the Black Sea Odin. We have done this, not only
on account of the material it furnishes as the groundwork of a Teutonic
epic, which we trust the muses will ere long direct some one to write,
but also on account of the vivid picture it gives of Teutonic life as
shaped and controlled by the Odinic faith.
All the poems quoted in the Younger Edda have in this edition been
traced back to their sources in the Elder Edda and elsewhere.
Where the notes seem to the reader insufficient, we must refer him to
our Norse Mythology, where he will, we trust, find much of the
additional information he may desire.
Well aware that our work has many imperfections, and begging our readers
to deal generously with our shortcomings, we send the book out into the
world with the hope that it may aid some young son or daughter of Odin
to find his way to the fountains of Urd and Mimer and to Idun’s
rejuvenating apples. The son must not squander, but husband wisely, what
his father has accumulated. The race must cherish and hold fast and add
to the thought that the past has bequeathed to it. Thus does it grow
greater and richer with each new generation. The past is the mirror that
reflects the future.
R. B. ANDERSON.
University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Wis., _September, 1879_.
CONTENTS.
Preface 5
Introduction 15
Foreword 33
THE FOOLING OF GYLFE.
CHAPTER I.
Gefjun’s Plowing 49
CHAPTER II.
Gylfe’s Journey to Asgard 51
CHAPTER III.
Of the Highest God 54
CHAPTER IV.
The Creation of the World 56
CHAPTER V.
The Creation (continued) 64
CHAPTER VI.
The First Works of the Asas--The Golden Age 69
CHAPTER VII.
On the Wonderful Things in Heaven 72
CHAPTER VIII.
The Asas 79
CHAPTER IX.
Loke and his Offspring 91
CHAPTER X.
The Goddesses (Asynjes) 97
CHAPTER XI.
The Giantess Gerd and Skirner’s Journey 101
CHAPTER XII.
Life in Valhal 104
CHAPTER XIII.
Odin’s Horse and Frey’s Ship 109
CHAPTER XIV.
Thor’s Adventures 113
CHAPTER XV.
The Death of Balder 131
CHAPTER XVI.
Ragnarok 140
CHAPTER XVII.
Regeneration 147
Afterword to the Fooling of Gylfe 151
BRAGE’S TALK.
CHAPTER I.
Æger’s Journey to Asgard 152
CHAPTER II.
Idun and her Apples 155
CHAPTER III.
How Njord got Skade to Wife 158
CHAPTER IV.
The Origin of Poetry 160
Afterword to Brage’s Talk 166
EXTRACTS FROM THE POETICAL DICTION.
Thor and Hrungner 169
Thor’s Journey to Geirrod’s 176
Idun 184
Æger’s Feast 187
Loke’s Wager with the Dwarfs 189
The Niflungs and Gjukungs 193
Menja and Fenja 206
The Grottesong 208
Rolf Krake 214
Hogne and Hild 218
NOTES.
Enea 221
Herikon 221
The Historical Odin 221
Fornjot and the Settlement of Norway 239
Notes to the Fooling of Gylfe 242
Note on the Niflungs and Gjukungs 266
Note on Menja and Fenja 267
Why the Sea is Salt 268
VOCABULARY 275
INDEX 291
* * * * *
THE YOUNGER EDDA.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION.
The records of our Teutonic past have hitherto received but slight
attention from the English-speaking branch of the great world-ash
Ygdrasil. This indifference is the more deplorable, since a knowledge of
our heroic forefathers would naturally operate as a most powerful means
of keeping alive among us, and our posterity, that spirit of courage,
enterprise and independence for which the old Teutons were so
distinguished.
The religion of our ancestors forms an important chapter in the history
of the childhood of our race, and this fact has induced us to offer the
public an English translation of the Eddas. The purely mythological
portion of the Elder Edda was translated and published by A. S. Cottle,
in Bristol, in 1797, and the whole work was translated by Benjamin
Thorpe, and published in London in 1866. Both these works are now out of
print. Of the Younger Edda we have likewise had two translations into
English,--the first by Dasent in 1842, the second by Blackwell, in his
edition of Mallet’s Northern Antiquities, in 1847. The former has long
been out of print, the latter is a poor imitation of Dasent’s. Both of
them are very incomplete. These four books constitute all the Edda
literature we have had in the English language, excepting, of course,
single lays and chapters translated by Gray, Henderson, W. Taylor,
Herbert, Jamieson, Pigott, William and Mary Howitt, and others.
The Younger Edda (also called Snorre’s Edda, or the Prose Edda), of
which we now have the pleasure of presenting our readers an English
version, contains, as usually published in the original, the following
divisions:
1. The Foreword.
2. Gylfaginning (The Fooling of Gylfe).
3. The Afterword to Gylfaginning.
4. Brage’s Speech.
5. The Afterword.
6. Skaldskaparmal (a collection of poetic paraphrases, and denominations
in Skaldic language without paraphrases).
7. Hattatal (an enumeration of metres; a sort of Clavis Metrica).
In some editions there are also found six additional chapters on the
alphabet, grammar, figures of speech, etc.
