Who shall have seats in the hall;
The half of the dead | each day does she choose,
And half does Othin have.
15. The tenth is Glitnir; | its pillars are gold,
And its roof with silver is set;
There most of his days | does Forseti dwell,
And sets all strife at end.
16. The eleventh is Noatun; | there has Njorth
For himself a dwelling set;
The sinless ruler | of men there sits
In his temple timbered high.
17. Filled with growing trees | and high-standing grass
Is Vithi, Vithar’s land;
But there did the son | from his steed leap down,
When his father he fain would avenge.
18. In Eldhrimnir | Andhrimnir cooks
Sæhrimnir’s seething flesh,—
The best of food, | but few men know
On what fare the warriors feast.
19. Freki and Geri | does Heerfather feed,
The far-famed fighter of old:
But on wine alone | does the weapon-decked god,
Othin, forever live.
20. O’er Mithgarth Hugin | and Munin both
Each day set forth to fly;
For Hugin I fear | lest he come not home,
But for Munin my care is more.
21. Loud roars Thund, | and Thjothvitnir’s fish
Joyously fares in the flood;
Hard does it seem | to the host of the slain
To wade the torrent wild.
22. There Valgrind stands, | the sacred gate,
And behind are the holy doors;
Old is the gate, | but few there are
Who can tell how it tightly is locked.
23. Five hundred doors | and forty there are,
I ween, in Valhall’s walls;
Eight hundred fighters | through one door fare
When to war with the wolf they go.
24. Five hundred rooms | and forty there are
I ween, in Bilskirnir built;
Of all the homes | whose roofs I beheld,
My son’s the greatest meseemed.
25. Heithrun is the goat | who stands by Heerfather’s hall,
And the branches of Lærath she bites;
The pitcher she fills | with the fair, clear mead,
Ne’er fails the foaming drink.
26. Eikthyrnir is the hart | who stands by Heerfather’s hall
And the branches of Lærath he bites;
From his horns a stream | into Hvergelmir drops,
Thence all the rivers run.
27. Sith and Vith, | Sækin and Ækin,
Svol and Fimbulthul, | Gunnthro and Fjorm,
Rin and Rinnandi,
Gipul and Gopul, | Gomul and Geirvimul,
That flow through the fields of the gods;
Thyn and Vin, | Thol and Hol,
Groth and Gunnthorin.
28. Vino is one, | Vegsvin another,
And Thjothnuma a third;
Nyt and Not, | Non and Hron,
Slith and Hrith, | Sylg and Ylg,
Vith and Von, | Vond and Strond,
Gjol and Leipt, | that go among men,
And hence they fall to Hel.
29. Kormt and Ormt | and the Kerlaugs twain
Shall Thor each day wade through,
(When dooms to give | he forth shall go
To the ash-tree Yggdrasil;)
For heaven’s bridge | burns all in flame,
And the sacred waters seethe.
30. Glath and Gyllir, | Gler and Skeithbrimir,
Silfrintopp and Sinir,
Gisl and Falhofnir, | Golltopp and Lettfeti,
On these steeds the gods shall go
When dooms to give | each day they ride
To the ash-tree Yggdrasil.
31. Three roots there are | that three ways run
’Neath the ash-tree Yggdrasil;
’Neath the first lives Hel, | ’neath the second the
frost-giants,
’Neath the last are the lands of men.
32. Ratatosk is the squirrel | who there shall run
On the ash-tree Yggdrasil;
From above the words | of the eagle he bears,
And tells them to Nithhogg beneath.
33. Four harts there are, | that the highest twigs
Nibble with necks bent back;
Dain and Dvalin, | . . . . . . . .
Duneyr and Dyrathror.
34. More serpents there are | beneath the ash
Than an unwise ape would think;
Goin and Moin, | Grafvitnir’s sons,
Grabak and Grafvolluth,
Ofnir and Svafnir | shall ever, methinks,
Gnaw at the twigs of the tree.
35. Yggdrasil’s ash | great evil suffers,
Far more than men do know;
The hart bites its top, | its trunk is rotting,
And Nithhogg gnaws beneath.
36. Hrist and Mist | bring the horn at my will,
Skeggjold and Skogul;
Hild and Thruth, | Hlokk and Herfjotur,
Gol and Geironul,
Randgrith and Rathgrith | and Reginleif
Beer to the warriors bring.
37. Arvak and Alsvith | up shall drag
Weary the weight of the sun;
But an iron cool | have the kindly gods
Of yore set under their yokes.
38. In front of the sun | does Svalin stand,
The shield for the shining god;
Mountains and sea | would be set in flames
If it fell from before the sun.
39. Skoll is the wolf | that to Ironwood
Follows the glittering god,
And the son of Hrothvitnir, | Hati, awaits
The burning bride of heaven.
40. Out of Ymir’s flesh | was fashioned the earth,
And the ocean out of his blood;
Of his bones the hills, | of his hair the trees,
Of his skull the heavens high.
41. Mithgarth the gods | from his eyebrows made,
And set for the sons of men;
And out of his brain | the baleful clouds
They made to move on high.
42. His the favor of Ull | and of all the gods
Who first in the flames will reach;
For the house can be seen | by the sons of the gods
If the kettle aside were cast.
43. In days of old | did Ivaldi’s sons
Skithblathnir fashion fair,
The best of ships | for the bright god Freyr,
The noble son of Njorth.
44. The best of trees | must Yggdrasil be,
Skithblathnir best of boats;
Of all the gods | is Othin the greatest,
And Sleipnir the best of steeds;
Bilrost of bridges, | Bragi of skalds,
Hobrok of hawks, | and Garm of hounds.
45. To the race of the gods | my face have I raised,
And the wished-for aid have I waked;
For to all the gods | has the message gone
That sit in Ægir’s seats,
That drink within Ægir’s doors.
46. Grim is my name, | Gangleri am I,
Herjan and Hjalmberi,
Thekk and Thrithi, | Thuth and Uth,
Helblindi and Hor;
47. Sath and Svipal | and Sanngetal,
Herteit and Hnikar,
Bileyg, Baleyg, | Bolverk, Fjolnir,
Grim and Grimnir, | Glapsvith, Fjolsvith.
48. Sithhott, Sithskegg, | Sigfather, Hnikuth,
Allfather, Valfather, | Atrith, Farmatyr:
A single name | have I never had
Since first among men I fared.
49. Grimnir they call me | in Geirröth’s hall,
With Asmund Jalk am I;
Kjalar I was | when I went in a sledge,
At the council Thror am I called,
As Vithur I fare to the fight;
Oski, Biflindi, | Jafnhor and Omi,
Gondlir and Harbarth midst gods.
50. I deceived the giant | Sokkmimir old
As Svithur and Svithrir of yore;
Of Mithvitnir’s son | the slayer I was
When the famed one found his doom.
51. Drunk art thou, Geirröth, | too much didst thou drink,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Much hast thou lost, | for help no more
From me or my heroes thou hast.
52. Small heed didst thou take | to all that I told,
And false were the words of thy friends;
For now the sword | of my friend I see,
That waits all wet with blood.
53. Thy sword-pierced body | shall Ygg have soon,
For thy life is ended at last;
The maids are hostile; | now Othin behold!
Now come to me if thou canst!
54. Now am I Othin, | Ygg was I once,
Ere that did they call me Thund;
Vak and Skilfing, | Vofuth and Hroptatyr,
Gaut and Jalk midst the gods;
Ofnir and Svafnir, | and all, methinks,
Are names for none but me.
King Geirröth sat and had his sword on his knee, half drawn from its
sheath. But when he heard that Othin was come thither, then he rose up
and sought to take Othin from the fire. The sword slipped from his
hand, and fell with the hilt down. The king stumbled and fell forward,
and the sword pierced him through, and slew him. Then Othin vanished,
but Agnar long ruled there as king.
NOTES
Prose. The texts of the two manuscripts differ in many minor details.
Hrauthung: this mythical king is not mentioned elsewhere. Geirröth: the
manuscripts spell his name in various ways. Frigg: Othin’s wife. She
and Othin nearly always disagreed in some such way as the one outlined
in this story. Hlithskjolf (“Gate-Shelf”): Othin’s watch-tower in
heaven, whence he can overlook all the nine worlds; cf. Skirnismol,
introductory prose. Grimnir: “the Hooded One.”
2. In the original lines 2 and 4 are both too long for the meter, and
thus the true form of the stanza is doubtful. For line 4 both
manuscripts have “the land of the Goths” instead of simply “the Goths.”
The word “Goths” apparently was applied indiscriminately to any
South-Germanic people, including the Burgundians as well as the actual
Goths, and thus here has no specific application; cf. Gripisspo, 35 and
note.
3. Veratyr (“Lord of Men”): Othin. The “gift” which Agnar receives is
Othin’s mythological lore.
4. Thruthheim (“the Place of Might”): the place where Thor, the
strongest of the gods, has his hall, Bilskirnir, described in stanza
24.
5. Ydalir (“Yew-Dales”): the home of Ull, the archer among the gods, a
son of Thor’s wife, Sif, by another marriage. The wood of the yew-tree
was used for bows in the North just as it was long afterwards in
England. Alfheim: the home of the elves. Freyr: cf. Skirnismol,
introductory prose and note. Tooth-gift: the custom of making a present
to a child when it cuts its first tooth is, according to Vigfusson,
still in vogue in Iceland.
6. Valaskjolf (“the Shelf of the Slain”): Othin’s home, in which is his
watch-tower, Hlithskjolf. Gering identifies this with Valhall, and as
that is mentioned in stanza 8, he believes stanza 6 to be an
interpolation.
7. Sökkvabekk (“the Sinking Stream”): of this spot and of Saga, who is
said to live there, little is known. Saga may be an hypostasis of
Frigg, but Snorri calls her a distinct goddess, and the name suggests
some relation to history or story-telling.
8. Glathsheim (“the Place of Joy”): Othin’s home, the greatest and most
beautiful hall in the world. Valhall (“Hall of the Slain”): cf.
Voluspo, 31 and note. Valhall is not only the hall whither the slain
heroes are brought by the Valkyries, but also a favorite home of Othin.
10. The opening formula is abbreviated in both manuscripts. A wolf:
probably the wolf and the eagle were carved figures above the door.
11. Thrymheim (“the Home of Clamor”): on this mountain the giant Thjazi
built his home. The god, or rather Wane, Njorth (cf. Voluspo, 21, note)
married Thjazi’s daughter, Skathi. She wished to live in her father’s
hall among the mountains, while Njorth loved his home, Noatun, by the
sea. They agreed to compromise by spending nine nights at Thrymheim and
then three at Noatun, but neither could endure the surroundings of the
other’s home, so Skathi returned to Thrymheim, while Njorth stayed at
Noatun. Snorri quotes stanzas 11–15.
12. Breithablik (“Wide-Shining”): the house in heaven, free from
everything unclean, in which Baldr (cf. Voluspo, 32, note), the fairest
and best of the gods, lived.
13. Himinbjorg (“Heaven’s Cliffs”): the dwelling at the end of the
bridge Bifrost (the rainbow), where Heimdall (cf. Voluspo, 27) keeps
watch against the coming of the giants. In this stanza the two
functions of Heimdall—as father of mankind (cf. Voluspo, 1 and note,
and Rigsthula, introductory prose and note) and as warder of the
gods—seem both to be mentioned, but the second line in the manuscripts
is apparently in bad shape, and in the editions is more or less
conjectural.
14. Folkvang (“Field of the Folk”): here is situated Freyja’s hall,
Sessrymnir (“Rich in Seats”). Freyja, the sister of Freyr, is the
fairest of the goddesses, and the most kindly disposed to mankind,
especially to lovers. Half of the dead: Mogk has made it clear that
Freyja represents a confusion between two originally distinct
divinities: the wife of Othin (Frigg) and the northern goddess of love.
This passage appears to have in mind her attributes as Othin’s wife.
Snorri has this same confusion, but there is no reason why the Freyja
who was Freyr’s sister should share the slain with Othin.
15. Glitnir (“the Shining”): the home of Forseti, a god of whom we know
nothing beyond what Snorri tells us: “Forseti is the son of Baldr and
Nanna, daughter of Nep. All those who come to him with hard cases to
settle go away satisfied; he is the best judge among gods and men.”
16. Noatun (“Ships’-Haven”): the home of Njorth, who calms the waves;
cf. stanza 11 and Voluspo, 21.
17. Vithi: this land is not mentioned elsewhere. Vithar avenged his
father, Othin, by slaying the wolf Fenrir.
18. Stanzas 18–20 appear also in Snorri’s Edda. Very possibly they are
an interpolation here. Eldhrimnir (“Sooty with Fire”): the great kettle
in Valhall, wherein the gods’ cook, Andhrimnir (“The Sooty-Faced”)
daily cooks the flesh of the boar Sæhrimnir (“The Blackened”). His
flesh suffices for all the heroes there gathered, and each evening he
becomes whole again, to be cooked the next morning.
19. Freki (“The Greedy”) and Geri (“The Ravenous”): the two wolves who
sit by Othin’s side at the feast, and to whom he gives all the food set
before him, since wine is food and drink alike for him. Heerfather:
Othin.
