“The Prophecy of the Seeress”:
Lee M. Hollander’s 1928 Translation
of the Old Norse poem VǪluspá
Joseph S. Hopkins for Mimisbrunnr.info, October 2021. Updated March 25, 2022.
Mimisbrunnr.info readers may be familiar with the second edition of American philologist Lee M. Hollander’s (d. 1972) translation of the Poetic Edda. However, few have encountered the first edition of Hollander’s translation, which is difficult to find both online and off. Although long in the public domain, Hollander’s first edition is not currently available on Archive.org or related services.
Hollander’s first edition is different in a variety of ways from the translation’s second edition (for discussion on both editions, see Hollander’s Eddic to English entry) The first edition’s translation of Vǫluspá varies in minor ways from the second edition translation. Unfortunately, the second edition is not yet in public domain, and therefore we cannot place it side-by-side with this translation for comparative purposes.
EDITION & MODIFICATIONS
The present transcription text is from the following edition:
Hollander, Lee M. 1928. The Poetic Edda, p. 1-16 & 383-384. First edition. University of Texas Press. Public domain.
In his translation, Hollander extracts the dwarf name list (sometimes called Dvergatal, which Hollander translates to ‘The Catalogue of Dwarfs’) from the poem and includes it in a separate section at the end of his Poetic Edda translation. Hollander does not assign numbers to these stanzas. To facilitate ease of use and reference, we have added numbers to the stanzas found in that section.
Transcription
p. 1
THE PROPHECY OF THE SEERESS
Vǫluspǫ
The poem referred to in the Prose Edda of Snorri as Vǫluspǫ (i.a.) significantly occupies first place in the Codex Regius collection of Eddic songs. It was probably felt to be the most comprehensive and representative of them all, at the same time furnishing a kind of philosophical introduction to Norse cosmogony, and embodying the outlook of thoughtful heathen of the later Viking Age. It makes a similar appeal now: notwithstanding the deplorable condition of them poem as handed down it thrills has as vision after vision of a Norse apocalypse rises before us, of the fates of gods and powers of the eld—the past and future of the world. Norse terseness, at its best here, accomplishes a triumph in condensing a world of meaning into narrowest compass. A certain stern ethical pathos in meaning into narrowest compass. A certain stern ethical pathos in some passages is consonant to the sombre tone of the whole.
None of the Eddic poems has been a greater theme for controversy; which is not to be wondered at, seeing the condition of the text, with its vague outlines, the hopeless confusion of statement—even beyond the inevitable self-contradictions of any primitive cosmogony—, the puzzling gaps, the abrupt transitions, the obscure allusions—all of which makes elaborate comments indispensable to the understanding. Indeed, there is little agreement among scholars on the fundamental points of the purpose and the structure of the poem.
Óthin, it seems, has summoned the seeress from her grave to appear before the assembled gods. To legitimate herself, she tells of first-created things and
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose Out of Chaos—
how man was given the breath of life. A golden age of innocence (among the gods) ends with the coming of the Norns (the Fates) and the (ill-understood) slaying of Gullveig, a Pandora-like figure sent to the Æsir by the Vanir, an older race of gods. A war between these powers results disastrously for the Æsir whose battlements are laid low. In their rebuilding, broken oaths embroil the (now united?) gods with the world of giants, representative of brute force and darkness. Baldr, god of light, is slain, and evil enters into he world. Then, with strokes of tremendous dramatic power, the 'doom of the gods' is foretold, the breaking
i.a.: Vala, gen. vǫlu, 'seeress'; spǫ 'prophecy'
p. 2
loose of all the powers of destruction, and the cataclysmic end of the old world. Out of its ruins, a new world is born in which Baldr and other benign gods will establish a reign of justice and peace.
In the concluding lines, some scholars have seen an adumbration of the coming of Christ, and the traces of Christianity in the poem as a whole; but at present the best scholarship would declare as an interpolation (because of variance with the prevailing spirit of the poem) the very passage on which such an inference could be based.
However, this does not preclude a general acquaintance with the fundamental concepts of Christianity such as pervaded the North in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries—times when its imagination was stimulated vigorously through the multifarious activities of the 'Viking Age'. A study of the language and versification (fornyrðislag) of the poem has led to similar conclusions. For all that, much of the matter of the poem may be of considerably earlier date.
