The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 24 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 348
154. An eighth I know, | that is to all
Of greatest good to learn;
When hatred grows | among heroes’ sons,
I soon can set it right.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1048
27. Thrym looked ’neath the veil, | for he longed to kiss,
But back he leaped | the length of the hall:
“Why are so fearful | the eyes of Freyja?
Fire, methinks, | from her eyes burns forth.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 473
43. “Of the runes of the gods | and the giants’ race
The truth indeed can I tell,
(For to every world have I won;)
To nine worlds came I, | to Niflhel beneath,
The home where dead men dwell.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 528
Othin and Frigg sat in Hlithskjolf and looked over all the worlds.
Othin said: “Seest thou Agnar, thy fosterling, how he begets children
with a giantess in the cave? But Geirröth, my fosterling, is a king,
and now rules over his land.” Frigg said: “He is so miserly that he
tortures his guests if he thinks that too many of them come to him.”
Othin replied that this was the greatest of lies; and they made a wager
about this matter. Frigg sent her maid-servant, Fulla, to Geirröth. She
bade the king beware lest a magician who was come thither to his land
should bewitch him, and told this sign concerning him, that no dog was
so fierce as to leap at him. Now it was a very great slander that King
Geirröth was not hospitable; but nevertheless he had them take the man
whom the dogs would not attack. He wore a dark-blue mantle and called
himself Grimnir, but said no more about himself, though he was
questioned. The king had him tortured to make him speak, and set him
between two fires, and he sat there eight nights. King Geirröth had a
son ten winters old, and called Agnar after his father’s brother. Agnar
went to Grimnir, and gave him a full horn to drink from, and said that
the king did ill in letting him be tormented without cause. Grimnir
drank from the horn; the fire had come so near that the mantle burned
on Grimnir’s back. He spake:
The Poetic Edda, passage 1477
4. Swan-White second,— | swan-feathers she wore,
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
And her arms the third | of the sisters threw
Next round Völund’s | neck so white.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1707
39. “A witch in Varin’s | isle thou wast,
A woman false, | and lies didst fashion;
Of the mail-clad heroes | thou wouldst have
No other, thou saidst, | save Sinfjotli only.
The Poetic Edda, passage 15
On the importance of the material contained in the Poetic Edda it is
here needless to dwell at any length. We have inherited the Germanic
traditions in our very speech, and the Poetic Edda is the original
storehouse of Germanic mythology. It is, indeed, in many ways the
greatest literary monument preserved to us out of the antiquity of the
kindred races which we call Germanic. Moreover, it has a literary value
altogether apart from its historical significance. The mythological
poems include, in the Voluspo, one of the vastest conceptions of the
creation and ultimate destruction of the world ever crystallized in
literary form; in parts of the Hovamol, a collection of wise counsels
that can bear comparison with most of the Biblical Book of Proverbs; in
the Lokasenna, a comedy none the less full of vivid characterization
because its humor is often broad; and in the Thrymskvitha, one of the
finest ballads in the world. The hero poems give us, in its oldest and
most vivid extant form, the story of Sigurth, Brynhild, and Atli, the
Norse parallel to the German Nibelungenlied. The Poetic Edda is not
only of great interest to the student of antiquity; it is a collection
including some of the most remarkable poems which have been preserved
to us from the period before the pen and the printing-press replaced
the poet-singer and oral tradition. It is above all else the desire to
make better known the dramatic force, the vivid and often tremendous
imagery, and the superb conceptions embodied in these poems which has
called forth the present translation.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1407
37. “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask,
For now the truth would I know:
May no man hope | the house to enter,
While the hungry hounds are sleeping?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1287
19. “Her husband was Ketil, | the heir of Klypp,
He was of thy mother | the mother’s-father;
Before the days | of Kari was Frothi,
And born of Hild | was Hoalf then.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3110
Æg′-ir, the sea-god, 102, 132, 139–141, 150–154, 156–158, 161, 172,
199, 280, 299, 300, 314, 324, 359.