20. Mithgarth (“The Middle Home”): the earth. Hugin (“Thought”) and
Munin (“Memory”): the two ravens who sit on Othin’s shoulders, and fly
forth daily to bring him news of the world.
21. Thund (“The Swollen” or “The Roaring”): the river surrounding
Valhall. Thjothvitnir’s fish: presumably the sun, which was caught by
the wolf Skoll (cf. Voluspo, 40), Thjothvitnir meaning “the mighty
wolf.” Such a phrase, characteristic of all Skaldic poetry, is rather
rare in the Edda. The last two lines refer to the attack on Valhall by
the people of Hel; cf. Voluspo, 51.
22. Valgrind (“The Death-Gate”): the outer gate of Valhall; cf.
Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 68 and note.
23. This and the following stanza stand in reversed order in Regius.
Snorri quotes stanza 23 as a proof of the vast size of Valhall. The
last two lines refer to the final battle with Fenrir and the other
enemies.
24. This stanza is almost certainly an interpolation, brought in
through a confusion of the first two lines with those of stanza 23. Its
description of Thor’s house, Bilskirnir (cf. stanza 4 and note) has
nothing to do with that of Valhall. Snorri quotes the stanza in his
account of Thor.
25. The first line in the original is, as indicated in the translation,
too long, and various attempts to amend it have been made. Heithrun:
the she-goat who lives on the twigs of the tree Lærath (presumably the
ash Yggdrasil), and daily gives mead which, like the boar’s flesh,
suffices for all the heroes in Valhall. In Snorri’s Edda Gangleri
foolishly asks whether the heroes drink water, whereto Har replies, “Do
you imagine that Othin invites kings and earls and other noble men, and
then gives them water to drink?”
26. Eikthyrnir (“The Oak-Thorned,” i.e., with antlers, “thorns,” like
an oak): this animal presumably represents the clouds. The first line,
like that of stanza 25, is too long in the original. Lærath: cf. stanza
25, note. Hvergelmir: according to Snorri, this spring, “the
Cauldron-Roaring,” was in the midst of Niflheim, the world of darkness
and the dead, beneath the third root of the ash Yggdrasil. Snorri gives
a list of the rivers flowing thence nearly identical with the one in
the poem.
27. The entire passage from stanza 27 through stanza 35 is confused.
The whole thing may well be an interpolation. Bugge calls stanzas 27–30
an interpolation, and editors who have accepted the passage as a whole
have rejected various lines. The spelling of the names of the rivers
varies greatly in the manuscripts and editions. It is needless here to
point out the many attempted emendations of this list. For a passage
presenting similar problems, cf. Voluspo, 10–16. Snorri virtually
quotes stanzas 27–28 in his prose, though not consecutively. The name
Rin, in line 3, is identical with that for the River Rhine which
appears frequently in the hero poems, but the similarity is doubtless
purely accidental.
28. Slith may possibly be the same river as that mentioned in Voluspo,
36, as flowing through the giants’ land. Leipt: in Helgakvitha
Hundingsbana II, 29, this river is mentioned as one by which a solemn
oath is sworn, and Gering points the parallel to the significance of
the Styx among the Greeks. The other rivers here named are not
mentioned elsewhere in the poems.
29. This stanza looks as though it originally had had nothing to do
with the two preceding it. Snorri quotes it in his description of the
three roots of Yggdrasil, and the three springs beneath them. “The
third root of the ash stands in heaven and beneath this root is a
spring which is very holy, and is called Urth’s well.” (Cf. Voluspo,
19) “There the gods have their judgment-seat, and thither they ride
each day over Bifrost, which is also called the Gods’ Bridge.” Thor has
to go on foot in the last days of the destruction, when the bridge is
burning. Another interpretation, however, is that when Thor leaves the
heavens (i.e., when a thunder-storm is over) the rainbow-bridge becomes
hot in the sun. Nothing more is known of the rivers named in this
stanza. Lines 3–4 are almost certainly interpolated from stanza 30.
30. This stanza, again possibly an interpolation, is closely
paraphrased by Snorri following the passage quoted in the previous
note. Glath (“Joyous”): identified in the Skaldskaparmal with Skinfaxi,
the horse of day; cf. Vafthruthnismol, 12. Gyllir: “Golden.” Gler:
“Shining.” Skeithbrimir: “Swift-Going.” Silfrintopp: “Silver-Topped.”
Sinir: “Sinewy.” Gisl: the meaning is doubtful; Gering suggests
“Gleaming.” Falhofnir: “Hollow-Hoofed.” Golltopp (“Gold-Topped”): this
horse belonged to Heimdall (cf. Voluspo, 1 and 46). It is noteworthy
that gold was one of the attributes of Heimdall’s belongings, and,
because his teeth were of gold, he was also called Gullintanni
(“Gold-Toothed”). Lettfeti: “Light-Feet.” Othin’s eight-footed horse,
Sleipnir, is not mentioned in this list.
31. The first of these roots is the one referred to in stanza 26; the
second in stanza 29 (cf. notes). Of the third root there is nothing
noteworthy recorded. After this stanza it is more than possible that
one has been lost, paraphrased in the prose of Snorri’s Edda thus: “An
eagle sits in the branches of the ash-tree, and he is very wise; and
between his eyes sits the hawk who is called Vethrfolnir.”
32. Ratatosk (“The Swift-Tusked”): concerning this squirrel, the Prose
Edda has to add only that he runs up and down the tree conveying the
abusive language of the eagle (see note on stanza 31) and the dragon
Nithhogg (cf. Voluspo, 39 and note) to each other. The hypothesis that
Ratatosk “represents the undying hatred between the sustaining and the
destroying elements—the gods and the giants,” seems a trifle
far-fetched.
33. Stanzas 33–34 may well be interpolated, and are certainly in bad
shape in the Mss. Bugge points out that they are probably of later
origin than those surrounding them. Snorri closely paraphrases stanza
33, but without elaboration, and nothing further is known of the four
harts. It may be guessed, however, that they are a late multiplication
of the single hart mentioned in stanza 26, just as the list of dragons
in stanza 34 seems to have been expanded out of Nithhogg, the only
authentic dragon under the root of the ash. Highest twigs: a guess; the
Mss. words are baffling. Something has apparently been lost from lines
3–4, but there is no clue as to its nature.
34. Cf. note on previous stanza. Nothing further is known of any of the
serpents here listed, and the meanings of many of the names are
conjectural. Snorri quotes this stanza. Editors have altered it in
various ways in an attempt to regularize the meter. Goin and Moin:
meaning obscure. Grafvitnir: “The Gnawing Wolf.” Grabak: “Gray-Back.”
Grafvolluth: “The Field-Gnawer.” Ofnir and Svafnir (“The Bewilderer”
and “The Sleep-Bringer”): it is noteworthy that in stanza 54 Othin
gives himself these two names.
35. Snorri quotes this stanza, which concludes the passage, beginning
with stanza 25, describing Yggdrasil. If we assume that stanzas 27–34
are later interpolations—possibly excepting 32—this section of the poem
reads clearly enough.
36. Snorri quotes this list of the Valkyries, concerning whom cf.
Voluspo, 31 and note, where a different list of names is given. Hrist:
“Shaker.” Mist: “Mist.” Skeggjold: “Ax-Time.” Skogul: “Raging” (?).
Hild: “Warrior.” Thruth: “Might.” Hlokk: “Shrieking.” Herfjotur:
“Host-Fetter.” Gol: “Screaming.” Geironul: “Spear-Bearer.” Randgrith:
“Shield-Bearer.” Rathgrith: Gering guesses “Plan-Destroyer.” Reginleif:
“Gods’-Kin.” Manuscripts and editions vary greatly in the spelling of
these names, and hence in their significance.
37. Müllenhoff suspects stanzas 37–41 to have been interpolated, and
Edzardi thinks they may have come from the Vafthruthnismol. Snorri
closely paraphrases stanzas 37–39, and quotes 40–41. Arvak (“Early
Waker”) and Alsvith (“All-Swift”): the horses of the sun, named also in
Sigrdrifumol, 15. According to Snorri: “There was a man called
Mundilfari, who had two children; they were so fair and lovely that he
called his son Mani and his daughter Sol. The gods were angry at this
presumption, and took the children and set them up in heaven; and they
bade Sol drive the horses that drew the car of the sun which the gods
had made to light the world from the sparks which flew out of
Muspellsheim. The horses were called Alsvith and Arvak, and under their
yokes the gods set two bellows to cool them, and in some songs these
are called ‘the cold iron.’”
38. Svalin (“The Cooling”): the only other reference to this shield is
in Sigrdrifumol, 15.
39. Skoll and Hati: the wolves that devour respectively the sun and
moon. The latter is the son of Hrothvitnir (“The Mighty Wolf,” i.e.
Fenrir); cf. Voluspo, 40, and Vafthruthnismol, 46–47, in which Fenrir
appears as the thief. Ironwood: a conjectural emendation of an obscure
phrase; cf. Voluspo, 40.
40. This and the following stanza are quoted by Snorri. They seem to
have come from a different source from the others of this poem; Edzardi
suggests an older version of the Vafthruthnismol. This stanza is
closely parallel to Vafthruthnismol, 21, which see, as also Voluspo, 3.
Snorri, following this account, has a few details to add. The stones
were made out of Ymir’s teeth and such of his bones as were broken.
Mithgarth was a mountain-wall made out of Ymir’s eyebrows, and set
around the earth because of the enmity of the giants.
42. With this stanza Othin gets back to his immediate situation, bound
as he is between two fires. He calls down a blessing on the man who
will reach into the fire and pull aside the great kettle which, in
Icelandic houses, hung directly under the smoke-vent in the roof, and
thus kept any one above from looking down into the interior. On Ull,
the archer-god, cf. stanza 5 and note. He is specified here apparently
for no better reason than that his name fits the initial-rhyme.
43. This and the following stanza are certainly interpolated, for they
have nothing to do with the context, and stanza 45 continues the
dramatic conclusion of the poem begun in stanza 42. This stanza is
quoted by Snorri. Ivaldi (“The Mighty”): he is known only as the father
of the craftsmen-dwarfs who made not only the ship Skithblathnir, but
also Othin’s spear Gungnir, and the golden hair for Thor’s wife, Sif,
after Loki had maliciously cut her own hair off. Skithblathnir: this
ship (“Wooden-Bladed”) always had a fair wind, whenever the sail was
set; it could be folded up at will and put in the pocket. Freyr:
concerning him and his father, see Voluspo, 21, note, and Skirnismol,
introductory prose and note.
44. Snorri quotes this stanza. Like stanza 43 an almost certain
interpolation, it was probably drawn in by the reference to
Skithblathnir in the stanza interpolated earlier. It is presumably in
faulty condition. One Ms. has after the fifth line half of a
sixth,—“Brimir of swords.” Yggdrasil: cf. stanzas 25–35. Skithblathnir:
cf. stanza 43, note. Sleipnir: Othin’s eight-legged horse, one of
Loki’s numerous progeny, borne by him to the stallion Svathilfari. This
stallion belonged to the giant who built a fortress for the gods, and
came so near to finishing it, with Svathilfari’s aid, as to make the
gods fear he would win his promised reward—Freyja and the sun and moon.
To delay the work, Loki turned himself into a mare, whereupon the
stallion ran away, and the giant failed to complete his task within the
stipulated time. Bilrost: probably another form of Bifrost (which
Snorri has in his version of the stanza), on which cf. stanza 29.
Bragi: the god of poetry. He is one of the later figures among the
gods, and is mentioned only three times in the poems of the Edda. In
Snorri’s Edda, however, he is of great importance. His wife is Ithun,
goddess of youth. Perhaps the Norwegian skald Bragi Boddason, the
oldest recorded skaldic poet, had been traditionally apotheosized as
early as the tenth century. Hobrok: nothing further is known of him.
Garm: cf. Voluspo, 44.
45. With this stanza the narrative current of the poem is resumed.
Ægir: the sea-god; cf. Lokasenna, introductory prose.
46. Concerning the condition of stanzas 46–50, quoted by Snorri,
nothing definite can be said. Lines and entire stanzas of this
“catalogue” sort undoubtedly came and went with great freedom all
through the period of oral transmission. Many of the names are not
mentioned elsewhere, and often their significance is sheer guesswork.
As in nearly every episode Othin appeared in disguise, the number of
his names was necessarily almost limitless. Grim: “The Hooded.”
Gangleri: “The Wanderer.” Herjan: “The Ruler.” Hjalmberi: “The
Helmet-Bearer.” Thekk: “The Much-Loved.” Thrithi: “The Third” (in
Snorri’s Edda the stories are all told in the form of answers to
questions, the speakers being Har, Jafnhar and Thrithi. Just what this
tripartite form of Othin signifies has been the source of endless
debate. Probably this line is late enough to betray the somewhat
muddled influence of early Christianity.) Thuth and Uth: both names
defy guesswork. Helblindi: “Hel-Blinder” (two manuscripts have
Herblindi—“Host-Blinder”). Hor: “The High One.”
47. Sath: “The Truthful.” Svipal: “The Changing.” Sanngetal: “The
Truth-Teller.” Herteit: “Glad of the Host.” Hnikar: “The Overthrower.”