The Voluspǫ is found in the Codex Regius and in the Hauksbook. The latter version, though on the world inferior to that of the Cod. Reg., has a better text sometimes. Besides, we have a paraphrase in the Snorra Edda which also quotes, in part or in full, nearly half of the stanzas, some in variant versions.
1.
Hear me, all ye hallowed beings
both high and low of Heimdall's children: (1)
thou wilt, Valfather, (2) that I well set forth
the foremost fates which befall the world.
2.
I call to mind the kin of etins
which in times long gone did give me life.
Nine worlds I know, the nine abodes
of the wondrous world-tree, (3) the welkin beneath.
1. According to the lay of Ríg, the god Heimdall (Ríg) was the progenitor of the three estates of slaves, freemen and nobles.—Heimdall ‘the Brightly Shining’ (?) is the warder of the gods. ‘Hallowed beings’ probably refers more specifically to the gods.
2. ‘The Father of the Battle-slain’ (Óthin), who are gathered into Valhalla; cf. Grimn. 8.
3. The ash-tree Yggdrasil; see 11[,] 19, and Grimn. 25f. It is not certain what to what the number nine refers.
p. 3
3.
In earliest times did Ymir (4) live:
was nor sea nor sand nor salty waves,
neither earth was there nor upper heaven,
but a gaping nothing, and green things nowhere.
4.
Was the land then lifted aloft by Bur's sons (5)
who made Midgarth, (6) the matchless earth;
shone from the south the sun on dry land,
on the ground then grew the greensward soft.
5.
From the south the sun, by the side of the moon,
heaved his right hand over heaven's rim; (7)
the sun knew not what might he had,
the moon knew not what might he had,
the stars knew not what stead they held.
6.
Then gathered together the gods for counsel,
the holy hosts, and held converse;
to night and new-moon their names they gave,
the morning named, and midday also,
forenoon and evening, to order the year.
7.
On the Itha-field (8) met the mighty gods;
shrines and temples they timbered high,
forges they formed to fashion gold,
tongs they did shape and tools they made;
4. ‘Roarer’; the world was made of his carcase; cf. Val. 20 Grímn. 40, 41.
5. According to Snorri’s account, Gylfag. chap 6, they are Óthin, Vili, and Vé.
6. ‘Middle World’, the earth as the abode of men; cf. Grímn. 41.
7. Hoffory suggested that conditions near the Arctic Circle are alluded to in these lines, when the summer sun, advancing from the south, at midnight wheels from west to east along the horizon before mounting again in the sky. However, what follows seems to refer, rather, to unordered chaos.
8. ‘Field of Work’ (?).
P. 4
8.
Played at draughts in the gard: right glad they were,
nor aught lacked they of lustrous gold;—
till maidens three (9) from the thurses came,
awful in might, from etin-home. (10)
9.
To the coast then came, kind and mighty,
three great æsir from that meeting;
on the land they found, of little strength,
Ask and Embla, (11) unfated yet.
10.
Sense they possessed not, soul they had not,
being nor bearing, nor blooming hue;
soul gave Óthin, (12) sense gave Hœnir, (13)
being, Lóthur, (14) and blooming hue.
11.
An ash I know, hight Yggdrasil, (15)
the mighty tree moist with white dews;
thence came the floods that fall a-down;
evergreen stands at Urth's (16) well this tree.
9. The Norns (cf. 12), who introduce the note of fate. They are of giant (thurs) kin.
10. Scholars are agreed that the so-called Catalogue of Dwarfs following here in the original is an interpolation. It is given p. 383
11. ‘Ash and Elm’ (?). In many folktales the new-born babes are fetched from trees.
12. Anglo-Saxon Wōden, the supreme deity of the Teutonic race.
13. His name and function are as yet unexplained; cf. also 55, and Beg. Intro. Prose.
14. Probably identical with Loki.
15. ‘Ygg’s (Óthin’s) Horse’; for the explanation of the kenning, cf. Hǫv. 139. This ‘World-tree’ is the symbol of the ordered universe.
16. ‘Fate’; by popular etymology conceived as meaning ‘the Past’. The names of the two other norns, or goddesses of fate, Verthandi ‘the Present’, and Skuld ‘the Future’, are now understood to be learned inventions of the Twelfth Century, on the pattern of the three Parcæ or Μοίραι of Classical Antiquity. Like them, they ‘spin the thread of Fate’; cf. H.H. 1, 3.
