The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 2 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 1794
4. “Small is the wonder | if boards are splintered;
By a monarch’s daughter | the mill is turned;
Once through clouds | she was wont to ride,
And battles fought | like fighting men,
(Till Helgi a captive | held her fast;
Sister she is | of Sigar and Hogni,
Thus bright are the eyes | of the Ylfings’ maid.)”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1737
13. Logafjoll (“Flame-Mountain”): a mythical name. Frothi: a:
traditional king of Denmark, whose peaceful reign was so famous that
“Frothi’s peace” became a by-word for peace of any kind. Vithrir’s
hounds: wolves; Vithrir is Othin, and his hounds are the wolves Freki
and Geri.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2900
10. Some editions combine this stanza with lines 1–2 of stanza 11. The
manuscript indicates no gap. Grundtvig adds (line 2): “But sleep to the
woman | so wise came little.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 834
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 463
33. “They say ’neath the arms | of the giant of ice
Grew man-child and maid together;
And foot with foot | did the wise one fashion
A son that six heads bore.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1044
23. “Gold-horned cattle | go to my stables,
Jet-black oxen, | the giant’s joy;
Many my gems, | and many my jewels,
Freyja alone | did I lack, methinks.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1277
9. “A wager have made | in the foreign metal
Ottar the young | and Angantyr;
We must guard, for the hero | young to have,
His father’s wealth, | the fruits of his race.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2290
20. Regarding the sword episode cf. Gripisspo, 41 and note.
Wound-staff: sword.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1333
14. Stanzas 14–16 are clearly interpolated, as Friaut (stanza 13, line
3) is the daughter of Hildigun (stanza 17, line 1). Halfdan the Old, a
mythical king of Denmark, called by Snorri “the most famous of all
kings,” of whom it was foretold that “for three hundred years there
should be no woman and no man in his line who was not of great repute.”
After the slaying of Sigtrygg he married Almveig (or Alvig), daughter
of King Eymund of Holmgarth (i.e., Russia), who bore him eighteen sons,
nine at one birth. These nine were all slain, but the other nine were
traditionally the ancestors of the most famous families in Northern
hero lore.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2112
31. “Sit now, Sigurth, | for sleep will I,
Hold Fafnir’s heart to the fire;
For all his heart | shall eaten be,
Since deep of blood I have drunk.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 796
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.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1418
48. “Lyr is it called, | and long it shall
On the tip of a spear-point tremble;
Of the noble house | mankind has heard,
But more has it never known.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 889
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 891
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2439
24. Freyr: if the phrase “the friend of Freyr” means anything more than
“king” (cf. Rigsthula, 46 etc.), which I doubt, it has reference to the
late tradition that Freyr, and not Othin, was the ancestor of the
Volsungs (cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 57 and note).
The Poetic Edda, passage 767
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.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 650
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 Poetic Edda, passage 1116
35. “In a single breast | I never have seen
More wealth of wisdom old;
But with treacherous wiles | must I now betray thee:
The day has caught thee, dwarf!
(Now the sun shines here in the hall.)”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2182
8. Birth-runes learn, | if help thou wilt lend,
The babe from the mother to bring;
On thy palms shalt write them, | and round thy joints,
And ask the fates to aid.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2186
12. Thought-runes learn, | if all shall think
Thou art keenest minded of men.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1050
29. Soon came the giant’s | luckless sister,
Who feared not to ask | the bridal fee:
“From thy hands the rings | of red gold take,
If thou wouldst win | my willing love,
(My willing love | and welcome glad.)”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1133
29. Nor: presumably the giant whom Snorri calls Norvi or Narfi, father
of Not (Night) and grandfather of Dag (Day). Cf. Vafthruthnismol, 25.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1922
“Gripir the name | of the chieftain good
Who holds the folk | and the firm-ruled land.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2864
75. “My fate shall I seek, | all to Atli saying,
The daughter of Grimhild | the deed from thee hides not;
No joy thou hast, Atli, | if all thou shalt hear,
Great sorrow didst wake | when my brothers thou slewest.
The Poetic Edda, passage 952
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.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3528
Sess′-rym-nir, Freyja’s hall, 91, 175.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1451
32. Gering suggests that two stanzas have been lost between stanzas 15
and 16, but the giant’s answer fits the question quite well enough. The
fruit of Yggdrasil, when cooked, is here assumed to have the power of
assuring safe childbirth.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3653
Ving′-nir, Thor, 82, 135, 174.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2364
17. Few the words | of Hogni were:
“Us it beseems not | so to do,
To cleave with swords | the oaths we swore,
The oaths we swore | and all our vows.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2713
21. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
The leader they asked | if his life he fain
With gold would buy, | the king of the Goths.