Bileyg: “The Shifty-Eyed.” Baleyg: “The Flaming-Eyed.” Bolverk: “Doer
of Ill” (cf. Hovamol, 104 and note). Fjolnir: “The Many-Shaped.”
Grimnir: “The Hooded.” Glapsvith: “Swift in Deceit.” Fjolsvith: “Wide
of Wisdom.”
48. Sithhott: “With Broad Hat.” Sithskegg: “Long-Bearded.” Sigfather:
“Father of Victory.” Hnikuth: “Overthrower.” Valfather: “Father of the
Slain.” Atrith: “The Rider.” Farmatyr: “Helper of Cargoes” (i.e., god
of sailors).
49. Nothing is known of Asmund, of Othin’s appearance as Jalk, or of
the occasion when he “went in a sledge” as Kjalar (“Ruler of Keels”?).
Thror and Vithur are also of uncertain meaning. Oski: “God of Wishes.”
Biflindi: the manuscripts vary widely in the form of this name.
Jafnhor: “Equally High” (cf. note on stanza 46). Omi: “The Shouter.”
Gondlir: “Wand-Bearer.” Harbarth: “Graybeard” (cf. Harbarthsljoth,
introduction).
50. Nothing further is known of the episode here mentioned. Sokkmimir
is presumably Mithvitnir’s son. Snorri quotes the names Svithur and
Svithrir, but omits all the remainder of the stanza.
51. Again the poem returns to the direct action, Othin addressing the
terrified Geirröth. The manuscripts show no lacuna. Some editors supply
a second line from paper manuscripts: “Greatly by me art beguiled.”
53. Ygg: Othin (“The Terrible”). The maids: the three Norns.
54. Possibly out of place, and probably more or less corrupt. Thund:
“The Thunderer.” Vak: “The Wakeful.” Skilfing: “The Shaker.” Vofuth:
“The Wanderer.” Hroptatyr: “Crier of the Gods.” Gaut: “Father.” Ofnir
and Svafnir: cf. stanza 34.
SKIRNISMOL
THE BALLAD OF SKIRNIR
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The Skirnismol is found complete in the Codex Regius, and through
stanza 27 in the Arnamagnæan Codex. Snorri quotes the concluding
stanza. In Regius the poem is entitled “For Scirnis” (“Skirnir’s
Journey”).
The Skirnismol differs sharply from the poems preceding it, in that it
has a distinctly ballad quality. As a matter of fact, however, its
verse is altogether dialogue, the narrative being supplied in the prose
“links,” concerning which cf. introductory note to the Grimnismol. The
dramatic effectiveness and vivid characterization of the poem seem to
connect it with the Thrymskvitha, and the two may possibly have been
put into their present form by the same man. Bugge’s guess that the
Skirnismol was the work of the author of the Lokasenna is also
possible, though it has less to support it.
Critics have generally agreed in dating the poem as we now have it as
early as the first half of the tenth century; Finnur Jonsson puts it as
early as 900, and claims it, as usual, for Norway. Doubtless it was
current in Norway, in one form or another, before the first Icelandic
settlements, but his argument that the thistle (stanza 31) is not an
Icelandic plant has little weight, for such curse-formulas must have
traveled freely from place to place. In view of the evidence pointing
to a western origin for many or all of the Eddic poems, Jonsson’s
reiterated “Digtet er sikkert norsk og ikke islandsk” is somewhat
exasperating. Wherever the Skirnismol was composed, it has been
preserved in exceptionally good condition, and seems to be practically
devoid of interpolations or lacunæ.
Freyr, the son of Njorth, had sat one day in Hlithskjolf, and looked
over all the worlds. He looked into Jotunheim, and saw there a fair
maiden, as she went from her father’s house to her bower. Forthwith he
felt a mighty love-sickness. Skirnir was the name of Freyr’s servant;
Njorth bade him ask speech of Freyr. He said:
1. “Go now, Skirnir! | and seek to gain
Speech from my son;
And answer to win, | for whom the wise one
Is mightily moved.”
Skirnir spake:
2. “Ill words do I now | await from thy son,
If I seek to get speech with him,
And answer to win, | for whom the wise one
Is mightily moved.”
Skirnir spake:
3. “Speak prithee, Freyr, | foremost of the gods,
For now I fain would know;
Why sittest thou here | in the wide halls,
Days long, my prince, alone?”
Freyr spake:
4. “How shall I tell thee, | thou hero young,
Of all my grief so great?
Though every day | the elfbeam dawns,
It lights my longing never.”
Skirnir spake:
5. “Thy longings, methinks, | are not so large
That thou mayst not tell them to me;
Since in days of yore | we were young together,
We two might each other trust.”
Freyr spake:
6. “From Gymir’s house | I beheld go forth
A maiden dear to me;
Her arms glittered, | and from their gleam
Shone all the sea and sky.
7. “To me more dear | than in days of old
Was ever maiden to man;
But no one of gods | or elves will grant
That we both together should be.”
Skirnir spake:
8. “Then give me the horse | that goes through the dark
And magic flickering flames;
And the sword as well | that fights of itself
Against the giants grim.”
Freyr spake:
9. “The horse will I give thee | that goes through the dark
And magic flickering flames,
And the sword as well | that will fight of itself
If a worthy hero wields it.”
Skirnir spake to the horse:
10. “Dark is it without, | and I deem it time
To fare through the wild fells,
(To fare through the giants’ fastness;)
We shall both come back, | or us both together
The terrible giant will take.”
Skirnir rode into Jotunheim to Gymir’s house. There were fierce dogs
bound before the gate of the fence which was around Gerth’s hall. He
rode to where a herdsman sat on a hill, and said:
11. “Tell me, herdsman, | sitting on the hill,
And watching all the ways,
How may I win | a word with the maid
Past the hounds of Gymir here?”
The herdsman spake:
12. “Art thou doomed to die | or already dead,
Thou horseman that ridest hither?
Barred from speech | shalt thou ever be
With Gymir’s daughter good.”
Skirnir spake:
13. “Boldness is better | than plaints can be
For him whose feet must fare;
To a destined day | has mine age been doomed,
And my life’s span thereto laid.”
Gerth spake:
14. “What noise is that | which now so loud
I hear within our house?
The ground shakes, | and the home of Gymir
Around me trembles too.”
The Serving-Maid spake:
15. “One stands without | who has leapt from his steed,
And lets his horse loose to graze;”
. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gerth spake:
16. “Bid the man come in, | and drink good mead
Here within our hall;
Though this I fear, | that there without
My brother’s slayer stands.
17. “Art thou of the elves | or the offspring of gods,
Or of the wise Wanes?
How camst thou alone | through the leaping flame
Thus to behold our home?”
Skirnir spake:
18. “I am not of the elves, | nor the offspring of gods,
Nor of the wise Wanes;
Though I came alone | through the leaping flame
Thus to behold thy home.
19. “Eleven apples, | all of gold,
Here will I give thee, Gerth,
To buy thy troth | that Freyr shall be
Deemed to be dearest to you.”
Gerth spake:
20. “I will not take | at any man’s wish
These eleven apples ever;
Nor shall Freyr and I | one dwelling find
So long as we two live.”
Skirnir spake:
21. “Then do I bring thee | the ring that was burned
Of old with Othin’s son;
From it do eight | of like weight fall
On every ninth night.”
Gerth spake:
22. “The ring I wish not, | though burned it was
Of old with Othin’s son;
In Gymir’s home | is no lack of gold
In the wealth my father wields.”
Skirnir spake:
23. “Seest thou, maiden, | this keen, bright sword
That I hold here in my hand?
Thy head from thy neck | shall I straightway hew,
If thou wilt not do my will.”
Gerth spake:
24. “For no man’s sake | will I ever suffer
To be thus moved by might;
But gladly, methinks, | will Gymir seek
To fight if he finds thee here.”
Skirnir spake:
25. “Seest thou, maiden, | this keen, bright sword
That I hold here in my hand?
Before its blade | the old giant bends,—
Thy father is doomed to die.
26. “I strike thee, maid, | with my magic staff,
To tame thee to work my will;
There shalt thou go | where never again
The sons of men shall see thee.
27. “On the eagle’s hill | shalt thou ever sit,
And gaze on the gates of Hel;
More loathsome to thee | than the light-hued snake
To men, shall thy meat become.
28. “Fearful to see, | if thou comest forth,
Hrimnir will stand and stare,
(Men will marvel at thee;)
More famed shalt thou grow | than the watchman of the gods!
Peer forth, then, from thy prison.
29. “Rage and longing, | fetters and wrath,
Tears and torment are thine;
Where thou sittest down | my doom is on thee
Of heavy heart
And double dole.
30. “In the giants’ home | shall vile things harm thee
Each day with evil deeds;
Grief shalt thou get | instead of gladness,
And sorrow to suffer with tears.
31. “With three-headed giants | thou shalt dwell ever,
Or never know a husband;
(Let longing grip thee, | let wasting waste thee,—)
Be like to the thistle | that in the loft
Was cast and there was crushed.
32. “I go to the wood, | and to the wet forest,
To win a magic wand;
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
I won a magic wand.
33. “Othin grows angry, | angered is the best of the gods,
Freyr shall be thy foe,
Most evil maid, | who the magic wrath
Of gods hast got for thyself.
34. “Give heed, frost-rulers, | hear it, giants,
Sons of Suttung,
And gods, ye too,
How I forbid | and how I ban
The meeting of men with the maid,
(The joy of men with the maid.)
35. “Hrimgrimnir is he, | the giant who shall have thee
In the depth by the doors of Hel;
To the frost-giants’ halls | each day shalt thou fare,
Crawling and craving in vain,
(Crawling and having no hope.)
36. “Base wretches there | by the root of the tree
Will hold for thee horns of filth;
A fairer drink | shalt thou never find,
Maid, to meet thy wish,
(Maid, to meet my wish.)
37. “I write thee a charm | and three runes therewith,
Longing and madness and lust;
But what I have writ | I may yet unwrite
If I find a need therefor.”
Gerth spake:
38. “Find welcome rather, | and with it take
The frost-cup filled with mead;
Though I did not believe | that I should so love
Ever one of the Wanes.”
Skirnir spake:
39. “My tidings all | must I truly learn
Ere homeward hence I ride:
How soon thou wilt | with the mighty son
Of Njorth a meeting make.”
Gerth spake:
40. “Barri there is, | which we both know well,
A forest fair and still;
And nine nights hence | to the son of Njorth
Will Gerth there grant delight.”
Then Skirnir rode home. Freyr stood without, and spoke to him, and
asked for tidings:
41. “Tell me, Skirnir, | ere thou take off the saddle,
Or farest forward a step:
What hast thou done | in the giants’ dwelling
To make glad thee or me?”
Skirnir spake:
42. “Barri there is, | which we both know well,
A forest fair and still;
And nine nights hence | to the son of Njorth
Will Gerth there grant delight.”
Freyr spake:
43. “Long is one night, | longer are two;
How then shall I bear three?
Often to me | has a month seemed less
Than now half a night of desire.”
NOTES
Prose. Freyr: concerning his father, Njorth, and the race of the Wanes
in general, cf. Voluspo, 21 and note. Snorri thus describes Njorth’s
family: “Njorth begat two children in Noatun; the son was named Freyr,
and the daughter Freyja; they were fair of aspect and mighty. Freyr is
the noblest of the gods; he rules over rain and sunshine, and therewith
the fruitfulness of the earth; it is well to call upon him for plenty
and welfare, for he rules over wealth for mankind. Freyja is the
noblest of the goddesses. When she rides to the fight, she has one-half
of the slain, and Othin has half. When she goes on a journey, she
drives her two cats, and sits in a cart. Love-songs please her well,
and it is good to call on her in love-matters.” Hlithskjolf: Othin’s
watch-tower; cf. Grimnismol, introductory prose. He said: both
manuscripts have “Then Skathi said:” (Skathi was Njorth’s wife), but
Bugge’s emendation, based on Snorri’s version, is doubtless correct.
1. My son: both manuscripts, and many editors, have “our son,” which,
of course, goes with the introduction of Skathi in the prose. As the
stanza is clearly addressed to Skirnir, the change of pronouns seems
justified. The same confusion occurs in stanza 2, where Skirnir in the
manuscripts is made to speak of Freyr as “your son” (plural). The
plural pronoun in the original involves a metrical error, which is
corrected by the emendation.
4. Elfbeam: the sun, so called because its rays were fatal to elves and
dwarfs; cf. Alvissmol, 35.
6. Gymir: a mountain-giant, husband of Aurbotha, and father of Gerth,
fairest among women. This is all Snorri tells of him in his paraphrase
of the story.
7. Snorri’s paraphrase of the poem is sufficiently close so that his
addition of another sentence to Freyr’s speech makes it probable that a
stanza has dropped out between 7 and 8. This has been tentatively
reconstructed, thus: “Hither to me | shalt thou bring the maid, /
And home shalt thou lead her here, / If her father wills it | or
wills it not, / And good reward shalt thou get.” Finn Magnusen detected
the probable omission of a stanza here as early as 1821.