P. 5
12.
Thence wise maidens three betake them—
under spreading boughs their bower stands—;
[Urth one is hight, the other Verthandi,
Skuld the third: they scores did cut.]
they laws did make, they lives did choose;
for the children of men they marked the fates.
13.
(17) I ween the first war in the world was this,
when the gods Gullveig gashed with their spears,
and in the hall of Hór (18) burned her—
there times burned they the thrice re-born,
ever and anon: even now she liveth.
14.
Heath (19) she was hight where to houses she came,
the wise seeress, the witchcraft plied—
cast spells where she could, cast spells on the mind;
to wicked women she was welcome ever.
15.
Then gathered together the gods for counsel,
the holy hosts, and held converse:
should the Æsir a truce with tribute buy,
or should all gods share in the feast. (20)
17. This difficult stanza is generally interpreted in connection with those immediately following. Gullveig ‘Essence, or Spirit, of Gold (?)’, possibly represents the Vanir (as gods of commerce ?) in their power to corrupt—she is a witch. The vain attempts of the Æsir to annihilate her bring about war between them and the Vanir in which the latter are victorious (16). Hostages are exchanged, then, and the two races of gods rule the world together. Cf. also 40, note.
18. 'The One-eyed’, Óthin. Cf. 19, note, and 21.
19. A name frequently borne by witches.
20. I.e. both Æsir and Vanir share in the sacrificial feast offered up by men?
P. 6
16.
His spear did Óthin speed o'er the host: (21)
the first of feuds was thus fought in the world;
was broken in battle the breastwork of Ásgarth,
fighting Vanir the field trampled.
17.
Then gathered together the gods for counsel,
the holy hosts, and held converse:
who filled the air with foul treason,
and to uncouth etins Óthin's wife given. (22)
18.
Thewy Thór (23) then overthrew the foe,—
he seldom sits when of such he hears:
were sword oaths broken, and solemn vows,
gods' plighted troth, the pledges given.
19.
Where Heimdall's horn is hid, she (24) knows,
under heaven-touching holy world-tree;
on it are shed showery falls
21. A ceremonial shot by which Óthin, the god of war, dedicates the opposing host to death.
22. She was not, indeed, actually handed over. Snorri, in his Gylfag., chap. 42, relates how, after the castle wall of Asgarth (the dwelling of the Æsir) had thus been battered down, a giant offered to erect within three years’ time walls proof against the attack of the giants. As price he demanded Sun and Moon and the goddess Freya, Óth’s wife. The gods accepted, providing the work was done within one year; but when it neared completion, Loki by a stratagem foiled the builder; and when he remonstrated about this manifest breach of faith, Thór slew him (18).
23. ‘The Thunderer’. The god of strength, arch-enemy of the giants. He is often hasty in his actions.
24. I.e. the seeress. Alternation between the first and the third person, used by the speaker of himself, is frequent in the Edda.
P. 7
from Fiolnir's pledge: (25) know ye further, or how? (26)
20.
Alone she sat out (27) when the lord of gods,
Óthin the old, her eye did seek:
“what seeks to know, why summon me?
Well know I, Ygg, (28) where they eye is hidden.”
21.
She knows that Óthin's eye is hidden
in the wondrous well of Mímir;
each morn Mímir his mead doth drink
out of Fiolnir's pledge: know ye further, or how?
22.
Gave Ygg to her armrings and gems
for her seeress' sight and soothsaying:
(the fates I fathom, yet farther I see,) (29)
see far and wide the worlds about.
23.
The valkyries’ (30) flock from afar she beholds,
ready to ride to the realm of men:
Skuld her shield, Skogul likewise
25. ‘Fiolnir’s pledge’ is Öthin’s one eye: “But under that root (of Yggdrasil) which spreads over the home of the frost giants there is the well of Mimir (or Mim) in which wit and wisdom are hidden; and is he hight Mimir who owns that well. He is full of knowledge because he drinks its water out of the Giallarhorn (see 38). Thither came Othin and asked for a draught from the well, but got it not before giving his one eye as a pledge.” (Gylfag. chap. 15) Cf. 21.— Öthin’s eye being hidden in the well, its water may in skaldic language be said to come from ‘Fiolnir’s pledge’ (Fiolnir ‘the Multiscient’ is one of Óthin’s names).