The Poetic Edda, passage 429
The poem is wholly in dialogue form except for a single narrative
stanza (stanza 5). After a brief introductory discussion between Othin
and his wife, Frigg, concerning the reputed wisdom of the giant
Vafthruthnir, Othin, always in quest of wisdom, seeks out the giant,
calling himself Gagnrath. The giant immediately insists that they shall
demonstrate which is the wiser of the two, and propounds four questions
(stanzas 11, 13, 15, and 17), each of which Othin answers. It is then
the god’s turn to ask, and he begins with a series of twelve numbered
questions regarding the origins and past history of life. These
Vafthruthnir answers, and Othin asks five more questions, this time
referring to what is to follow the destruction of the gods, the last
one asking the name of his own slayer. Again Vafthruthnir answers, and
Othin finally propounds the unanswerable question: “What spake Othin
himself in the ears of his son, ere in the bale-fire he burned?”
Vafthruthnir, recognizing his questioner as Othin himself, admits his
inferiority in wisdom, and so the contest ends.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2384
37. “And so to me | did Atli say
That share in our wealth | I should not have,
Of gold or lands, | if my hand I gave not;
(More evil yet, | the wealth I should yield,)
The gold that he | in my childhood gave me,
(The wealth from him | in my youth I had.)
The Poetic Edda, passage 1699
31. But from above | did Sigrun brave
Aid the men | and all their faring;
Mightily came | from the claws of Ron
The leader’s sea-beast | off Gnipalund.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1531
10. Some editors combine lines 3–4 with the fragmentary stanza 11.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1016
65. The flames: the fire that consumes the world on the last day; cf.
Voluspo, 57. Line 5 may be spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 677
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.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1137
35. Concerning the inability of the dwarfs to endure sunlight, which
turns them into stone, cf. stanza 16 and note. Line 5 may be spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2423
7. Perhaps a line is missing after line 3.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1296
28. “Of Hvethna’s sons | was Haki the best,
And Hjorvarth the father | of Hvethna was;
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
The Poetic Edda, passage 2139
15. Oskopnir (“Not-Made”): apparently another name for Vigrith, which
is named in Vafthruthnismol, 18, as the final battle-ground. Bilrost
(or Bifrost): the rainbow bridge which breaks beneath Surt’s followers;
cf. Grimnismol, 29 and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2517
1. A maid of maids | my mother bore me,
Bright in my bower, | my brothers I loved,
Till Gjuki dowered | me with gold,
Dowered with gold, | and to Sigurth gave me.
The Poetic Edda, passage 133
12. The order of the lines in this and the succeeding four stanzas
varies greatly in the manuscripts and editions, and the names likewise
appear in many forms. Regin: probably not identical with Regin the son
of Hreithmar, who plays an important part in the Reginsmol and
Fafnismol, but cf. note on Reginsmol, introductory prose.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3330
Helg′-i, son of Hjorvarth, 269–272, 276–289, 310, 311, 330, 331, 335.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1313
44. The sea, storm-driven, | seeks heaven itself,
O’er the earth it flows, | the air grows sterile;
Then follow the snows | and the furious winds,
For the gods are doomed, | and the end is death.
The Poetic Edda, passage 404
133. Many editors reject the last two lines of this stanza as spurious,
putting the first two lines at the end of the preceding stanza. Others,
attaching lines 3 and 4 to stanza 132, insert as the first two lines of
stanza 133 two lines from a late paper manuscript, running:
The Poetic Edda, passage 2438
23. A line may well have been lost from this stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2000
For convenience I have here followed the usual plan of dividing this
material into distinct parts, or poems, but I greatly doubt if this
division is logically sound. The compiler seems, rather, to have
undertaken to set down the story of Sigurth in consecutive form, making
use of all the verse with which he was familiar, and which, by any
stretch of the imagination, could be made to fit, filling up the gaps
with prose narrative notes based on the living oral tradition.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1357
42. Probably a lacuna before this stanza. Regarding the wolf Fenrir,
born of Loki and the giantess Angrbotha, cf. Voluspo, 39 and note.
Sleipnir: Othin’s eight-legged horse, born of the stallion Svathilfari
and of Loki in the guise of a mare (cf. Grimnismol, 44). The worst:
doubtless referring to Mithgarthsorm, another child of Loki. The
brother of Byleist: Loki; cf. Voluspo, 51.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2951
66. The manuscript does not name the speaker. The negative in the first
half of line 1 is uncertain, and most editions make the clause read “Of
this guilt I can free myself.” The fairest, etc.: i.e., I have often
failed to do the wise thing.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3150
Ber′-a, Kostbera, 449, 510, 511, 517.