8. The sword: Freyr’s gift of his sword to Skirnir eventually proves
fatal, for at the last battle, when Freyr is attacked by Beli, whom he
kills bare-handed, and later when the fire-demon, Surt, slays him in
turn, he is weaponless; cf. Voluspo, 53 and note. Against the giants
grim: the condition of this line makes it seem like an error in
copying, and it is possible that it should be identical with the fourth
line of the next stanza.
10. Some editors reject line 3 as spurious.
12. Line 2 is in neither manuscript, and no gap is indicated. I have
followed Grundtvig’s conjectural emendation.
13. This stanza is almost exactly like many in the first part of the
Hovamol, and may well have been a separate proverb. After this stanza
the scene shifts to the interior of the house.
15. No gap indicated in either manuscript. Bugge and Niedner have
attempted emendations, while Hildebrand suggests that the last two
lines of stanza 14 are spurious, 14, 1–2, and 15 thus forming a single
stanza, which seems doubtful.
16. Brother’s slayer: perhaps the brother is Beli, slain by Freyr; the
only other references are in Voluspo, 53, and in Snorri’s paraphrase of
the Skirnismol, which merely says that Freyr’s gift of his sword to
Skirnir “was the reason why he was weaponless when he met Beli, and he
killed him bare-handed.” Skirnir himself seems never to have killed
anybody.
17. Wise Wanes: cf. Voluspo, 21 and note.
18. The Arnamagnæan Codex omits this stanza.
19. Apples: the apple was the symbol of fruitfulness, and also of
eternal youth. According to Snorri, the goddess Ithun had charge of the
apples which the gods ate whenever they felt themselves growing old.
21. Ring: the ring Draupnir (“Dropper”) was made by the dwarfs for
Othin, who laid it on Baldr’s pyre when the latter’s corpse was burned
(cf. Voluspo, 32 and note, and Baldrs Draumar). Baldr, however, sent
the ring back to Othin from hell. How Freyr obtained it is nowhere
stated. Andvari’s ring (Andvaranaut) had a similar power of creating
gold; cf. Reginsmol, prose after stanza 4 and note. Lines 3 and 4 of
this stanza, and the first two of stanza 22, are missing in the
Arnamagnæan Codex.
25. The first two lines are abbreviated in both manuscripts.
26. With this stanza, bribes and threats having failed, Skirnir begins
a curse which, by the power of his magic staff, is to fall on Gerth if
she refuses Freyr.
27. Eagle’s hill: the hill at the end of heaven, and consequently
overlooking hell, where the giant Hræsvelg sits “in an eagle’s guise,”
and makes the winds with his wings; cf. Vafthruthnismol, 37, also
Voluspo, 50. The second line is faulty in both manuscripts;
Hildebrand’s emendation corrects the error, but omits an effective
touch; the manuscript line may be rendered “And look and hanker for
hell.” The Arnamagnæan Codex breaks off with the fourth line of this
stanza.
28. Hrimnir: a frost-giant, mentioned elsewhere only in Hyndluljoth,
33. Line 3 is probably spurious. Watchman of the gods: Heimdall; cf.
Voluspo, 46.
29. Three nouns of doubtful meaning, which I have rendered rage,
longing, and heart respectively, make the precise force of this stanza
obscure. Niedner and Sijmons mark the entire stanza as interpolated,
and Jonsson rejects line 5.
30. In Regius and in nearly all the editions the first two lines of
this stanza are followed by lines 3–5 of stanza 35. I have followed
Niedner, Sijmons, and Gering. The two words here translated vile things
are obscure; Gering renders the phrase simply “Kobolde.”
31. The confusion noted as to the preceding stanza, and a metrical
error in the third line, have led to various rearrangements and
emendations; line 3 certainly looks like an interpolation. Three-headed
giants: concerning giants with numerous heads, cf. Vafthruthnismol, 33,
and Hymiskvitha, 8.
32. No gap indicated in the manuscript; Niedner makes the line here
given as 4 the first half of line 3, and fills out the stanza thus:
“with which I will tame you, / Maid, to work my will.” The whole stanza
seems to be either interpolated or out of place; it would fit better
after stanza 25.
33. Jonsson marks this stanza as interpolated. The word translated most
evil is another case of guesswork.
34. Most editors reject line 3 as spurious, and some also reject line
6. Lines 2 and 3 may have been expanded out of a single line running
approximately “Ye gods and Suttung’s sons.” Suttung: concerning this
giant cf. Hovamol, 104 and note.
35. Most editors combine lines 1–2 with stanza 36 (either with the
first two lines thereof or the whole stanza), as lines 3–5 stand in the
manuscript after line 2 of stanza 30. Hrimgrimnir (“The
Frost-Shrouded”): a giant not elsewhere mentioned. Line 5, as a
repetition of line 4, is probably a later addition.
36. For the combination of this stanza with the preceding one, cf. note
on stanza 35. The scribe clearly did not consider that the stanza began
with line 1, as the first word thereof in the manuscript does not begin
with a capital letter and has no period before it. The first word of
line 3, however, is so marked. Line 5 may well be spurious.
37. Again the scribe seems to have been uncertain as to the stanza
divisions. This time the first line is preceded by a period, but begins
with a small letter. Many editors have made line 2 into two half-lines.
A charm: literally, the rune Thurs (þ); the runic letters all had magic
attributes; cf. Sigrdrifumol, 6–7 and notes.
40. Barri: “The Leafy.”
42. Abbreviated to initial letters in the manuscript.
43. The superscription is lacking in Regius. Snorri quotes this one
stanza in his prose paraphrase, Gylfaginning, chapter 37. The two
versions are substantially the same, except that Snorri makes the first
line read, “Long is one night, | long is the second.”
HARBARTHSLJOTH
THE POEM OF HARBARTH
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The Harbarthsljoth is found complete in the Codex Regius, where it
follows the Skirnismol, and from the fourth line of stanza 19 to the
end of the poem in the Arnamagnæan Codex, of which it occupies the
first page and a half.
The poem differs sharply from those which precede it in the Codex
Regius, both in metrical form and in spirit. It is, indeed, the most
nearly formless of all the Eddic poems. The normal metre is the
Malahattr (cf. Introduction, where an example is given). The name of
this verse-form means “in the manner of conversation,” and the
Harbarthsljoth’s verse fully justifies the term. The Atli poems
exemplify the conventional use of Malahattr, but in the Harbarthsljoth
the form is used with extraordinary freedom, and other metrical forms
are frequently employed. A few of the speeches of which the poem is
composed cannot be twisted into any known Old Norse metre, and appear
to be simply prose.
How far this confusion is due to interpolations and faulty transmission
of the original poem is uncertain. Finnur Jonsson has attempted a
wholesale purification of the poem, but his arbitrary condemnation of
words, lines, and entire stanzas as spurious is quite unjustified by
any positive evidence. I have accepted Mogk’s theory that the author
was “a first-rate psychologist, but a poor poet,” and have translated
the poem as it stands in the manuscripts. I have preserved the metrical
confusion of the original by keeping throughout so far as possible to
the metres found in the poem; if the rhythm of the translation is often
hard to catch, the difficulty is no less with the original Norse.
The poem is simply a contest of abuse, such as the early Norwegian and
Icelander delighted in, the opposing figures being Thor and Othin, the
latter appearing in the disguise of the ferryman Harbarth. Such
billingsgate lent itself readily to changes, interpolations and
omissions, and it is little wonder that the poem is chaotic. It
consists mainly of boasting and of references, often luckily obscure,
to disreputable events in the life of one or the other of the
disputants. Some editors have sought to read a complex symbolism into
it, particularly by representing it as a contest between the noble or
warrior class (Othin) and the peasant (Thor). But it seems a pity to
take such a vigorous piece of broad farce too seriously.
Verse-form, substance, and certain linguistic peculiarities, notably
the suffixed articles, point to a relatively late date (eleventh
century) for the poem in its present form. Probably it had its origin
in the early days, but its colloquial nature and its vulgarity made it
readily susceptible to changes.
Owing to the chaotic state of the text, and the fact that none of the
editors or commentators have succeeded in improving it much, I have not
in this case attempted to give all the important emendations and
suggestions. The stanza-divisions are largely arbitrary.
Thor was on his way back from a journey in the East, and came to a
sound; on the other side of the sound was a ferryman with a boat. Thor
called out:
1. “Who is the fellow yonder, | on the farther shore of the
sound?”
The ferryman spake:
2. “What kind of a peasant is yon, | that calls o’er the bay?”
Thor spake:
3. “Ferry me over the sound; | I will feed thee therefor in the
morning;
A basket I have on my back, | and food therein, none better;
At leisure I ate, | ere the house I left,
Of herrings and porridge, | so plenty I had.”
The ferryman spake:
4. “Of thy morning feats art thou proud, | but the future thou
knowest not wholly;
Doleful thine home-coming is: | thy mother, methinks, is dead.”
Thor spake:
5. “Now hast thou said | what to each must seem
The mightiest grief, | that my mother is dead.”
The ferryman spake:
6. “Three good dwellings, | methinks, thou hast not;
Barefoot thou standest, | and wearest a beggar’s dress;
Not even hose dost thou have.”
Thor spake:
7. “Steer thou hither the boat; | the landing here shall I show
thee;
But whose the craft | that thou keepest on the shore?”
The ferryman spake:
8. “Hildolf is he | who bade me have it,
A hero wise; | his home is at Rathsey’s sound.
He bade me no robbers to steer, | nor stealers of steeds,
But worthy men, | and those whom well do I know.
Say now thy name, | if over the sound thou wilt fare.”
Thor spake:
9. “My name indeed shall I tell, | though in danger I am,
And all my race; | I am Othin’s son,
Meili’s brother, | and Magni’s father,
The strong one of the gods; | with Thor now speech canst thou
get.
And now would I know | what name thou hast.”
The ferryman spake:
10. “Harbarth am I, | and seldom I hide my name.”
Thor spake:
11. “Why shouldst thou hide thy name, | if quarrel thou hast
not?”
Harbarth spake:
12. “And though I had a quarrel, | from such as thou art
Yet none the less | my life would I guard,
Unless I be doomed to die.”
Thor spake:
13. “Great trouble, methinks, | would it be to come to thee,
To wade the waters across, | and wet my middle;
Weakling, well shall I pay | thy mocking words,
If across the sound I come.”
Harbarth spake:
14. “Here shall I stand | and await thee here;
Thou hast found since Hrungnir died | no fiercer man.”
Thor spake:
15. “Fain art thou to tell | how with Hrungnir I fought,
The haughty giant, | whose head of stone was made;
And yet I felled him, | and stretched him before me.
What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
Harbarth spake:
16. “Five full winters | with Fjolvar was I,
And dwelt in the isle | that is Algrön called;
There could we fight, | and fell the slain,
Much could we seek, | and maids could master.”
Thor spake:
17. “How won ye success with your women?”
Harbarth spake:
18. “Lively women we had, | if they wise for us were;
Wise were the women we had, | if they kind for us were;
For ropes of sand | they would seek to wind,
And the bottom to dig | from the deepest dale.
Wiser than all | in counsel I was,
And there I slept | by the sisters seven,
And joy full great | did I get from each.
What, Thor, didst thou the while?”
Thor spake:
19. “Thjazi I felled, | the giant fierce,
And I hurled the eyes | of Alvaldi’s son
To the heavens hot above;
Of my deeds the mightiest | marks are these,
That all men since can see.
What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
Harbarth spake:
20. “Much love-craft I wrought | with them who ride by night,
When I stole them by stealth from their husbands;
A giant hard | was Hlebarth, methinks:
His wand he gave me as gift,
And I stole his wits away.”
Thor spake:
21. “Thou didst repay good gifts with evil mind.”
Harbarth spake:
22. “The oak must have | what it shaves from another;
In such things each for himself.
What, Thor, didst thou the while?”
Thor spake:
23. “Eastward I fared, | of the giants I felled
Their ill-working women | who went to the mountain;
And large were the giants’ throng | if all were
alive;
No men would there be | in Mithgarth more.
What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
Harbarth spake:
24. “In Valland I was, | and wars I raised,
Princes I angered, | and peace brought never;
The noble who fall | in the fight hath Othin,
And Thor hath the race of the thralls.”
Thor spake:
25. “Unequal gifts | of men wouldst thou give to the gods,
If might too much thou shouldst have.”
Harbarth spake:
26. “Thor has might enough, | but never a heart;
For cowardly fear | in a glove wast thou fain to crawl,
And there forgot thou wast Thor;
Afraid there thou wast, | thy fear was such,
To fart or sneeze | lest Fjalar should hear.”
Thor spake:
27. “Thou womanish Harbarth, | to hell would I smite thee
straight,
Could mine arm reach over the sound.”
Harbarth spake:
28. “Wherefore reach over the sound, | since strife we have
none?
What, Thor, didst thou do then?”
Thor spake:
29. “Eastward I was, | and the river I guarded well,
Where the sons of Svarang | sought me there;
Stones did they hurl; | small joy did they have of winning;
Before me there | to ask for peace did they fare.
What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
Harbarth spake:
30. “Eastward I was, | and spake with a certain one,
I played with the linen-white maid, | and met her by stealth;
I gladdened the gold-decked one, | and she granted me joy.”
Thor spake:
31. “Full fair was thy woman-finding.”
Harbarth spake:
32. “Thy help did I need then, Thor, | to hold the white maid
fast.”