26. This dark and challenging refrain is used with the events of the present and the future divined by the seeress.
27. ‘Sitting out’ is the technical expression for the witches’ and sorcerers’ communing with spirits, out of doors and at night.
28. ‘The Terrifier’, Óthin. He is often pictured as a grey-beard, strong, wise, crafty, and cruel.
29. Supplied after the corresponding passage in 36.
30. Literally, ‘Choosers of the Slain’—the shield-maidens of Óthin, who ride through the air over the battlefield, marking with their spears those who are to fall, and conducting the battle-slain to Valholl, ‘the Hall of the Slain’, Öthin’s abode. Another catalogue of valkyries is given in Grimn. Their names have to do with war and weapons.
p. 8
Guth, Hild, Gondol, and Geirskogul:
[for thus are hight Herian’s (31) maidens,
ready to ride o’er reddened battlefields].
24.
I saw for Baldr, (32) the blessed (33) god,
Ygg's dearest son, what doom is hidden:
green and glossy, there grew aloft,
the trees among, the mistletoe.
25.
The slender-seeming sapling became
a fell weapon when flung by Hoth; (34)
but Baldr's brother (35) was born full soon:
but one night old slew him Óthin's son.
26.
Neither cleansed his hands nor combed his hair
till Baldr's slayer (36) he sent to Hel; (37)
but Frigg (38) did weep in Fensalir
the fateful deed: know ye further, or how?
31. ‘Warrior’, Óthin.
32. ‘The Lord’ or ‘the Glorious’. He is the son of Óthin and Frigg.
33. Following Bugge’s emendation.
34. ‘Hate’ (?), the blind god. The beautiful story is told more fully in Gylfag. chap. 49: “Baldr had had heavy dreams about his early death. Then Frigg took an oath of all beings and all things not to harm him. When thus assured of Baldr’s life, the gods in sport shot and hewed at him: but Loki in malice found out that the mistletoe had not been sworn in, as too weak. He gave it to blind Hoth as a missile, and he shot Baldr dead.”—Loki’s punishment is told in 27, and the Final Prose of Lok.
35. Váli, engendered by Óthin with the giantess Rind, since the gods could not avenge the deed on one of their own; cf. Bdr. 11.
36. I.e. Hoth.
37. Hel ‘the Concealer’ is the goddess of the lower world where the shades of the dead dwell in cold and darkness (as in the Greek Τάρταρος). Hence, ‘to send to Hel’ comes to mean merely, ‘to slay’.
38. ‘The Beloved’, Óthin’s wife, who dwells in Fensalir ‘the Ocean Halls’.
p. 9
27.
A captive lies in the kettle-grove, (39)
like to lawless Loki in shape; (40)
there sits Sigyn, full sad in mind,
by her fettered mate: know ye further, or how?
28.
There flows from the east, (41) through fester dales,
a stream hight Slíth (42) filled with swords and knives.
29.
(43) Waist-deep wade there through waters swift mainsworn men and murderous,
eke those who betrayed a trusted friend's wife;
there gnaws Níthhogg (44) naked corpses,
there the Wolf (45) rends men — wit ye more, or how?
30.
Stood in the north on the Nitha-fields, (46)
a dwelling golden which the dwarves did own;
an other stood on Ókólnir, (47)
that tin's beer-hall who is Brimir hight.
39. I.e. the grove about hot springs ( ? ) .
40. That is, Loki ‘The Ender’ (?) himself.—Instead of these lines, the Hauksbook has the following:
With meshes mighty made the gods then
girding fetters out of Váli’s guts.
This Váli (not to be confused with Óthin’s son, 25) was a son of Loki. The gods transformed him into a wolf.
41. The east is the home of the frost-giants: from the point of view of the Norwegians of the western coast who had in mind the snowy mountain wastes of the interior.
42. ‘The Frightful’. It is ‘poisonous’ and ‘cutting’ with cold.
43. This stanza is transposed from its position in the original where it follows 31.
44. ‘The Dastardly Hewing’, a dragon. Cf. the last stanza of the poem, and Grimn. 32, 35.
45. The Fenris-wolf; cf. notes on 32.
46. ‘The Dark Fields’. The stanza evidently is interpolated, perhaps from some other poem, because of its analogy to the following one.
47. ‘Ever-Cold’ (?).
p. 10
31.
A hall standeth, from the sun so far,
on Ná-strand’s (48) shore: turn north (49) its doors;
drops of poison drip through the louver,
its walls are clad with coiling snakes.