There are three important parchment manuscripts of the Younger Edda,
viz:
1. _Codex Regius_, the so-called King’s Book. This was presented to the
Royal Library in Copenhagen, by Bishop Brynjulf Sveinsson, in the year
1640, where it is still kept.
2. _Codex Wormianus_. This is found in the University Library in
Copenhagen, in the Arne Magnæan collection. It takes its name from
Professor Ole Worm [died 1654], to whom it was presented by the learned
Arngrim Jonsson. Christian Worm, the grandson of Ole Worm, and Bishop of
Seeland [died 1737], afterward presented it to Arne Magnusson.
3. _Codex Upsaliensis_. This is preserved in the Upsala University
Library. Like the other two, it was found in Iceland, where it was given
to Jon Rugmann. Later it fell into the hands of Count Magnus Gabriel de
la Gardie, who in the year 1669 presented it to the Upsala University.
Besides these three chief documents, there exist four fragmentary
parchments, and a large number of paper manuscripts.
The first printed edition of the Younger Edda, in the original, is the
celebrated “Edda Islandorum,” published by Peter Johannes Resen, in
Copenhagen, in the year 1665. It contains a translation into Latin, made
partly by Resen himself, and partly also by Magnus Olafsson, Stephan
Olafsson and Thormod Torfason.
Not until eighty years later, that is in 1746, did the second edition of
the Younger Edda appear in Upsala under the auspices of Johannes
Goransson. This was printed from the Codex Upsaliensis.
In the present century we find a third edition by Rasmus Rask, published
in Stockholm in 1818. This is very complete and critical. The fourth
edition was issued by Sveinbjorn Egilsson, in Reykjavik, 1849; the fifth
by the Arne-Magnæan Commission in Copenhagen, 1852.[1] All these five
editions have long been out of print, and in place of them we have a
sixth edition by Thorleif Jonsson (Copenhagen, 1875), and a seventh by
Ernst Wilkin (Paderborn, 1877). Both of these, and especially the
latter, are thoroughly critical and reliable.
[Footnote 1: The third volume of this work has not yet appeared.]
Of translations, we must mention in addition to those into English by
Dasent and Blackwell, R. Nyerup’s translation into Danish (Copenhagen,
1808); Karl Simrock’s into German (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1851); and
Fr. Bergmann’s into French (Paris, 1871). Among the chief authorities to
be consulted in the study of the Younger Edda may be named, in addition
to those already mentioned, Fr. Dietrich, Th. Mobius, Fr. Pfeiffer,
Ludw. Ettmuller, K. Hildebrand, Ludw. Uhland, P. E. Muller, Adolf
Holzmann, Sophus Bugge, P. A. Munch and Rudolph Keyser. For the material
in our introduction and notes, we are chiefly indebted to Simrock,
Wilkin and Keyser. While we have had no opportunity of making original
researches, the published works have been carefully studied, and all we
claim for our work is, that it shall contain the results of the latest
and most thorough investigations by scholars who live nearer the
fountains of Urd and Mimer than do we. Our translations are made from
Egilsson’s, Jonsson’s and Wilkins’ editions of the original. We have not
translated any of the Hattatal, and only the narrative part of
Skaldskaparmal, and yet our version contains more of the Younger Edda
than any English, German, French or Danish translation that has hitherto
been published. The parts omitted cannot possibly be of any interest to
any one who cannot read them in the original. All the paraphrases of the
asas and asynjes, of the world, the earth, the sea, the sun, the wind,
fire, summer, man, woman, gold, of war, arms, of a ship, emperor, king,
ruler, etc., are of interest only as they help to explain passages of
Old Norse poems. The same is true of the enumeration of metres, which
contains a number of epithets and metaphors used by the scalds,
illustrated by specimens of their poetry, and also by a poem of Snorre
Sturleson, written in one hundred different metres.
There has been a great deal of learned discussion in regard to the
authorship of the Younger Edda. Readers specially interested in this
knotty subject we must refer to Wilkins’ elaborate treatise,
Untersuchungen zur Snorra Edda (Paderborn, 1878), and to P. E. Muller’s,
Die Æchtheit der Asalehre (Copenhagen, 1811).
Two celebrated names that without doubt are intimately connected with
the work are Snorre Sturleson and Olaf Thordsson Hvitaskald. Both of
these are conspicuous, not only in the literary, but also in the
political history of Iceland.
[Footnote 2: Keyser.]
Snorre Sturleson[2] was born in Iceland in the year 1178. Three years
old, he came to the house of the distinguished chief, Jon Loptsson, at
Odde, a grandson of Sæmund the Wise, the reputed collector of the Elder
Edda, where he appears to have remained until Jon Loptsson’s death, in
the year 1197. Soon afterward Snorre married into a wealthy family, and
in a short time he became one of the most distinguished leaders in
Iceland, He was several times elected chief magistrate, and no man in
the land was his equal in riches and prominence. He and his two elder
brothers, Thord and Sighvat, who were but little inferior to him in
wealth and power, were at one time well-nigh supreme in Iceland, and
Snorre sometimes appeared at the Althing at Thingvols accompanied by
from eight hundred to nine hundred armed men.