Thor spake:
33. “Gladly, had I been there, | my help to thee had been
given.”
Harbarth spake:
34. “I might have trusted thee then, | didst thou not betray
thy troth.”
Thor spake:
35. “No heel-biter am I, in truth, | like an old leather shoe
in spring.”
Harbarth spake:
36. “What, Thor, didst thou the while?”
Thor spake:
37. “In Hlesey the brides | of the Berserkers slew I;
Most evil they were, | and all they betrayed.”
Harbarth spake:
38. “Shame didst thou win, | that women thou slewest, Thor.”
Thor spake:
39. “She-wolves they were like, | and women but little;
My ship, which well | I had trimmed, did they shake;
With clubs of iron they threatened, | and Thjalfi they drove
off.
What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
Harbarth spake:
40. “In the host I was | that hither fared,
The banners to raise, | and the spear to redden.”
Thor spake:
41. “Wilt thou now say | that hatred thou soughtest to bring
us?”
Harbarth spake:
42. “A ring for thy hand | shall make all right for thee,
As the judge decides | who sets us two at peace.”
Thor spake:
43. “Where foundest thou | so foul and scornful a speech?
More foul a speech | I never before have heard.”
Harbarth spake:
44. “I learned it from men, | the men so old,
Who dwell in the hills of home.”
Thor spake:
45. “A name full good | to heaps of stones thou givest
When thou callest them hills of home.”
Harbarth spake:
46. “Of such things speak I so.”
Thor spake:
47. “Ill for thee comes | thy keenness of tongue,
If the water I choose to wade;
Louder, I ween, | than a wolf thou cryest,
If a blow of my hammer thou hast.”
Harbarth spake:
48. “Sif has a lover at home, | and him shouldst thou meet;
More fitting it were | on him to put forth thy strength.”
Thor spake:
49. “Thy tongue still makes thee say | what seems most ill to
me,
Thou witless man! Thou liest, I ween.”
Harbarth spake:
50. “Truth do I speak, | but slow on thy way thou art;
Far hadst thou gone | if now in the boat thou hadst fared.”
Thor spake:
51. “Thou womanish Harbarth! | here hast thou held me too
long.”
Harbarth spake:
52. “I thought not ever | that Asathor would be hindered
By a ferryman thus from faring.”
Thor spake:
53. “One counsel I bring thee now: | row hither thy boat;
No more of scoffing; | set Magni’s father across.”
Harbarth spake:
54. “From the sound go hence; | the passage thou hast not.”
Thor spake:
55. “The way now show me, | since thou takest me not o’er the
water.”
Harbarth spake:
56. “To refuse it is little, | to fare it is long;
A while to the stock, | and a while to the stone;
Then the road to thy left, | till Verland thou reachest;
And there shall Fjorgyn | her son Thor find,
And the road of her children | she shows him to Othin’s realm.”
Thor spake:
57. “May I come so far in a day?”
Harbarth spake:
58. “With toil and trouble perchance,
While the sun still shines, | or so I think.”
Thor spake:
59. “Short now shall be our speech, | for thou speakest in
mockery only;
The passage thou gavest me not | I shall pay thee if ever we
meet.”
Harbarth spake:
60. “Get hence where every evil thing shall have thee!”
NOTES
Prose. Harbarth (“Gray-Beard”): Othin. On the nature of the prose notes
found in the manuscripts, cf. Grimnismol, introduction. Thor: the
journeys of the thunder-god were almost as numerous as those of Othin;
cf. Thrymskvitha and Hymiskvitha. Like the Robin Hood of the British
ballads, Thor was often temporarily worsted, but always managed to come
out ahead in the end. His “Journey in the East” is presumably the
famous episode, related in full by Snorri, in the course of which he
encountered the giant Skrymir, and in the house of Utgartha-Loki lifted
the cat which turned out to be Mithgarthsorm. The Hymiskvitha relates a
further incident of this journey.
2. The superscriptions to the speeches are badly confused in the
manuscripts, but editors have agreed fairly well as to where they
belong.
3. From the fact that in Regius line 3 begins with a capital letter, it
is possible that lines 3–4 constitute the ferryman’s reply, with
something lost before stanza 4.
4. Thy mother: Jorth (Earth).
5. Some editors assume a lacuna after this stanza.
6. Three good dwellings: this has been generally assumed to mean three
separate establishments, but it may refer simply to the three parts of
a single farm, the dwelling proper, the cattle-barn and the storehouse;
i.e., Thor is not even a respectable peasant.
8. Hildolf (“slaughtering wolf”): not elsewhere mentioned in the Edda.
Rathsey (“Isle of Counsel”): likewise not mentioned elsewhere.
9. In danger: Thor is “sekr,” i.e., without the protection of any law,
so long as he is in the territory of his enemies, the giants. Meili: a
practically unknown son of Othin, mentioned here only in the Edda.
Magni: son of Thor and the giantess Jarnsaxa; after Thor’s fight with
Hrungnir (cf. stanza 14, note) Magni, though but three days old, was
the only one of the gods strong enough to lift the dead giant’s foot
from Thor’s neck. After rescuing his father, Magni said to him: “There
would have been little trouble, father, had I but come sooner; I think
I should have sent this giant to hell with my fist if I had met him
first.” Magni and his brother, Mothi, inherit Thor’s hammer.
12. This stanza is hopelessly confused as to form, but none of the
editorial rearrangements have materially altered the meaning. Doomed to
die: the word “feigr” occurs constantly in the Old Norse poems and
sagas; the idea of an inevitable but unknown fate seems to have been
practically universal throughout the pre-Christian period. On the
concealment of names from enemies, cf. Fafnismol, prose after stanza 1.
13. This stanza, like the preceding one, is peculiarly chaotic in the
manuscript, and has been variously emended.
14. Hrungnir: this giant rashly wagered his head that his horse,
Gullfaxi, was swifter than Othin’s Sleipnir. In the race, which
Hrungnir lost, he managed to dash uninvited into the home of the gods,
where he became very drunk. Thor ejected him, and accepted his
challenge to a duel. Hrungnir, terrified, had a helper made for him in
the form of a dummy giant nine miles high and three miles broad.
Hrungnir himself had a three-horned heart of stone and a head of stone;
his shield was of stone and his weapon was a grindstone. But Thjalfi,
Thor’s servant, told him the god would attack him out of the ground,
wherefore Hrungnir laid down his shield and stood on it. The hammer
Mjollnir shattered both the grindstone and Hrungnir’s head, but part of
the grindstone knocked Thor down, and the giant fell with his foot on
Thor’s neck (cf. note on stanza 9). Meanwhile Thjalfi dispatched the
dummy giant without trouble.
16. Fjolvar: not elsewhere mentioned in the poems; perhaps the father
of the “seven sisters” referred to in stanza 18. Algrön “The
All-Green”: not mentioned elsewhere in the Edda.
17. Thor is always eager for stories of this sort; cf. stanzas 31 and
33.
18. Lines 1–2 are obscure, but apparently Harbarth means that the women
were wise to give in to him cheerfully, resistance to his power being
as impossible as (lines 3–4) making ropes of sand or digging the
bottoms out of the valleys. Nothing further is known of these unlucky
“seven sisters.”
19. Thjazi: this giant, by a trick, secured possession of the goddess
Ithun and her apples (cf. Skirnismol, 19, note), and carried her off
into Jotunheim. Loki, through whose fault she had been betrayed, was
sent after her by the gods. He went in Freyja’s “hawk’s-dress” (cf.
Thrymskvitha, 3), turned Ithun into a nut, and flew back with her.
Thjazi, in the shape of an eagle, gave chase. But the gods kindled a
fire which burnt the eagle’s wings, and then they killed him. Snorri’s
prose version does not attribute this feat particularly to Thor.
Thjazi’s daughter was Skathi, whom the gods permitted to marry Njorth
as a recompense for her father’s death. Alvaldi: of him we know only
that he was the father of Thjazi, Ithi and Gang, who divided his
wealth, each taking a mouthful of gold. The name is variously spelled.
It is not known which stars were called “Thjazi’s Eyes.” In the middle
of line 4 begins the fragmentary version of the poem found in the
Arnamagnæan Codex.
20. Riders by night: witches, who were supposed to ride on wolves in
the dark. Nothing further is known of this adventure.
22. The oak, etc.: this proverb is found elsewhere (e.g., Grettissaga)
in approximately the same words. Its force is much like our “to the
victor belong the spoils.”
23. Thor killed no women of the giants’ race on the “journey to the
East” so fully described by Snorri, his great giant-killing adventure
being the one narrated in the Thrymskvitha.
24. Valland: this mythical place (“Land of Slaughter”) is elsewhere
mentioned, but not further characterized; cf. prose introduction to
Völundarkvitha, and Helreith Brynhildar, 2. On the bringing of slain
heroes to Othin, cf. Voluspo, 31 and note, and, for a somewhat
different version, Grimnismol, 14. Nowhere else is it indicated that
Thor has an asylum for dead peasants.
26. The reference here is to one of the most familiar episodes in
Thor’s eastward journey. He and his companions came to a house in the
forest, and went in to spend the night. Being disturbed by an
earthquake and a terrific noise, they all crawled into a smaller room
opening from the main one. In the morning, however, they discovered
that the earthquake had been occasioned by the giant Skrymir’s lying
down near them, and the noise by his snoring. The house in which they
had taken refuge was his glove, the smaller room being the thumb.
Skrymir was in fact Utgartha-Loki himself. That he is in this stanza
called Fjalar (the name occurs also in Hovamol, 14) is probably due to
a confusion of the names by which Utgartha-Loki went. Loki taunts Thor
with this adventure in Lokasenna, 60 and 62, line 3 of this stanza
being perhaps interpolated from Lokasenna, 60, 4.
29. The river: probably Ifing, which flows between the land of the gods
and that of the giants; cf. Vafthruthnismol, 16. Sons of Svarang:
presumably the giants; Svarang is not elsewhere mentioned in the poems,
nor is there any other account of Thor’s defense of the passage.
30. Othin’s adventures of this sort were too numerous to make it
possible to identify this particular person. By stealth: so the
Arnamagnæan Codex; Regius, followed by several editors, has “long
meeting with her.”
35. Heel-biter: this effective parallel to our “back-biter” is not
found elsewhere in Old Norse.
37. Hlesey: “the Island of the Sea-God” (Hler = Ægir), identified with
the Danish island Läsö, in the Kattegat. It appears again, much out of
place, in Oddrunargratr, 28. Berserkers: originally men who could turn
themselves into bears, hence the name, “bear-shirts”; cf. the werewolf
or loupgarou. Later the name was applied to men who at times became
seized with a madness for bloodshed; cf. Hyndluljoth, 23 and note. The
women here mentioned are obviously of the earlier type.
39. Thjalfi: Thor’s servant; cf. note on stanza 14.
40. To what expedition this refers is unknown, but apparently Othin
speaks of himself as allied to the foes of the gods.
41. Hatred: so Regius; the other manuscript has, apparently,
“sickness.”
42. Just what Othin means, or why his words should so have enraged
Thor, is not evident, though he may imply that Thor is open to bribery.
Perhaps a passage has dropped out before stanza 43.
44. Othin refers to the dead, from whom he seeks information through
his magic power.
48. Sif: Thor’s wife, the lover being presumably Loki; cf. Lokasenna,
54.
52. Asathor: Thor goes by various names in the poems: e.g., Vingthor,
Vingnir, Hlorrithi. Asathor means “Thor of the Gods.”
53. Magni: Thor’s son; cf. stanza 9 and note.
56. Line 2: the phrases mean simply “a long way”; cf. “over stock and
stone.” Verland: the “Land of Men” to which Thor must come from the
land of the giants. The Arnamagnæan Codex has “Valland” (cf. stanza 24
and note), but this is obviously an error. Fjorgyn: a feminine form of
the same name, which belongs to Othin (cf. Voluspo, 56 and note); here
it evidently means Jorth (Earth), Thor’s mother. The road: the rainbow
bridge, Bifrost; cf. Grimnismol, 29 and note.
58. Line 2: so Regius; the other manuscript has “ere sunrise.”
60. The Arnamagnæan Codex clearly indicates Harbarth as the speaker of
this line, but Regius has no superscription, and begins the line with a
small letter not preceded by a period, thereby assigning it to Thor.
HYMISKVITHA
THE LAY OF HYMIR
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The Hymiskvitha is found complete in both manuscripts; in Regius it
follows the Harbarthsljoth, while in the Arnamagnæan Codex it comes
after the Grimnismol. Snorri does not quote it, although he tells the
main story involved.
The poem is a distinctly inferior piece of work, obviously based on
various narrative fragments, awkwardly pieced together. Some critics,
Jessen and Edzardi for instance, have maintained that the compiler had
before him three distinct poems, which he simply put together; others,
like Finnur Jonsson and Mogk, think that the author made a new poem of
his own on the basis of earlier poems, now lost. It seems probable that
he took a lot of odds and ends of material concerning Thor, whether in
prose or in verse, and worked them together in a perfunctory way,
without much caring how well they fitted. His chief aim was probably to
impress the credulous imaginations of hearers greedy for wonders.