32.
In the east sat the old one, (50) in the Ironwood, (51)
bred there the bad brood of Fenrir, (52)
will one of these, worse than they all,
the sun swallow, in seeming a wolf.
33.
He feeds on the flesh of fallen men,
with their blood sullies the seats of the gods;
will grow swart the sunshine (53) in the summers thereafter,
the weather woe-bringing: do yet wit more, or how?
34.
His harp striking, on hill there sat gladsome Eggthér, (54)
he who guards the ogress;
o'er him gaily in the gallows-tree
crowed the fair-red cock which is Fialar (55) hight.
35.
Crowed o'er the gods Gullinkambi; (56)
wakes he the heroes with Herian who dwell;
another crows the earth beneath
in the halls of Hel, of hue dark red.
48. ‘The Strand of the Dead’, where Hel’s hall stands.
49. The direction of evil omen; cf. Rig. 26.
50. Probably, the giantess Angrbrotha, about whom cf. note below.
51. This is the typical name for an old and monster-infested forest.
52. Or Fenris-Wolf: a mythical wolf engendered by Loki with the giantess Angrbotha ‘Boder of 111’; cf. above and Hynd. 42. Others of this brood are Skoll and Hati, of whom the former will swallow the sun, the latter, the moon (Grimn. 39), and Garm, 36.
53. Blood-red sunsets, dim sunshine, and famine years presage the end of the world; cf. Vaf. 44.
54. ‘Servant of the Sword’, the husband of the ogress (?).
55. ‘Multiscient’. He wakes the giants to the last combat.
56. ‘Golden-comb’ .
p. 11
36.
(57) Garm bays loudly before Gnipa cave,
tears him free Fenrir and fares to battle.
The fates I fathom, yet father I see:
of the mighty gods the engulfing doom.
37.
Brothers will battle to bloody end,
and sisters' sons their sib betray;
woe's in the world, much wantonness;
[axe-age, sword-age— sundered are shields—
wind-age, wolf-age, ere the worlds crumbles;]
will the spear of no man spare his brother. (58)
38.
Mímir's sons dance; (59) the doom doth break
when blares the gleaming old Giallar-horn; (60)
loud blows Heimdall, the horn is aloft,
in Hel's dark hall horror spreadeth. (61)
57. He is the Κέρβερος of Hel, cf. Bdr. 2. This portent, together with the following lines, is repeated as a refrain.
58. The breaking down of all moral laws forewarns of the end of the world.—The bracketed lines elaborating this conception of an ‘Iron Age’ are generally thought to be interpolated. It is interesting to compare Ovid’s description, Metamorphoses I. 141f:
Jamque nocens ferrum, ferro nocentius aurum
prodieret . . . non hospes ab hospite tutus,
non socer a genero; fratrum quoque gratia rara est.
imminet exitio vir conjugis, ilia mariti . . .
59. According to Müllenhoff’s thoughtful (but not generally accepted) explanation the sons of Mimir are the brooks and rivers which betray the general unrest in nature by overflowing their banks and spreading chaos.
60. ‘The Loud Horn’, in possession of Heimdall; cf. 19.
61. Line 4 is put here, instead of line 3 of 39, following Much.
p. 12
39.
Trembles the towering tree Yggdrasil,
its leaves sough loudly; unleashed is the etin; (62)
once more Óthin with Mím's head speaketh (63)
ere the sib of Surt (64) doth swallow him.
40.
What ails the æsir and what the alfs? (65)
In uproar all etins— are the æsir met.
At the gates of their grots the wise of dwarfs groan
in their fell-fastedness: wit ye further, or how?
41.
Garm bays loudly before Gnipa cave,
tears him free Fenrir and fares to battle!
The fates I fathom, yet farther I see:
of the mighty gods the engulfing doom.
42.
Fares Hrym (66) from the east, holding his shield;
the Mithgarth-worm (67) in the mighty rage
62. I.e. the wolf Fenrir, the offspring of evil etins. Below, he is called the ‘Sib of Surt’.
63. Cf. note. 61.—According to Snorri’s Ynglingasaga (Heimskringla chap. 4), at the conclusion of the war between them, the wise Mimir (and Hœnir) had been sent by the Æsir as hostages to the Vanir who, suspecting treason, hewed off Mimir’s head and returned it to Óthin. He embalmed it and by his magic got it to speak with him and to tell him of many hidden things.