Snorre and his brothers did not only have bitter feuds with other
families, but a deadly hatred also arose between themselves, making
their lives a perpetual warfare. Snorre was shrewd as a politician and
magistrate, and eminent as an orator and skald, but his passions were
mean, and many of his ways were crooked. He was both ambitious and
avaricious. He is said to have been the first Icelander who laid plans
to subjugate his fatherland to Norway, and in this connection is
supposed to have expected to become a jarl under the king of Norway.
In this effort he found himself outwitted by his brother’s son, Sturle
Thordsson, and thus he came into hostile relations with the latter. In
this feud Snorre was defeated, but when Sturle shortly after fell in a
battle against his foes, Snorre’s star of hope rose again, and he began
to occupy himself with far-reaching, ambitious plans. He had been for
the first time in Norway during the years 1218-1220, and had been well
received by King Hakon, and especially by Jarl Skule, who was then the
most influential man in the country. In the year 1237 Snorre visited
Norway again, and entered, as it is believed, into treasonable
conspiracies with Jarl Skule. In 1239 he left Norway against the wishes
of King Hakon, whom he owed obedience, and thereby incurred the king’s
greatest displeasure. When King Hakon, in 1240, had crushed Skule’s
rebellion and annihilated this dangerous opponent, it became Snorre’s
turn to feel the effects of the king’s wrath. At the instigation of King
Hakon, several chiefs of Iceland united themselves against Snorre and
murdered him at Reykholt, where ruins of his splendid mansion are still
to be seen. This event took place on the 22d of September, 1241, and
Snorre Sturleson was then sixty-three years old. Snorre was Iceland’s
most distinguished skald and sagaman. As a writer of history he deserves
to be compared with Herodotos or Thukydides. His Heimskringla, embracing
an elaborate history of the kings of Norway, is famous throughout the
civilized world, and Emerson calls it the Iliad and Odyssey of our race.
An English translation of this work was published by Samuel Laing, in
London, in 1844. Carlyle’s Early Kings of Norway (London, 1875) was
inspired by the Heimskringla.
Olaf Thordsson, surnamed Hvitaskald,[3] to distinguish him from his
contemporary, Olaf Svartaskald,[4] was a son of Snorre’s brother. Though
not as prominent and influential as his uncle, he took an active part in
all the troubles of his native island during the first half of the
thirteenth century. He visited Norway in 1236, whence he went to
Denmark, where he was a guest at the court of King Valdemar, and is said
to have enjoyed great esteem. In 1240 we find him again in Norway, where
he espoused the cause of King Hakon against Skule. On his return to
Iceland he served four years as chief magistrate of the island. His
death occurred in the year 1259, and he is numbered among the great
skalds of Iceland.
[Footnote 3: White Skald.]
[Footnote 4: Black Skald.]
Snorre Sturleson and Olaf Hvitaskald are the two names to whom the
authorship of the Younger Edda has generally been attributed, and the
work is by many, even to this day, called Snorra Edda--that is, Snorre’s
Edda. We do not propose to enter into any elaborate discussion of this
complicated subject, but we will state briefly the reasons given by
Keyser and others for believing that these men had a hand in preparing
the Prose Edda. In the first place, we find that the writer of the
grammatical and rhetorical part of the Younger Edda distinctly mentions
Snorre as author of Hattatal (the Clavis Metrica), and not only of the
poem itself, but also of the treatise in prose. In the second place, the
Arne Magnæan parchment manuscript, which dates back to the close of the
thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, has the following
note prefaced to the Skaldskaparmal. “Here ends that part of the book
which Olaf Thordsson put together, and now begins Skaldskaparmal and the
Kenningar, according to that which has been found in the lays of the
chief skalds, and which Snorre afterward suffered to be brought
together.” In the third place, the Upsala manuscript of the Younger
Edda, which is known with certainty to have been written in the
beginning of the fourteenth century, contains this preface, written with
the same hand as the body of the work: “This book hight Edda. Snorre has
compiled it in the manner in which it is arranged: first, in regard to
the asas and Ymer, then Skaldskaparmal and the denominations of many
things, and finally that Hattatal, which Snorre composed about King
Hakon and Duke Skule.” In the fourth place, there is a passage in the
so-called Annales Breviores, supposed to have been written about the
year 1400. The passage relates to the year 1241, and reads thus: “Snorre
Sturleson died at Reykholt. He was a wise and very learned man, a great
chief and shrewd. He was the first man in this land who brought property
into the hands of the king (the king of Norway). He compiled Edda and
many other learned historical works and Icelandic sagas. He was murdered
at Reykholt by Jarl Gissur’s men.”
It seems, then, that there is no room for any doubt that these two men
have had a share in the authorship of the Younger Edda. How great a
share each has had is another and more difficult problem to solve.