The poem is almost certainly one of the latest of those dealing with
the gods, though Finnur Jonsson, in order to support his theory of a
Norwegian origin, has to date it relatively early. If, as seems
probable, it was produced in Iceland, the chances are that it was
composed in the first half of the eleventh century. Jessen, rather
recklessly, goes so far as to put it two hundred years later. In any
case, it belongs to a period of literary decadence,—the great days of
Eddic poetry would never have permitted the nine hundred headed person
found in Hymir’s home—and to one in which the usual forms of diction in
mythological poetry had yielded somewhat to the verbal subtleties of
skaldic verse.
While the skaldic poetry properly falls outside the limits of this
book, it is necessary here to say a word about it. There is preserved,
in the sagas and elsewhere, a very considerable body of lyric poetry,
the authorship of each poem being nearly always definitely stated,
whether correctly or otherwise. This type of poetry is marked by an
extraordinary complexity of diction, with a peculiarly difficult
vocabulary of its own. It was to explain some of the “kennings” which
composed this special vocabulary that Snorri wrote one of the sections
of the Prose Edda. As an illustration, in a single stanza of one poem
in the Egilssaga, a sword is called “the halo of the helm,” “the
wound-hoe,” “the blood-snake” (possibly; no one is sure what the
compound word means) and “the ice of the girdle,” while men appear in
the same stanza as “Othin’s ash-trees,” and battle is spoken of as “the
iron game.” One of the eight lines has defied translation completely.
Skaldic diction made relatively few inroads into the earlier Eddic
poems, but in the Hymiskvitha these circumlocutions are fairly
numerous. This sets the poem somewhat apart from the rest of the
mythological collection. Only the vigor of the two main stories—Thor’s
expedition after Hymir’s kettle and the fishing trip in which he caught
Mithgarthsorm—saves it from complete mediocrity.
1. Of old the gods | made feast together,
And drink they sought | ere sated they were;
Twigs they shook, | and blood they tried:
Rich fare in Ægir’s | hall they found.
2. The mountain-dweller | sat merry as boyhood,
But soon like a blinded | man he seemed;
The son of Ygg | gazed in his eyes:
“For the gods a feast | shalt thou forthwith get.”
3. The word-wielder toil | for the giant worked,
And so revenge | on the gods he sought;
He bade Sif’s mate | the kettle bring:
“Therein for ye all | much ale shall I brew.”
4. The far-famed ones | could find it not,
And the holy gods | could get it nowhere;
Till in truthful wise | did Tyr speak forth,
And helpful counsel | to Hlorrithi gave.
5. “There dwells to the east | of Elivagar
Hymir the wise | at the end of heaven;
A kettle my father | fierce doth own,
A mighty vessel | a mile in depth.”
Thor spake:
6. “May we win, dost thou think, | this whirler of water?”
Tyr spake:
“Aye, friend, we can, | if cunning we are.”
7. Forward that day | with speed they fared,
From Asgarth came they | to Egil’s home;
The goats with horns | bedecked he guarded;
Then they sped to the hall | where Hymir dwelt.
8. The youth found his grandam, | that greatly he loathed,
And full nine hundred | heads she had;
But the other fair | with gold came forth,
And the bright-browed one | brought beer to her son.
9. “Kinsman of giants, | beneath the kettle
Will I set ye both, | ye heroes bold;
For many a time | my dear-loved mate
To guests is wrathful | and grim of mind.”
10. Late to his home | the misshapen Hymir,
The giant harsh, | from his hunting came;
The icicles rattled | as in he came,
For the fellow’s chin-forest | frozen was.
11. “Hail to thee, Hymir! | good thoughts mayst thou have;
Here has thy son | to thine hall now come;
(For him have we waited, | his way was long;)
And with him fares | the foeman of Hroth,
The friend of mankind, | and Veur they call him.
12. “See where under | the gable they sit!
Behind the beam | do they hide themselves.”
The beam at the glance | of the giant broke,
And the mighty pillar | in pieces fell.
13. Eight fell from the ledge, | and one alone,
The hard-hammered kettle, | of all was whole;
Forth came they then, | and his foes he sought,
The giant old, | and held with his eyes.
14. Much sorrow his heart | foretold when he saw
The giantess’ foeman | come forth on the floor;
Then of the steers | did they bring in three;
Their flesh to boil | did the giant bid.
15. By a head was each | the shorter hewed,
And the beasts to the fire | straight they bore;
The husband of Sif, | ere to sleep he went,
Alone two oxen | of Hymir’s ate.
16. To the comrade hoary | of Hrungnir then
Did Hlorrithi’s meal | full mighty seem;
“Next time at eve | we three must eat
The food we have | as the hunting’s spoil.”
17. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
Fain to row on the sea | was Veur, he said,
If the giant bold | would give him bait.
Hymir spake:
18. “Go to the herd, | if thou hast it in mind,
Thou slayer of giants, | thy bait to seek;
For there thou soon | mayst find, methinks,
Bait from the oxen | easy to get.”
19. Swift to the wood | the hero went,
Till before him an ox | all black he found;
From the beast the slayer | of giants broke
The fortress high | of his double horns.
Hymir spake:
20. “Thy works, methinks, | are worse by far,
Thou steerer of ships, | than when still thou sittest.”
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
21. The lord of the goats | bade the ape-begotten
Farther to steer | the steed of the rollers;
But the giant said | that his will, forsooth,
Longer to row | was little enough.
22. Two whales on his hook | did the mighty Hymir
Soon pull up | on a single cast;
In the stern the kinsman | of Othin sat,
And Veur with cunning | his cast prepared.
23. The warder of men, | the worm’s destroyer,
Fixed on his hook | the head of the ox;
There gaped at the bait | the foe of the gods,
The girdler of all | the earth beneath.
24. The venomous serpent | swiftly up
To the boat did Thor, | the bold one, pull;
With his hammer the loathly | hill of the hair
Of the brother of Fenrir | he smote from above.
25. The monsters roared, | and the rocks resounded,
And all the earth | so old was shaken;
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
Then sank the fish | in the sea forthwith.
26. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
Joyless as back | they rowed was the giant;
Speechless did Hymir | sit at the oars,
With the rudder he sought | a second wind.
Hymir spake:
27. “The half of our toil | wilt thou have with me,
And now make fast | our goat of the flood;
Or home wilt thou bear | the whales to the house,
Across the gorge | of the wooded glen?”
28. Hlorrithi stood | and the stem he gripped,
And the sea-horse with water | awash he lifted;
Oars and bailer | and all he bore
With the surf-swine home | to the giant’s house.
29. His might the giant | again would match,
For stubborn he was, | with the strength of Thor;
None truly strong, | though stoutly he rowed,
Would he call save one | who could break the cup.
30. Hlorrithi then, | when the cup he held,
Struck with the glass | the pillars of stone;
As he sat the posts | in pieces he shattered,
Yet the glass to Hymir | whole they brought.
31. But the loved one fair | of the giant found
A counsel true, | and told her thought:
“Smite the skull of Hymir, | heavy with food,
For harder it is | than ever was glass.”
32. The goats’ mighty ruler | then rose on his knee,
And with all the strength | of a god he struck;
Whole was the fellow’s | helmet-stem,
But shattered the wine-cup | rounded was.
Hymir spake:
33. “Fair is the treasure | that from me is gone,
Since now the cup | on my knees lies shattered;”
So spake the giant: | “No more can I say
In days to be, | ‘Thou art brewed, mine ale.’
34. “Enough shall it be | if out ye can bring
Forth from our house | the kettle here.”
Tyr then twice | to move it tried,
But before him the kettle | twice stood fast.
35. The father of Mothi | the rim seized firm,
And before it stood | on the floor below;
Up on his head | Sif’s husband raised it,
And about his heels | the handles clattered.
36. Not long had they fared, | ere backwards looked
The son of Othin, | once more to see;
From their caves in the east | beheld he coming
With Hymir the throng | of the many-headed.
37. He stood and cast | from his back the kettle,
And Mjollnir, the lover | of murder, he wielded;
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
So all the whales | of the waste he slew.
38. Not long had they fared | ere one there lay
Of Hlorrithi’s goats | half-dead on the ground;
In his leg the pole-horse | there was lame;
The deed the evil | Loki had done.
39. But ye all have heard,— | for of them who have
The tales of the gods, | who better can tell?—
What prize he won | from the wilderness-dweller,
Who both his children | gave him to boot.
40. The mighty one came | to the council of gods,
And the kettle he had | that Hymir’s was;
So gladly their ale | the gods could drink
In Ægir’s hall | at the autumn-time.
NOTES
1. Twigs: Vigfusson comments at some length on “the rite practised in
the heathen age of inquiring into the future by dipping bunches of
chips or twigs into the blood (of sacrifices) and shaking them.” But
the two operations may have been separate, the twigs being simply
“divining-rods” marked with runes. In either case, the gods were
seeking information by magic as to where they could find plenty to
drink. Ægir: a giant who is also the god of the sea; little is known of
him outside of what is told here and in the introductory prose to the
Lokasenna, though Snorri has a brief account of him, giving his home as
Hlesey (Läsö, cf. Harbarthsljoth, 37). Grimnismol, 45, has a reference
to this same feast.
2. Mountain-dweller: the giant (Ægir). Line 2: the principal word in
the original has defied interpretation, and any translation of the line
must be largely guesswork. Ygg: Othin; his son is Thor. Some editors
assume a gap after this stanza.
3. Word-wielder: Thor. The giant: Ægir. Sif: Thor’s wife; cf.
Harbarthsljoth, 48. The kettle: Ægir’s kettle is possibly the sea
itself.
4. Tyr: the god of battle; his two great achievements were thrusting
his hand into the mouth of the wolf Fenrir so that the gods might bind
him, whereby he lost his hand (cf. Voluspo, 39, note), and his fight
with the hound Garm in the last battle, in which they kill each other.
Hlorrithi: Thor.
5. Elivagar (“Stormy Waves”): possibly the Milky Way; cf.
Vafthruthnismol, 31, note. Hymir: this giant figures only in this
episode. It is not clear why Tyr, who is elsewhere spoken of as a son
of Othin, should here call Hymir his father. Finnur Jonsson, in an
attempt to get round this difficulty, deliberately changed the word
“father” to “grandfather,” but this does not help greatly.
6. Neither manuscript has any superscriptions, but most editors have
supplied them as above. From this point through stanza 11 the editors
have varied considerably in grouping the lines into stanzas. The
manuscripts indicate the third lines of stanzas 7, 8, 9, and 10 as
beginning stanzas, but this makes more complications than the present
arrangement. It is possible that, as Sijmons suggests, two lines have
been lost after stanza 6.
7. Egil: possibly, though by no means certainly, the father of Thor’s
servant, Thjalfi, for, according to Snorri, Thor’s first stop on this
journey was at the house of a peasant whose children, Thjalfi and
Roskva, he took into his service; cf. stanza 38, note. The Arnamagnæan
Codex has “Ægir” instead of “Egil,” but, aside from the fact that Thor
had just left Ægir’s house, the sea-god can hardly have been spoken of
as a goat-herd.
8. The youth: Tyr, whose extraordinary grandmother is Hymir’s mother.
We know nothing further of her, or of the other, who is Hymir’s wife
and Tyr’s mother. It may be guessed, however, that she belonged rather
to the race of the gods than to that of the giants.
11. Two or three editors give this stanza a superscription (“The
concubine spake,” “The daughter spake”). Line 3 is commonly regarded as
spurious. The foeman of Hroth: of course this means Thor, but nothing
is known of any enemy of his by this name. Several editors have sought
to make a single word meaning “the famous enemy” out of the phrase.
Concerning Thor as the friend of man, particularly of the peasant
class, cf. introduction to Harbarthsljoth. Veur: another name, of
uncertain meaning, for Thor.
13. Eight: the giant’s glance, besides breaking the beam, knocks down
all the kettles with such violence that all but the one under which
Thor and Tyr are hiding are broken.
14. Hymir’s wrath does not permit him to ignore the duties of a host to
his guests, always strongly insisted on.
15. Thor’s appetite figures elsewhere; cf. Thrymskvitha, 24.
16. The comrade of Hrungnir: Hymir, presumably simply because both are
giants; cf. Harbarthsljoth, 14 and note.
17. The manuscripts indicate no lacuna, and many editors unite stanza
17 with lines 1 and 2 of 18. Sijmons and Gering assume a gap after
these two lines, but it seems more probable that the missing passage,
if any, belonged before them, supplying the connection with the
previous stanza.
18. The manuscripts have no superscription. Many editors combine lines
3 and 4 with lines 1 and 2 of stanza 19. In Snorri’s extended
paraphrase of the story, Hymir declines to go fishing with Thor on the
ground that the latter is too small a person to be worth bothering
about. “You would freeze,” he says, “if you stayed out in mid-ocean as
long as I generally do.” Bait (line 4): the word literally means
“chaff,” hence any small bits; Hymir means that Thor should collect
dung for bait.
19. Many editors combine lines 3 and 4 with stanza 20. Fortress, etc.:
the ox’s head; cf. introductory note concerning the diction of this
poem. Several editors assume a lacuna after stanza 19, but this seems
unnecessary.