64. Fenrir. As to Surt, cf. 44.
65. Here, as ‘Light-alfs’ practically identical with the Vanir; whereas the ‘Swart-alfs’ are sinister dwarfs.
66. He is the leader of the giants, whose home is in the east.
67. The great serpent encircling the world of men (Mithgarth), the fruit of Loki’s intercourse with the giantess Angrbotha; see note 52. Cf. the Greek 'Ωκηεανóς, the Hebrew Leviathan.—In Gylfag. chap. 51 it is said that “now the sea rushes up on the land, because the Mithgarthsworm wallows in giant-rage . . .”.
p. 13
scatters the waves; screams the eagle, (68)
his nib tears the dead; Naglfar (69) loosens.
43.
Sails a ship from the north with shades from Hel;
o'er the ocean-stream steers it Loki;
in the wake of the Wolf (70) rush witless hordes
who baleful Býleist's brother (71) do fare.
44.
Comes Surt (72) from the south with singer-of-twigs, (73)
the war-god's (74) sword like a sun doth shine;
the tall hills totter, and trolls stager,
men fare to Hel, and the heavens rive.
45.
Another woe awaiteth Hlín, (75)
when forth goes Óthin to fight the Wolf,
and the slayer of Beli (76) to battle with Surt:
then Frigg's husband (77) will fall lifeless.
46.
Strides forth Vithar, (78) Val-father's son,
the fearless fighter, Fenrir to slay;
68. Viz. in gleeful anticipation of the carnage to follow; cf. e.g. H.H. I, 6.
69. ‘The Ship of the Dead’ or ‘the Nail-ship’; but the explanation of Gylfag. loc. cit. that “it is made of the nails of dead men, and it is therefore reprehensible if a man die and be buried with nails uncut” seems somewhat ad hoc.
70. Fenrir.
71. I.e. Loki himself, cf. Hynd. 42; followed by ‘witless hordes’ of giants.
72. ‘The Swart’, the ruler over Muspelheim, the world of fire, thought to be in the south. In the final battle he slays the god Frey, Lok. 42.
73. A kenning for ‘fire’.
74. Here in a general sense: Surt’s.
75. Óthin’s wife, Frigg. Her first sorrow is Baldr’s death, 26.
76. According to Gylfag. 37, the giant Beli’s slayer is Frey.
77. I.e. Óthin, who is swallowed by Fenrir.
78. ‘Far-ruler’ (?); cf. Vaf. 53, Grimn. 17.
p. 14
to the heart he hews the Hvethrung's son; (79)
avenged is then Víthar's father.
47.
Come Hlóthyn's son, (80) the hammer-wielder;
gaps the grisly earth-girdling Serpent
when strides forth Thór to stay the Worm.
48.
Mightily mauls Mithgarth's warder (81)—
shall all wights in the world wander from home (82)—;
back falls nine steps Fiorgyn's offspring (83)—
nor fears for his fame— from the frightful worm.
49.
'Neath sea the land sinketh, the sun dimmeth,
from the heavens fall the fair bright stars;
gushes forth steam and gutting fire,
to very heaven soar the hurtling flames.
50.
(84) Garm bays loudly before Gnipa cave,
tears him free Fenrir and fares to battle.
The fates I fathom, yet farther I see:
of the mighty gods the engulfing doom.
51.
Again see I, bright green afresh,
the earth arise from out of the sea;
fell-torrents flow, overflies them the eagle.
on hoar highlands hunting for fish.
79. Probably, one of Loki’s names.
80. ‘The Son of Earth’, Thór.—The reading of this stanza is uncer tain.
81. Another kenning for Thór, who is the protector of the world of man (Mithgarth) from all sorts of monsters.
82. I.e. the world which, after Thor’s death, becomes uninhabitable.
83. Like ‘Hlóthyn’s Son’ (above), Thór.
84. Like the last thunder of a passing storm, this burthen which has resounded with lyrical power to accompany the destruction of the old world, now heralds the creation of a new one in the future.
P. 15
52.
Again the æsir on Otha-field meet,
and speak of the mighty Mithgarth-worm,—
go over again the great world-doom,
and Fimbultýr's (85) unfathomed runes.
53.
Then in the grass the golden tablets, (86)
the farm-famed ones, will be found again,
which they had owned in olden days,
(the foremost gods and Fiolnir's (87) kin).