Rudolf Keyser’s opinion is (and we know no higher authority on the
subject), that Snorre is the author, though not in so strict a sense as
we now use the word, of Gylfaginning, Brage’s Speech, Skaldskaparmal and
Hattatal. This part of the Younger Edda may thus be said to date back to
the year 1230, though the material out of which the mythological system
is constructed is of course much older. We find it in the ancient Vala’s
Prophecy, of the Elder Edda, a poem that breathes in every line the
purest asa-faith, and is, without the least doubt, much older than the
introduction of christianity in the north, or the discovery and
settlement of Iceland. It is not improbable that the religious system of
the Odinic religion had assumed a permanent prose form in the memories
of the people long before the time of Snorre, and that he merely was the
means of having it committed to writing almost without verbal change.
Olaf Thordsson is unmistakably the author of the grammatical and
rhetorical portion of the Younger Edda, and its date can therefore
safely be put at about 1250. The author of the treatise on the alphabet
is not known, but Professor Keyser thinks it must have been written, its
first chapter, about the year 1150, and its second chapter about the
year 1200. The forewords and afterwords are evidently also from another
pen. Their author is unknown, but they are thought to have been written
about the year 1300. To sum up, then, we arrive at this conclusion: The
mythological material of the Younger Edda is as old as the Teutonic
race. Parts of it are written by authors unknown to fame. A small
portion is the work of Olaf Thordsson. The most important portion is
written, or perhaps better, compiled, by Snorre Sturleson, and the whole
is finally edited and furnished with forewords and afterwords, early in
the fourteenth century,--according to Keyser, about 1320-1330.
About the name Edda there has also been much learned discussion. Some
have suggested that it may be a mutilated form of the word Odde, the
home of Sæmund the Wise, who was long supposed to be the compiler of the
Elder Edda. In this connection, it has been argued that possibly Sæmund
had begun the writing of the Younger Edda, too. Others derive the word
from _óðr_ (mind, soul), which in poetical usage also means song,
poetry. Others, again, connect Edda with the Sanscrit word Veda, which
is supposed to mean knowledge. Finally, others adopt the meaning which
the word has where it is actually used in the Elder Edda, and where it
means great-grandmother. Vigfusson adopts this definition, and it is
certainly both scientific and poetical. What can be more beautiful than
the idea that our great ancestress teaches her descendants the sacred
traditions, the concentrated wisdom, of the race? To sum up, then,
we say the Younger, or Prose, or Snorre’s Edda has been produced at
different times by various hands, and the object of its authors has been
to produce a manual for the skalds. In addition to the forewords and
afterwords, it contains two books, one greater (Gylfaginning) and one
lesser (Brage’s Speech), giving a tolerably full account of Norse
mythology. Then follows Skaldskaparmal, wherein is an analysis of the
various circumlocutions practiced by the skalds, all illustrated by
copious quotations from the poets. How much of these three parts is
written by Snorre is not certain, but on the other hand, there is no
doubt that he is the author of Hattatal (Clavis Metrica), which gives an
enumeration of metres. To these four treatises are added four chapters
on grammar and rhetoric. The writer of the oldest grammatical treatise
is thought to be one Thorodd Runemaster, who lived in the middle of the
twelfth century; and the third treatise is evidently written by Olaf
Thordsson Hvitaskald, the nephew of Snorre, a scholar who spent some
time at the court of the Danish king, Valdemar the Victorious.
The Younger Edda contains the systematized theogony and cosmogony of our
forefathers, while the Elder Edda presents the Odinic faith in a series
of lays or rhapsodies. The Elder Edda is poetry, while the Younger Edda
is mainly prose. The Younger Edda may in one sense be regarded as the
sequel or commentary of the Elder Edda. Both complement each other, and
both must be studied in connection with the sagas and all the Teutonic
traditions and folk-lore in order to get a comprehensive idea of the
asa-faith. The two Eddas constitute, as it were, the Odinic Bible. The
Elder Edda is the Old Testament, the Younger Edda the New. Like the Old
Testament, the Elder Edda is in poetry. It is prophetic and enigmatical.
Like the New Testament, the Younger Edda is in prose; it is lucid, and
gives a clue to the obscure passages in the Elder Edda. Nay, in many
respects do the two Eddas correspond with the two Testaments of the
Christian Bible.
It is a deplorable fact that the religion of our forefathers seems to be
but little cared for in this country. The mythologies of other nations
every student manifests an interest for. He reads with the greatest zeal
all the legends of Rome and Greece, of India and China. He is familiar
with every room in the labyrinth of Crete, while when he is introduced
to the shining halls of Valhal and Gladsheim he gropes his way like a
blind man. He does not know that Idun, with her beautiful apples, might,
if applied to, render even greater services than Ariadne with her
wonderful thread. When we inquire whom Tuesday and Wednesday and
Thursday and Friday are named after, and press questions in reference to
Tyr, Odin, Thor and Freyja, we get at best but a wise and knowing look.