20. The manuscripts have no superscription. Steerer of ships: probably
merely a reference to Thor’s intention to go fishing. The lacuna after
stanza 20 is assumed by most editors.
21. Lord of the goats: Thor, because of his goat-drawn chariot.
Ape-begotten: Hymir; the word “api,” rare until relatively late times
in its literal sense, is fairly common with the meaning of “fool.”
Giants were generally assumed to be stupid. Steed of the rollers: a
ship, because boats were pulled up on shore by means of rollers.
23. Warder of men: Thor; cf. stanza 11. Worm’s destroyer: likewise
Thor, who in the last battle slays, and is slain by, Mithgarthsorm; cf.
Voluspo, 56. The foe of the gods: Mithgarthsorm, who lies in the sea,
and surrounds the whole earth.
24. Hill of the hair: head,—a thoroughly characteristic skaldic phrase.
Brother of Fenrir: Mithgarthsorm was, like the wolf Fenrir and the
goddess Hel, born to Loki and the giantess Angrbotha (cf. Voluspo, 39
and note), and I have translated this line accordingly; but the word
used in the text has been guessed as meaning almost anything from
“comrade” to “enemy.”
25. No gap is indicated in the manuscripts, but that a line or more has
been lost is highly probable. In Snorri’s version, Thor pulls so hard
on the line that he drives both his feet through the flooring of the
boat, and stands on bottom. When he pulls the serpent up, Hymir cuts
the line with his bait-knife, which explains the serpent’s escape.
Thor, in a rage, knocks Hymir overboard with his hammer, and then wades
ashore. The lines of stanzas 25 and 26 have been variously grouped.
26. No gap is indicated in the manuscripts, but line 2 begins with a
small letter. A second wind: another direction, i.e., he put about for
the shore.
27. No superscription in the manuscripts. In its place Bugge supplies a
line—“These words spake Hymir, | the giant wise.” The manuscripts
reverse the order of lines 2 and 3, and in both of them line 4 stands
after stanza 28. Goat of the flood: boat.
28. Sea-horse: boat. Surf-swine: the whales.
29. Snorri says nothing of this episode of Hymir’s cup. The glass which
cannot be broken appears in the folklore of various races.
31. The loved one: Hymir’s wife and Tyr’s mother; cf. stanza 8 and
note. The idea that a giant’s skull is harder than stone or anything
else is characteristic of the later Norse folk-stories, and in one of
the so-called “mythical sagas” we find a giant actually named
Hard-Skull.
32. Helmet-stem: head.
33. The manuscripts have no superscription. Line 4 in the manuscripts
is somewhat obscure, and Bugge, followed by some editors, suggests a
reading which may be rendered (beginning with the second half of line
3): “No more can I speak / Ever again | as I spoke of old.”
35. The father of Mothi and Sif’s husband: Thor.
36. The many-headed: The giants, although rarely designated as a race
in this way, sometimes had two or more heads; cf. stanza 8, Skirnismol,
31 and Vafthruthnismol, 33. Hymir’s mother is, however, the only
many-headed giant actually to appear in the action of the poems, and it
is safe to assume that the tradition as a whole belongs to the period
of Norse folk-tales of the märchen order.
37. No gap is indicated in the manuscripts. Some editors put the
missing line as 2, some as 3, and some, leaving the present three lines
together, add a fourth, and metrically incorrect, one from late paper
manuscripts: “Who with Hymir | followed after.” Whales of the
waste: giants.
38. According to Snorri, when Thor set out with Loki (not Tyr) for the
giants’ land, he stopped first at a peasant’s house (cf. stanza 7 and
note). There he proceeded to cook his own goats for supper. The
peasant’s son, Thjalfi, eager to get at the marrow, split one of the
leg-bones with his knife. The next morning, when Thor was ready to
proceed with his journey, he called the goats to life again, but one of
them proved irretrievably lame. His wrath led the peasant to give him
both his children as servants (cf. stanza 39). Snorri does not indicate
that Loki was in any way to blame.
39. This deliberate introduction of the story-teller is exceedingly
rare in the older poetry.
40. The translation of the last two lines is mostly guesswork, as the
word rendered “gods” is uncertain, and the one rendered “at the
autumn-time” is quite obscure.
LOKASENNA
LOKI’S WRANGLING
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The Lokasenna is found only in Regius, where it follows the
Hymiskvitha; Snorri quotes four lines of it, grouped together as a
single stanza.
The poem is one of the most vigorous of the entire collection, and
seems to have been preserved in exceptionally good condition. The
exchange or contest of insults was dear to the Norse heart, and the
Lokasenna consists chiefly of Loki’s taunts to the assembled gods and
goddesses, and their largely ineffectual attempts to talk back to him.
The author was evidently well versed in mythological lore, and the poem
is full of references to incidents not elsewhere recorded. As to its
date and origin there is the usual dispute, but the latter part of the
tenth century and Iceland seem the best guesses.
The prose notes are long and of unusual interest. The introductory one
links the poem closely to the Hymiskvitha, much as the Reginsmol,
Fafnismol and Sigrdrifumol are linked together; the others fill in the
narrative gaps in the dialogue—very like stage directions,—and provide
a conclusion by relating Loki’s punishment, which, presumably, is here
connected with the wrong incident. It is likely that often when the
poem was recited during the two centuries or so before it was committed
to writing, the speaker inserted some such explanatory comments, and
the compiler of the collection followed this example by adding such
explanations as he thought necessary. The Lokasenna is certainly much
older than the Hymiskvitha, the connection between them being purely
one of subject-matter; and the twelfth-century compiler evidently knew
a good deal less about mythology than the author whose work he was
annotating.
Ægir, who was also called Gymir, had prepared ale for the gods, after
he had got the mighty kettle, as now has been told. To this feast came
Othin and Frigg, his wife. Thor came not, as he was on a journey in the
East. Sif, Thor’s wife, was there, and Bragi with Ithun, his wife. Tyr,
who had but one hand, was there; the wolf Fenrir had bitten off his
other hand when they had bound him. There were Njorth and Skathi his
wife, Freyr and Freyja, and Vithar, the son of Othin. Loki was there,
and Freyr’s servants Byggvir and Beyla. Many were there of the gods and
elves.
Ægir had two serving-men, Fimafeng and Eldir. Glittering gold they had
in place of firelight; the ale came in of itself; and great was the
peace. The guests praised much the ability of Ægir’s serving-men. Loki
might not endure that, and he slew Fimafeng. Then the gods shook their
shields and howled at Loki and drove him away to the forest, and
thereafter set to drinking again. Loki turned back, and outside he met
Eldir. Loki spoke to him:
1. “Speak now, Eldir, | for not one step
Farther shalt thou fare;
What ale-talk here | do they have within,
The sons of the glorious gods?”
Eldir spake:
2. “Of their weapons they talk, | and their might in war,
The sons of the glorious gods;
From the gods and elves | who are gathered here
No friend in words shalt thou find.”
Loki spake:
3. “In shall I go | into Ægir’s hall,
For the feast I fain would see;
Bale and hatred | I bring to the gods,
And their mead with venom I mix.”
Eldir spake:
4. “If in thou goest | to Ægir’s hall,
And fain the feast wouldst see,
And with slander and spite | wouldst sprinkle the gods,
Think well lest they wipe it on thee.”
Loki spake:
5. “Bethink thee, Eldir, | if thou and I
Shall strive with spiteful speech;
Richer I grow | in ready words
If thou speakest too much to me.”
Then Loki went into the hall, but when they who were there saw who had
entered, they were all silent.
Loki spake:
6. “Thirsty I come | into this thine hall,
I, Lopt, from a journey long,
To ask of the gods | that one should give
Fair mead for a drink to me.
7. “Why sit ye silent, | swollen with pride,
Ye gods, and no answer give?
At your feast a place | and a seat prepare me,
Or bid me forth to fare.”
Bragi spake:
8. “A place and a seat | will the gods prepare
No more in their midst for thee;
For the gods know well | what men they wish
To find at their mighty feasts.”
Loki spake:
9. “Remember, Othin, | in olden days
That we both our blood have mixed;
Then didst thou promise | no ale to pour,
Unless it were brought for us both.”
Othin spake:
10. “Stand forth then, Vithar, | and let the wolf’s father
Find a seat at our feast;
Lest evil should Loki | speak aloud
Here within Ægir’s hall.”
Then Vithar arose and poured drink for Loki; but before he drank he
spoke to the gods:
11. “Hail to you, gods! | ye goddesses, hail!
Hail to the holy throng!
Save for the god | who yonder sits,
Bragi there on the bench.”
Bragi spake:
12. “A horse and a sword | from my hoard will I give,
And a ring gives Bragi to boot,
That hatred thou makst not | among the gods;
So rouse not the great ones to wrath.”
Loki spake:
13. “In horses and rings | thou shalt never be rich,
Bragi, but both shalt thou lack;
Of the gods and elves | here together met
Least brave in battle art thou,
(And shyest thou art of the shot.)”
Bragi spake:
14. “Now were I without | as I am within,
And here in Ægir’s hall,
Thine head would I bear | in mine hands away,
And pay thee the price of thy lies.”
Loki spake:
15. “In thy seat art thou bold, | not so are thy deeds,
Bragi, adorner of benches!
Go out and fight | if angered thou feelest,
No hero such forethought has.”
Ithun spake:
16. “Well, prithee, Bragi, | his kinship weigh,
Since chosen as wish-son he was;
And speak not to Loki | such words of spite
Here within Ægir’s hall.”
Loki spake:
17. “Be silent, Ithun! | thou art, I say,
Of women most lustful in love,
Since thou thy washed-bright | arms didst wind
About thy brother’s slayer.”
Ithun spake:
18. “To Loki I speak not | with spiteful words
Here within Ægir’s hall;
And Bragi I calm, | who is hot with beer,
For I wish not that fierce they should fight.”
Gefjun spake:
19. “Why, ye gods twain, | with bitter tongues
Raise hate among us here?
Loki is famed | for his mockery foul,
And the dwellers in heaven he hates.”
Loki spake:
20. “Be silent, Gefjun! | for now shall I say
Who led thee to evil life;
The boy so fair | gave a necklace bright,
And about him thy leg was laid.”
Othin spake:
21. “Mad art thou, Loki, | and little of wit,
The wrath of Gefjun to rouse;
For the fate that is set | for all she sees,
Even as I, methinks.”
Loki spake:
22. “Be silent, Othin! | not justly thou settest
The fate of the fight among men;
Oft gavst thou to him | who deserved not the gift,
To the baser, the battle’s prize.”
Othin spake:
23. “Though I gave to him | who deserved not the gift,
To the baser, the battle’s prize;
Winters eight | wast thou under the earth,
Milking the cows as a maid,
(Ay, and babes didst thou bear;
Unmanly thy soul must seem.)”
Loki spake:
24. “They say that with spells | in Samsey once
Like witches with charms didst thou work;
And in witch’s guise | among men didst thou go;
Unmanly thy soul must seem.”
Frigg spake:
25. “Of the deeds ye two | of old have done
Ye should make no speech among men;
Whate’er ye have done | in days gone by,
Old tales should ne’er be told.”
Loki spake:
26. “Be silent, Frigg! | thou art Fjorgyn’s wife,
But ever lustful in love;
For Vili and Ve, | thou wife of Vithrir,
Both in thy bosom have lain.”
Frigg spake:
27. “If a son like Baldr | were by me now,
Here within Ægir’s hall,
From the sons of the gods | thou shouldst go not forth
Till thy fierceness in fight were tried.”
Loki spake:
28. “Thou wilt then, Frigg, | that further I tell
Of the ill that now I know;
Mine is the blame | that Baldr no more
Thou seest ride home to the hall.”
Freyja spake:
29. “Mad art thou, Loki, | that known thou makest
The wrong and shame thou hast wrought;
The fate of all | does Frigg know well,
Though herself she says it not.”
Loki spake:
30. “Be silent, Freyja! | for fully I know thee,
Sinless thou art not thyself;
Of the gods and elves | who are gathered here,
Each one as thy lover has lain.”
Freyja spake:
31. “False is thy tongue, | and soon shalt thou find
That it sings thee an evil song;
The gods are wroth, | and the goddesses all,
And in grief shalt thou homeward go.”
Loki spake:
32. “Be silent, Freyja! | thou foulest witch,
And steeped full sore in sin;
In the arms of thy brother | the bright gods caught thee
When Freyja her wind set free.”
Njorth spake:
33. “Small ill does it work | though a woman may have
A lord or a lover or both;
But a wonder it is | that this womanish god
Comes hither, though babes he has borne.”
Loki spake:
34. “Be silent, Njorth; | thou wast eastward sent,
To the gods as a hostage given;
And the daughters of Hymir | their privy had
When use did they make of thy mouth.”
Njorth spake:
35. “Great was my gain, | though long was I gone,
To the gods as a hostage given;
The son did I have | whom no man hates,
And foremost of gods is found.”
Loki spake:
36. “Give heed now, Njorth, | nor boast too high,
No longer I hold it hid;
With thy sister hadst thou | so fair a son,
Thus hadst thou no worse a hope.”
Tyr spake:
37. “Of the heroes brave | is Freyr the best
Here in the home of the gods;
He harms not maids | nor the wives of men,
And the bound from their fetters he frees.”