54.
On unsown acres the ears will grow,
all bale will be bettered; will Baldr come then.
Both he and Hoth with Hrópt (88) will dwell
and the war-gods alway: do ye wit more, or how?
55.
Will high-souled Hœnir handle the blood-wands,
and Ygg's brother's sons (90) forever will dwell
in wide Wind-home: (91) do ye wit more, or how?
56.
I see a hall than the sun more fair,
thatched with red gold, on Gimlé's (92) heights.
There will the gods all guiltless throne,
and live forever in ease and bliss.
85. ‘The Great God’, Óthin.
86. With which they had, of yore, played at draughts, 8.
87. ‘He of Many Shapes’, Óthin. This line is added from the Paper Manuscripts.
88. One of Óthin’s names.
89. That is, divine future events as the priest of the gods; cf. Hym. 1.
90. Ygg’s (Óthin’s) brothers are Vili and Vé, cf. Lok. 26; and note 5, above.
91. A kenning for ‘the Heavens’.
92. ‘Gem-roof’ or ‘Fire-shelter’. It is worthy of note that in the corresponding passage in Gylfag. chap. 78, the abode of the blessed itself is called Gimlé; which would lend strength to the former interpretation.
p. 16
57.
A-down cometh to the doom of the world
and the great godhead (93) which governs all.
58.
Comes the darksome dragon flying,
glossy Níthhogg, from the Nitha-fells; (94)
he bears in his pinions as the plains he o'er flies,
naked corpses: now he will sink.
93. The unknown (Christian?) god.—This half-stanza with its Christian tinge does not occur in Cod. Reg. but only in the Hauksbook, and is therefore rejected by some editors. The Paper Manuscripts add the following lines:
He settles strife, sits in judgement,
and lays down laws which shall last alway.
94. ‘The Dark Fells’
95. The interpretation of this stanza is doubtful. If the reading of the main manuscript: ‘now she will sink’ be retained, with some editors, the meaning must be that the seeress is about to disappear again, having completed her prophecy; cf. the situation in Bdr., Hynd., Gróug. But adopting the reading as above, the dragon must be meant who is seen on his usual flight, carrying corpses, but will sink out of sight in the new order of things.
P. 383
THE CATALOGUE OF DWARFS.
(Dvergatal) Vsp. 9ff.
59.
Then gathered together the gods for counsel,
the holy hosts, and held converse:
who the deep-dwelling dwarfs was to make
of Brimir’s blood and Bláïn’s bones.
60.
Mótsognir rose, mightiest ruler
of the kin of dwarfs, but Durin next;
molded many manlike bodies
the dwarfs under the earth, as Durin bade them.
61.
Nýi and Nithi, (2) Northri and Suthri,
Austri and Vestri, (3) Althíof, Dvalin,
Nár and Náïn, Niping, Dáïn,
Bífur, Bófur, Bombur, Nóri,
Án and Ónar, Áï, Miothvitnir.
62.
Vigg and Gandalf, Vindalf, Thráïn,
Thekk and Thorin, Thrór, Vit, and Lit,
Nýr and Regin, Nýráth and Ráthsvith;
now is reckoned the roster of dwarfs.
63.
Fili, Kíli, Fundin, Náli,
Heptifili, Hannar, Svíur,
Frár, Hornbori, Fræg and Lóni,
Aurvang, Iari, Eikinskialdi.
1.: The meaning of a number of names in this þula or rigamarole is uncertain, that of others, quite obvious. Most seem to refer to the nether world of death, cold, dissolution, a few to natural phenomena and to the skill for which the dwarfs was known.—It will be noted that some names are applied also to other beings—gods, giants, and men—mentioned in the Collection.
2.: Waxing and Waning Moon.
3.: North, South, etc.
P. 384
64.
The dwarfs I tell now in Dválin’s host,
down to Lofar, for listening wights—
they who hied them from halls of stone
over sedgy shores to sandy plains. (4)
65.
There was Draupnir and Dolgthrasir,
Hór and Haugspori, Hlévang, Glóin,
Dóri, Óri, Duf, Andvari,
Skirfir, Virfir, Skáfith, Áï,
66.
Alf and Yngvi, Eikinskialdi,
Fialar and Frosti, With and Ginnar;
will ever be know, with earth doth last,
the line of dwarfs to Lofar down.
4.: Conjectural.