Are we, then, as a nation, like the ancient Jews, and do we bend the
knee before the gods of foreign nations and forsake the altars of our
own gods? What if we then should suffer the fate of that unhappy
people--be scattered over all the world and lose our fatherland? In
these Eddas our fathers have bequeathed unto us all their profoundest,
all their sublimest, all their best thought. They are the concentrated
result of their greatest intellectual and spiritual effort, and it
behooves us to cherish this treasure and make it the fountain at which
the whole American branch of the Ygdrasil ash may imbibe a united
national sentiment. It is not enough to brush the dust off these gods
and goddesses of our ancestors and put them up on pedestals as ornaments
in our museums and libraries. These coins of the past are not to be laid
away in numismatic collections. The grandson must use what he has
inherited from his grandfather. If the coin is not intelligible, then it
will have to be sent to the mint and stamped anew, in order that it may
circulate freely. Our ancestral deities want a place in our hearts and
in our songs.
On the European continent and in England the zeal of the priests in
propagating Christianity was so great that they sought to root out every
trace of the asa-faith. They left but unintelligible fragments of the
heathen religious structure. Our gods and goddesses and heroes were
consigned to oblivion, and all knowledge of the Odinic religion and of
the Niblung-story would have been well nigh totally obliterated had not
a more lucky star hovered over the destinies of Iceland. In this
remotest corner of the world the ancestral spirit was preserved like the
glowing embers of Hekla beneath the snow and ice of the glacier. From
the farthest Thule the spirit of our fathers rises and shines like an
aurora over all Teutondom. It was in the year 860 that Iceland was
discovered. In 874 the Teutonic spirit fled thither for refuge from
tyranny. Here a government based on the principles of old Teutonic
liberty was established. From here went forth daring vikings, who
discovered Greenland and Vinland, and showed Columbus the way to
America. From here the courts of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England and
Germany were supplied with skalds to sing their praises. Here was put in
writing the laws and sagas that give us a clue to the form of old
Teutonic institutions. Here was preserved the Old Norse language, and in
it a record of the customs, the institutions and the religion of our
fathers. Its literature does not belong to that island alone,--it
belongs to the whole Teutonic race! Iceland is for the Teutons what
Greece and Rome are for the south of Europe, and she accomplished her
mission with no less efficiency and success. Cato the Elder used to end
all his speeches with these words: _“Præterea censeo Carthaginem esse
delendam.”_ In these days, when so many worship at the shrine of
Romanism, we think it perfectly just to adopt Cato’s sentence in this
form: _Præterea censeo Romam esse delendam_.
FOREWORD.
1. In the beginning Almighty God created heaven and earth, and all
things that belong to them, and last he made two human beings, from whom
the races are descended (Adam and Eve), and their children multiplied
and spread over all the world. But in the course of time men became
unequal; some were good and right-believing, but many more turned them
after the lusts of the world and heeded not God’s laws; and for this
reason God drowned the world in the flood, and all that was quick in the
world, except those who were in the ark with Noah. After the flood of
Noah there lived eight men, who inhabited the world, and from them the
races are descended; and now, as before, they increased and filled the
world, and there were very many men who loved to covet wealth and power,
but turned away from obedience to God, and so much did they do this that
they would not name God. And who could then tell their sons of the
wonderful works of God? So it came to pass that they lost God’s name;
and in the wide world the man was not to be found who could tell of his
Maker. But, nevertheless, God gave them earthly-gifts, wealth and
happiness, that should be with them in the world; he also shared wisdom
among them, so that they understood all earthly things, and all kinds
that might be seen in the air and on the earth. This they thought upon,
and wondered at, how it could come to pass that the earth and the beasts
and the birds had the same nature in some things but still were unlike
in manners.
One evidence of this nature was that the earth might be dug into upon
high mountain-peaks and water would spring up there, and it was not
necessary to dig deeper for water there than in deep dales; thus, also,
in beasts and birds it is no farther to the blood in the head than in
the feet. Another proof of this nature is, that every year there grow on
the earth grass and flowers, and the same year it falls and withers;
thus, also, on beasts and birds do hair and feathers grow and fall off
each year. The third nature of the earth is, that when it is opened and
dug into, then grass grows on the mould which is uppermost on the earth.
Rocks and stones they explained to correspond to the teeth and bones of
living things. From these things they judged that the earth must be
quick and must have life in some way, and they knew that it was of a
wonderfully great age and of a mighty nature. It nourished all that was
quick and took to itself all that died. On this account they gave it a
name, and numbered their ancestors back to it This they also learned
from their old kinsmen, that when many hundred winters were numbered,
the course of the heavenly bodies was uneven; some had a longer course
than others. From such things they suspected that some one must be the
ruler of the heavenly bodies who could stay their course at his own
will, and he must be strong and mighty; and of him they thought that, if
he ruled the prime elements, he must also have been before the heavenly
bodies, and they saw that, if he ruled the course of the heavenly
bodies, he must rule the sunshine, and the dew of the heavens, and the
products of the earth that follow them; and thus, also, the winds of the
air and therewith the storms of the sea. They knew not where his realm
was, but they believed that he ruled over all things on the earth and in
the air, over the heavens and the heavenly bodies, the seas and the
weather. But in order that these things might be better told and
remembered, they gave him the same name with themselves, and this belief
has been changed in many ways, as the peoples have been separated and
the tongues have been divided.