Loki spake:
38. “Be silent, Tyr! | for between two men
Friendship thou ne’er couldst fashion;
Fain would I tell | how Fenrir once
Thy right hand rent from thee.”
Tyr spake:
39. “My hand do I lack, | but Hrothvitnir thou,
And the loss brings longing to both;
Ill fares the wolf | who shall ever await
In fetters the fall of the gods.”
Loki spake:
40. “Be silent, Tyr! | for a son with me
Thy wife once chanced to win;
Not a penny, methinks, | wast thou paid for the wrong,
Nor wast righted an inch, poor wretch.”
Freyr spake:
41. “By the mouth of the river | the wolf remains
Till the gods to destruction go;
Thou too shalt soon, | if thy tongue is not stilled,
Be fettered, thou forger of ill.”
Loki spake:
42. “The daughter of Gymir | with gold didst thou buy,
And sold thy sword to boot;
But when Muspell’s sons | through Myrkwood ride,
Thou shalt weaponless wait, poor wretch.”
Byggvir spake:
43. “Had I birth so famous | as Ingunar-Freyr,
And sat in so lofty a seat,
I would crush to marrow | this croaker of ill,
And beat all his body to bits.”
Loki spake:
44. “What little creature | goes crawling there,
Snuffling and snapping about?
At Freyr’s ears ever | wilt thou be found,
Or muttering hard at the mill.”
Byggvir spake:
45. “Byggvir my name, | and nimble am I,
As gods and men do grant;
And here am I proud | that the children of Hropt
Together all drink ale.”
Loki spake:
46. “Be silent, Byggvir! | thou never couldst set
Their shares of the meat for men;
Hid in straw on the floor, | they found thee not
When heroes were fain to fight.”
Heimdall spake:
47. “Drunk art thou, Loki, | and mad are thy deeds,
Why, Loki, leavst thou this not?
For drink beyond measure | will lead all men
No thought of their tongues to take.”
Loki spake:
48. “Be silent, Heimdall! | in days long since
Was an evil fate for thee fixed;
With back held stiff | must thou ever stand,
As warder of heaven to watch.”
Skathi spake:
49. “Light art thou, Loki, | but longer thou mayst not
In freedom flourish thy tail;
On the rocks the gods bind thee | with bowels torn
Forth from thy frost-cold son.”
Loki spake:
50. “Though on rocks the gods bind me | with bowels torn
Forth from my frost-cold son,
I was first and last | at the deadly fight
There where Thjazi we caught.”
Skathi spake:
51. “Wert thou first and last | at the deadly fight
There where Thjazi was caught,
From my dwellings and fields | shall ever come forth
A counsel cold for thee.”
Loki spake:
52. “More lightly thou spakest | with Laufey’s son,
When thou badst me come to thy bed;
Such things must be known | if now we two
Shall seek our sins to tell.”
Then Sif came forward and poured mead for Loki in a crystal cup, and
said:
53. “Hail to thee, Loki, | and take thou here
The crystal cup of old mead;
For me at least, | alone of the gods,
Blameless thou knowest to be.”
He took the horn, and drank therefrom:
54. “Alone thou wert | if truly thou wouldst
All men so shyly shun;
But one do I know | full well, methinks,
Who had thee from Hlorrithi’s arms,—
(Loki the crafty in lies.)”
Beyla spake:
55. “The mountains shake, | and surely I think
From his home comes Hlorrithi now;
He will silence the man | who is slandering here
Together both gods and men.”
Loki spake:
56. “Be silent, Beyla! | thou art Byggvir’s wife,
And deep art thou steeped in sin;
A greater shame | to the gods came ne’er,
Befouled thou art with thy filth.”
Then came Thor forth, and spake:
57. “Unmanly one, cease, | or the mighty hammer,
Mjollnir, shall close thy mouth;
Thy shoulder-cliff | shall I cleave from thy neck,
And so shall thy life be lost.”
Loki spake:
58. “Lo, in has come | the son of Earth:
Why threaten so loudly, Thor?
Less fierce thou shalt go | to fight with the wolf
When he swallows Sigfather up.”
Thor spake:
59. “Unmanly one, cease, | or the mighty hammer,
Mjollnir, shall close thy mouth;
I shall hurl thee up | and out in the East,
Where men shall see thee no more.”
Loki spake:
60. “That thou hast fared | on the East-road forth
To men shouldst thou say no more;
In the thumb of a glove | didst thou hide, thou great one,
And there forgot thou wast Thor.”
Thor spake:
61. “Unmanly one, cease, | or the mighty hammer,
Mjollnir, shall close thy mouth;
My right hand shall smite thee | with Hrungnir’s slayer,
Till all thy bones are broken.”
Loki spake:
62. “A long time still | do I think to live,
Though thou threatenest thus with thy hammer;
Rough seemed the straps | of Skrymir’s wallet,
When thy meat thou mightest not get,
(And faint from hunger didst feel.)”
Thor spake:
63. “Unmanly one, cease, | or the mighty hammer,
Mjollnir, shall close thy mouth;
The slayer of Hrungnir | shall send thee to hell,
And down to the gate of death.”
Loki spake:
64. “I have said to the gods | and the sons of the gods
The things that whetted my thoughts;
But before thee alone | do I now go forth,
For thou fightest well, I ween.
65. “Ale hast thou brewed, | but, Ægir, now
Such feasts shalt thou make no more;
O’er all that thou hast | which is here within
Shall play the flickering flames,
(And thy back shall be burnt with fire.)”
And after that Loki hid himself in Franang’s waterfall in the guise of
a salmon, and there the gods took him. He was bound with the bowels of
his son Vali, but his son Narfi was changed to a wolf. Skathi took a
poison-snake and fastened it up over Loki’s face, and the poison
dropped thereon. Sigyn, Loki’s wife, sat there and held a shell under
the poison, but when the shell was full she bore away the poison, and
meanwhile the poison dropped on Loki. Then he struggled so hard that
the whole earth shook therewith; and now that is called an earthquake.
NOTES
Prose. Ægir: the sea-god; Snorri gives Hler as another of his names,
but he is not elsewhere called Gymir, which is the name of the giant,
Gerth’s father, in the Skirnismol. On Ægir cf. Grimnismol, 45, and
Hymiskvitha, 1. Frigg: though Othin’s wife is often mentioned, she
plays only a minor part in the Eddic poems; cf. Voluspo, 34,
Vafthruthnismol, 1, and Grimnismol, introductory prose. Thor: the
compiler is apparently a trifle confused as to Thor’s movements; the
“journey in the East” here mentioned cannot be the one described in the
Hymiskvitha, nor yet the one narrated by Snorri, as Loki was with Thor
throughout that expedition. He probably means no more than that Thor
was off killing giants. Sif: concerning Thor’s wife the chief incident
is that Loki cut off her hair, and, at the command of the wrathful
Thor, was compelled to have the dwarfs fashion her a new supply of hair
out of gold; cf. Harbarthsljoth, 48. Bragi: the god of poetry; cf.
Grimnismol, 44 and note. Ithun: the goddess of youth; cf. note on
Skirnismol, 19. Ithun is not mentioned by name in any other of the
Eddic poems, but Snorri tells in detail how the giant Thjazi stole her
and her apples, explaining the reference in Harbarthsljoth, 19 (q. v.).
Tyr: the god of battle; cf. Hymiskvitha, 4, and (concerning his
dealings with the wolf Fenrir) Voluspo, 39, note. Njorth: the chief of
the Wanes, and father of Freyr and Freyja; cf. (concerning the whole
family) Skirnismol, introductory prose and note, also Voluspo, 21 and
note. Skathi: Njorth’s wife was the daughter of the giant Thjazi; cf.
Harbarthsljoth, 19, note, and Grimnismol, 11. Vithar: the silent god,
the son of Othin who avenged his father by slaying the wolf Fenrir; cf.
Voluspo, 54, Vafthruthnismol, 51, and Grimnismol, 17. Loki: the
mischief-making fire-god; in addition to the many references to his
career in the Lokasenna, cf. particularly Voluspo, 32 and 35, and
notes. Byggvir and Beyla: not mentioned elsewhere in the poems; Freyr’s
conspicuous servant is Skirnir, hero of the Skirnismol. Fimafeng (“The
Swift Handler”) and Eldir (“The Man of the Fire”): mentioned only in
connection with this incident. Glittering gold: Ægir’s use of gold to
light his hall, which was often thought of as under the sea, was
responsible for the phrase “flame of the flood,” and sundry kindred
phrases, meaning “gold.”
6. Lopt: like Lothur (cf. Voluspo, 18) another name for Loki; cf.
Hyndluljoth, 43, and Svipdagsmol, 42.
7. In the manuscript this stanza begins with a small letter, and
Heinzel unites it with stanza 6.
8. Bragi: cf. note on introductory prose. Why Loki taunts him with
cowardice (stanzas 11–13–15) is not clear, for poetry, of which Bragi
was the patron, was generally associated in the Norse mind with
peculiar valor, and most of the skaldic poets were likewise noted
fighters.
9. There exists no account of any incident in which Othin and Loki thus
swore blood-brotherhood, but they were so often allied in enterprises
that the idea is wholly reasonable. The common process of “mingling
blood” was carried out quite literally, and the promise of which Loki
speaks is characteristic of those which, in the sagas, often
accompanied the ceremony; cf. Brot af Sigurtharkvithu, 18 and note.
10. In stanzas 10–31 the manuscript has nothing to indicate the
identity of the several speakers, but these are uniformly clear enough
through the context. Vithar: cf. note on introductory prose. The wolf’s
father: Loki; cf. Voluspo, 39 and note.
13. Sijmons makes one line of lines 4–5 by cutting out a part of each;
Finnur Jonsson rejects 5 as spurious.
14. The text of line 4 is somewhat obscure, and has been variously
emended, one often adopted suggestion making the line read, “Little is
that for thy lies.”
15. Adorner of benches: this epithet presumably implies that Bragi is
not only slothful, but also effeminate, for a very similar word, “pride
of the benches,” means a bride.
16. Ithun: Bragi’s wife; cf. note on introductory prose. The goddesses
who, finding that their husbands are getting the worst of it, take up
the cudgels with Loki, all find themselves confronted with undeniable
facts in their own careers; cf. stanzas 26 (Frigg), 52 (Skathi) and 54
(Sif). Gefjun and Freyja are silenced in similar fashion. Wish-son:
adopted son; Loki was the son of the giant Farbauti and the giantess
Laufey, and hence was not of the race of the gods, but had been
virtually adopted by Othin, who subsequently had good reason to regret
it.
17. We do not even know who Ithun’s brother was, much less who slew
him.
19. Gefjun: a goddess, not elsewhere mentioned in the poems, who,
according to Snorri, was served by the women who died maidens. Beyond
this nothing is known of her. Lines 3–4 in the manuscript are puzzling,
and have been freely emended.
20. Nothing is known of the incident here mentioned. There is a good
deal of confusion as to various of the gods and goddesses, and it has
been suggested that Gefjun is really Frigg under another name, with a
little of Freyja—whose attributes were frequently confused with
Frigg’s—thrown in. Certainly Othin’s answer (stanza 21, lines 3–4) fits
Frigg perfectly, for she shared his knowledge of the future, whereas it
has no relation to anything known of Gefjun. As for the necklace (line
3), it may be the Brisings’ necklace, which appears in the Thrymskvitha
as Freyja’s, but which, in some mythological writings, is assigned to
Frigg.
21. Snorri quotes line 1; cf. note on stanza 29.
23. There is no other reference to Loki’s having spent eight years
underground, or to his cow-milking. On one occasion, however, he did
bear offspring. A giant had undertaken to build the gods a fortress,
his reward being Freyja and the sun and moon, provided the work was
done by a given time. His sole helper was his horse, Svathilfari. The
work being nearly done, and the gods fearing to lose Freyja and the sun
and moon, Loki turned himself into a mare, and so effectually
distracted Svathilfari from his task that shortly afterwards Loki gave
birth to Othin’s eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. In such contests of
abuse a man was not infrequently taunted with having borne children;
cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 39–45. One or two of the last three
lines may be spurious.
24. Samsey: perhaps the Danish island of Samsö. Othin was the god of
magic, but there is no other reference to his ever having disguised
himself as a witch.
25. Frigg: Othin’s wife; cf. note to introductory prose.
26. Fjorgyn: Othin; cf. Voluspo, 56 and note. Vili and Ve: Othin’s
brothers, who appear merely as, with Othin, the sons of Bur and Bestla;
cf. Voluspo, 4. The Ynglingasaga says that, during one of Othin’s
protracted absences, his two brothers took Frigg as their mistress.
Vithrir: another name for Othin.
27. On the death of Baldr, slain through Loki’s cunning by the blind
Hoth, cf. Voluspo, 32 and note.
29. Freyja: daughter of Njorth and sister of Freyr; cf. note on
introductory prose. Snorri, in speaking of Frigg’s knowledge of the
future, makes a stanza out of Lokasenna, 21, 1; 47, 2; 29, 3–4, thus:
“Mad art thou, Loki, | and little of wit, / Why, Loki, leavst thou
this not? / The fate of all | does Frigg know well, / Though
herself she says it not.”