71. Ægir having expressed a wish to know how poetry originated,
Bragi informed him that the Æsir and Vanir having met to put an end to
the war which had long been carried on between them, a treaty of
peace was agreed to and ratified by each party spitting into a jar. As
a lasting sign of the amity which was thenceforward to subsist between
the contending parties, the gods formed out of this spittle a being to
whom they gave the name of Kvasir, and whom they endowed with such a
high degree of intelligence that no one could ask him a question that
he was unable to answer. Kvasir then traversed the whole world to
teach men wisdom, but was at length treacherously murdered by the
dwarfs, Fjalar and Galar, who, by mixing up his blood with honey,
composed a liquor of such surpassing excellence that whoever drinks of
it acquires the gift of song. When the Æsir inquired what had become
of Kvasir, the dwarfs told them that he had been suffocated with his
own wisdom, not being able to find any one who by proposing to him a
sufficient number of learned questions might relieve him of its
superabundance. Not long after this event, Fjalar and Galar managed to
drown the giant Gilling and murder his wife, deeds which were avenged
by their son Suttung taking the dwarfs out to sea, and placing them on
a shoal which was flooded at high water. In this critical position
they implored Suttung to spare their lives, and accept the
verse-inspiring beverage which they possessed as an atonement for
their having killed his parents. Suttung having agreed to these
conditions, released the dwarfs, and carrying the mead home with him,
committed it to the care of his daughter Gunnlauth. Hence poetry is
indifferently called Kvasir's blood, Suttung's mead, the dwarf's
ransom, etc.