2. In his old age Noah shared the world with his sons: for Ham he
intended the western region, for Japheth the northern region, but for
Shem the southern region, with those parts which will hereafter be
marked out in the division of the earth into three parts. In the time
that the sons of these men were in the world, then increased forthwith
the desire for riches and power, from the fact that they knew many
crafts that had not been discovered before, and each one was exalted
with his own handiwork; and so far did they carry their pride, that the
Africans, descended from Ham, harried in that part of the world which
the offspring of Shem, their kinsman, inhabited. And when they had
conquered them, the world seemed to them too small, and they smithied a
tower with tile and stone, which they meant should reach to heaven, on
the plain called Sennar. And when this building was so far advanced that
it extended above the air, and they were no less eager to continue the
work, and when God saw how their pride waxed high, then he sees that he
will have to strike it down in some way. And the same God, who is
almighty, and who might have struck down all their work in the twinkling
of an eye, and made themselves turn into dust, still preferred to
frustrate their purpose by making them realize their own littleness, in
that none of them should understand what the other talked; and thus no
one knew what the other commanded, and one broke what the other wished
to build up, until they came to strife among themselves, and therewith
was frustrated, in the beginning, their purpose of building a tower. And
he who was foremost, hight Zoroaster, he laughed before he wept when he
came into the world; but the master-smiths were seventy-two, and so many
tongues have spread over the world since the giants were dispersed over
the land, and the nations became numerous. In this same place was built
the most famous city, which took its name from the tower, and was called
Babylon. And when the confusion of tongues had taken place, then
increased the names of men and of other things, and this same Zoroaster
had many names; and although he understood that his pride was laid low
by the said building, still he worked his way unto worldly power, and
had himself chosen king over many peoples of the Assyrians. From him
arose the error of idolatry; and when he was worshiped he was called
Baal; we call him Bel; he also had many other names. But as the names
increased in number, so was truth lost; and from this first error every
following man worshiped his head-master, beasts or birds, the air and
the heavenly bodies, and various lifeless things, until the error at
length spread over the whole world; and so carefully did they lose the
truth that no one knew his maker, excepting those men alone who spoke
the Hebrew tongue,--that which flourished before the building of the
tower,--and still they did not lose the bodily endowments that were
given them, and therefore they judged of all things with earthly
understanding, for spiritual wisdom was not given unto them. They deemed
that all things were smithied of some one material.
3. The world was divided into three parts, one from the south, westward
to the Mediterranean Sea, which part was called Africa; but the southern
portion of this part is hot and scorched by the sun. The second part,
from the west and to the north and to the sea, is that called Europe, or
Enea. The northern portion of this is cold, so that grass grows not, nor
can anyone dwell there. From the north around the east region, and all
to the south, that is called Asia. In that part of the world is all
beauty and pomp, and wealth of the earth’s products, gold and precious
stones. There is also the mid-world, and as the earth there is fairer
and of a better quality than elsewhere, so are also the people there
most richly endowed with all gifts, with wisdom and strength, with
beauty and with all knowledge.
4. Near the middle of the world was built the house and inn, the most
famous that has been made, which was called Troy, in the land which we
call Turkey. This city was built much larger than others, with more
skill in many ways, at great expense, and with such means as were at
hand. There were twelve kingdoms and one over-king, and many lands and
nations belonged to each kingdom; there were in the city twelve chief
languages.[5] Their chiefs have surpassed all men who have been in the
world in all heroic things. No scholar who has ever told of these things
has ever disputed this fact, and for this reason, that all rulers of the
north region trace their ancestors back thither, and place in the number
of the gods all who were rulers of the city. Especially do they place
Priamos himself in the stead of Odin; nor must that be called wonderful,
for Priamos was sprung from Saturn, him whom the north region for a long
time believed to be God himself.
[Footnote 5: Dasent translates “hövuðtungur” (chief or head
tongues) with “lords,” which is certainly an error.]
5. This Saturn grew up in that island in Greece which hight Crete. He
was greater and stronger and fairer than other men. As in other natural
endowments, so he excelled all men in wisdom. He invented many crafts
which had not before been discovered. He was also so great in the art of
magic that he was certain about things that had not yet come to pass. He
found, too, that red thing in the earth from which he smelted gold, and
from such things he soon became very mighty. He also foretold harvests
and many other secret things, and for such, and many other deeds, he was
chosen chief of the island. And when he had ruled it a short time, then
there speedily enough became a great abundance of all things. No money
circulated excepting gold coins, so plentiful was this metal; and though
there was famine in other lands, the crops never failed in Crete, so
that people might seek there all the things which they needed to have.
And from this and many other secret gifts of power that he had, men
believed him to be God, and from him arose another error among the
Cretans and Macedonians like the one before mentioned among the
Assyrians and Chaldeans from Zoroaster. And when Saturn finds how great
strength the people think they have in him, he calls himself God, and
says that he rules heaven and earth and all things.
6. Once he went to Greece in a ship, for there was a king’s daughter on
whom he had set his heart. He won her love in this way, that one day
when she was out with her maid-servants, he took upon himself the
likeness of a bull, and lay before her in the wood, and so fair was he
that the hue of gold was on every hair; and when the king’s daughter saw
him she patted his lips. He sprang up and threw off the bull’s likeness
and took her into his arms and bore her to the ship and took her to
Crete. But his wife, Juno, found this out, so he turned her (the king’s
daughter) into the likeness of a heifer and sent her east to the arms of
the great river (that is, of the Nile, to the Nile country), and let the
thrall, who hight Argulos, take care of her. She was there twelve months
before he changed her shape again. Many things did he do like this,
or even more wonderful He had three sons: one hight Jupiter, another
Neptune, the third Pluto. They were all men of the greatest
accomplishments, and Jupiter was by far the greatest; he was a warrior
and won many kingdoms; he was also crafty like his father, and took upon
himself the likeness of many animals, and thus he accomplished many
things which are impossible for mankind; and on account of this, and
other things, he was held in awe by all nations. Therefore Jupiter is
put in the place of Thor, since all evil wights fear him.
7. Saturn had built in Crete seventy-two burgs, and when he thought
himself firmly established in his kingdom, he shared it with his sons,
whom he set up with himself as gods; and to Jupiter he gave the realm of
heaven; to Neptune, the realm of the earth, and to Pluto, hell; and this
last seemed to him the worst to manage, and therefore he gave to him his
dog, the one whom he called Cerberos, to guard hell. This Cerberos, the
Greeks say, Herakles dragged out of hell and upon earth. And although
Saturn had given the realm of heaven to Jupiter, the latter nevertheless
desired to possess the realm of the earth, and so he harried his
father’s kingdom, and it is said that he had him taken and emasculated,
and for such great achievements he declared himself to be god, and the
Macedonians say that he had the members taken and cast into the sea, and
therefore they believed for ages that therefrom had come a woman; her
they called Venus, and numbered among the gods, and she has in all ages
since been called goddess of love, for they believed she was able to
turn the hearts of all men and women to love. When Saturn was
emasculated by Jupiter, his son, he fled from the east out of Crete and
west into Italy. There dwelt at that time such people as did not work,
and lived on acorns and grass, and lay in caves or holes in the earth.
And when Saturn came there he changed his name and called himself Njord,
for the reason that he thought that Jupiter, his son, might afterward
seek him out. He was the first there to teach men to plow and plant
vineyards. There the soil was good and fresh, and it soon produced heavy
crops. He was made chief and thus he got possession of all the realms
there and built many burgs.
8. Jupiter, his son, had many sons, from whom races have descended; his
son was Dardanos, his son Herikon, his son Tros, his son Ilos, his son
Laomedon, the father of the chief king Priamos. Priamos had many sons;
one of them was Hektor, who was the most famous of all men in the world
for strength, and stature and accomplishments, and for all manly deeds
of a knightly kind; and it is found written that when the Greeks and all
the strength of the north and east regions fought with the Trojans, they
would never have become victors had not the Greeks invoked the gods; and
it is also stated that no human strength would conquer them unless they
were betrayed by their own men, which afterward was done. And from their
fame men that came after gave themselves titles, and especially was this
done by the Romans, who were the most famous in many things after their
days; and it is said that, when Rome was built, the Romans adapted their
customs and laws as nearly as possible to those of the Trojans, their
forefathers. And so much power accompanied these men for many ages
after, that when Pompey, a Roman chieftain, harried in the east region,
Odin fled out of Asia and hither to the north country, and then he gave
to himself and his men their names, and said that Priamos had hight Odin
and his queen Frigg, and from this the realm afterward took its name and
was called Frigia where the burg stood. And whether Odin said this of
himself out of pride, or that it was wrought by the changing of tongues;
nevertheless many wise men have regarded it a true saying, and for a
long time after every man who was a great chieftain followed his
example.
9. A king in Troy hight Munon or Mennon, his wife was a daughter of the
head-king Priamos and hight Troan; they had a son who hight Tror, him we
call Thor. He was fostered in Thrace by the duke, who is called Loricos.
But when he was ten winters old he took his father’s weapons. So fair of
face was he, when he stood by other men, as when ivory is set in oak;
his hair was fairer than gold. When he was twelve winters old he had
full strength; then he lifted from the ground ten bear skins all at
once, and then he slew Loricos, the duke, his foster-father and his
wife, Lora or Glora, and took possession of Thrace; this we call
Thrudheim. Then he visited many lands and knew the countries of the
world, and conquered single-handed all the berserks and all the giants,
and one very big dragon and many beasts. In the north region he found
that prophetess who hight Sibyl, whom we call Sif, and married her. None
can tell the genealogy of Sif; she was the fairest of all women, her
hair was like gold. Their son was Loride (Hloride), who was like his
father; his son was Henrede; his son Vingethor (Vingthor); his son
Vingener (Vingner); his son Moda (Mode); his son Magi (Magne); his son
Kesfet; his son Bedvig; his son Atra, whom we call Annan; his son
Itrman; his son Heremod (Hermod); his son Skjaldun, whom we call Skjold;
his son Bjaf, whom we call Bjar; his son Jat; his son Gudolf, his son
Fjarlaf, whom we call Fridleif; he had the son who is called Vodin, whom
we call Odin; he was a famous man for wisdom and all accomplishments.
His wife hight Frigida, whom we call Frigg.
10. Odin had the power of divination, and so had his wife, and from this
knowledge he found out that his name would be held high in the north
part of the world, and honored beyond that of all kings. For this reason
he was eager to begin his journey from Turkey, and he had with him very
many people, young and old, men and women, and he had with him many
costly things. But wherever they fared over the lands great fame was
spoken of them, and they were said to be more like gods than men. And
they stopped not on their journey before they came north into that land
which is now called Saxland; there Odin remained a long time, and
subjugated the country far and wide. There Odin established his three
sons as a defense of the land. One is named Veggdegg; he was a strong
king and ruled over East Saxland. His son was Vitrgils, and his sons
were Ritta, the father of Heingest (Hengist), and Sigar, the father of
Svebdegg, whom we call Svipdag. Another son of Odin hight Beldegg, whom
we call Balder; he possessed the land which now hight Vestfal; his son
was Brander, and his son Frjodigar, whom we call Froda (Frode). His son
was Freovit, his son Yvigg, his son Gevis, whom we call Gave. The third
son of Odin is named Sigge, his son Verer. These forefathers ruled the
land which is now called Frankland, and from them is come the race that
is called the Volsungs. From all of these many and great races are
descended.
11. Then Odin continued his journey northward and came into the country
which was called Reidgotaland, and in that land he conquered all that he
desired. He established there his son, who hight Skjold; his son hight
Fridleif; from him is descended the race which hight Skjoldungs; these
are the Dane kings, and that land hight now Jutland, which then was
called Reidgotaland.
12. Thereupon he fared north to what is now called Svithjod (Sweden),
there was the king who is called Gylfe. But when he heard of the coming
of those Asiamen, who were called asas, he went to meet them, and
offered Odin such things in his kingdom as he himself might desire. And
such good luck followed their path, that wherever they stopped in the
lands, there were bountiful crops and good peace; and all believed that
they were the cause thereof. The mighty men of the kingdom saw that they
were unlike other men whom they had seen, both in respect to beauty and
understanding. The land there seemed good to Odin, and he chose there
for himself a place for a burg, which is now called Sigtuna.[6] He there
established chiefs, like unto what had formerly existed in Troy; he
appointed twelve men in the burg to be judges of the law of the land,
and made all rights to correspond with what had before been in Troy, and
to what the Turks had been accustomed.
[Footnote 6: Near Upsala.]
13. Thereupon he fared north until he reached the sea, which they
thought surrounded all lands, and there he established his son in the
kingdom, which is now called Norway; he is hight Saming, and the kings
of Norway count their ancestors back to him, and so do the jarls and
other mighty men, as it is stated in the Haleygjatal.[7] But Odin had
with him that son who is called Yngve, who was king in Sweden, and from
him is descended the families called Ynglings (Yngvelings). The asas
took to themselves wives there within the land. But some took wives for
their sons, and these families became so numerous that they spread over
Saxland, and thence over the whole north region, and the tongue of these
Asiamen became the native tongue of all these lands. And men think they
can understand from the way in which the names of their forefathers is
written, that these names have belonged to this tongue, and that the
asas have brought this tongue hither to the north, to Norway, to Sweden
and to Saxland. But in England are old names of places and towns which
can be seen to have been given in another tongue than this.
[Footnote 7: A heroic poem, giving the pedigree (tal) of Norse
kings.]
THE FOOLING OF GYLFE.
CHAPTER I.
GEFJUN’S PLOWING.
1. King Gylfe ruled the lands that are now called Svithjod (Sweden). Of
him it is said that he gave to a wayfaring woman, as a reward for the
entertainment she had afforded him by her story-telling, a plow-land in
his realm, as large as four oxen could plow it in a day and a night But
this woman was of the asa-race; her name was Gefjun. She took from the
north, from Jotunheim, four oxen, which were the sons of a giant and
her, and set them before the plow. Then went the plow so hard and deep
that it tore up the land, and the oxen drew it westward into the sea,
until it stood still in a sound. There Gefjun set the land, gave it a
name and called it Seeland. And where the land had been taken away
became afterward a sea, which in Sweden is now called Logrinn (the Lake,
the Malar Lake in Sweden). And in the Malar Lake the bays correspond to
the capes in Seeland. Thus Brage, the old skald:
Gefjun glad
Drew from Gylfe
The excellent land,
Denmark’s increase,
So that it reeked
From the running beasts.
Four heads and eight eyes
Bore the oxen
As they went before the wide
Robbed land of the grassy isle.[8]
[Footnote 8: Heimskringla: Ynglinga Saga, ch. v.]