The Poetic Edda, passage 223
29. Often he speaks | who never is still
With words that win no faith;
The babbling tongue, | if a bridle it find not,
Oft for itself sings ill.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2077
The Fafnismol, together with a part of the Sigrdrifumol, has indirectly
become the best known of all the Eddic poems, for the reason that
Wagner used it, with remarkably little change of outline, as the basis
for his “Siegfried.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 864
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 520
55. Fated: in stanza 19 Vafthruthnir was rash enough to wager his head
against his guest’s on the outcome of the contest of wisdom, so he
knows that his defeat means his death.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1529
8. No line in this stanza is indicated in the manuscript as beginning a
new stanza; editors have tried all sorts of experiments in regrouping
the lines into stanzas with those of stanzas 7 and 9. In line 3 the
word long is sheer guesswork, as the line in the manuscript contains a
metrical error.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2623
3. She let the horse go | o’er the level ground,
Till she reached the hall | that loftily rose,
(And in she went | from the end of the hall;)
From the weary steed | the saddle she took;
Hear now the speech | that first she spake:
The Poetic Edda, passage 3561
Skoll, a wolf, 18, 81, 93, 100.
The Poetic Edda, passage 590
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 237
43. To his friend a man | a friend shall prove,
To him and the friend of his friend;
But never a man | shall friendship make
With one of his foeman’s friends.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1415
45. “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask,
For now the truth would I know:
What treasure is there | that men may take
To rejoice the giantess pale?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 791
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1592
He slew the giant Hati, whom he found sitting on a certain mountain.
Helgi and Atli lay with their ships in Hatafjord. Atli kept watch
during the first part of the night. Hrimgerth, Hati’s daughter, spake:
The Poetic Edda, passage 2554
38. Atli woke me, | for ever I seemed
Of bitterness full | for my brothers’ death.
The Poetic Edda, passage 250
56. A measure of wisdom | each man shall have,
But never too much let him know;
Let no man the fate | before him see,
For so is he freest from sorrow.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2920
32. Hogni’s method of cheering his wife and sister-in-law is somewhat
unusual, for the meaning of lines 3–4 is that good wishes and blessings
are of little use in warding off danger.
The Poetic Edda, passage 775
55. “The way now show me, | since thou takest me not o’er the
water.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2039
23. “A man shall fight not | when he must face
The moon’s bright sister | setting late;
Win he shall | who well can see,
And wedge-like forms | his men for the fray.
The Poetic Edda, passage 533
5. Ydalir call they | the place where Ull
A hall for himself hath set;
And Alfheim the gods | to Freyr once gave
As a tooth-gift in ancient times.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3070
7. Lines 1–2 are nearly identical with lines 4–5 of Guthrunarhvot, 4.
The manuscript, followed by many editions, indicates line 3 and not
line 1 as beginning a stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1307
38. Gjolp there bore him, | Greip there bore him,
Eistla bore him, | and Eyrgjafa,
Ulfrun bore him, | and Angeyja,
Imth and Atla, | and Jarnsaxa.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2246
The narrative, from the point at which the so-called Sigrdrifumol
breaks off to that at which the Brot takes it up, is given with
considerable detail in the Volsungasaga. In this prose narrative four
stanzas are quoted, and one of them is specifically introduced with the
phrase: “as is told in the Lay of Sigurth.” It is possible, but most
unlikely, that the entire passage paraphrases this poem alone; such an
assumption would give the Lay of Sigurth not less than two hundred and
fifty stanzas (allowing about fifteen stanzas to each of the missing
pages), and moreover there are inconsistencies in the Volsungasaga
narrative suggesting that different and more or less conflicting poems
were used as sources. The chances are that the “Long” Lay of Sigurth
filled approximately the latter half of the lost section of the
manuscript, the first half including poems of which the only trace is
to be found in the Volsungasaga prose paraphrase and in two of the
stanzas therein quoted.
The Poetic Edda, passage 686
4. Elfbeam: the sun, so called because its rays were fatal to elves and
dwarfs; cf. Alvissmol, 35.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3643
Vel″-ents-sag′-a, the Saga of Velent, 252.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1924
3. “The ruler glad | of Geitir will ask
Who seeks with Gripir | speech to have.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 564
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 954
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.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 534
6. A third home is there, | with silver thatched
By the hands of the gracious gods:
Valaskjolf is it, | in days of old
Set by a god for himself.
The Poetic Edda, passage 532
4. The land is holy | that lies hard by
The gods and the elves together;
And Thor shall ever | in Thruthheim dwell,
Till the gods to destruction go.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2043
26. “Now the bloody eagle | with biting sword
Is carved on the back | of Sigmund’s killer;
Few were more fierce | in fight than his son,
Who reddened the earth | and gladdened the ravens.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2614
6. In the manuscript this stanza follows stanza 7; many editions have
made the transposition.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2637
15. “But Brynhild the helm | he bade to wear,
A wish-maid bright | he said she should be;
For a nobler maid | would never be born
On earth, he said, | if death should spare her.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3396
Hrolf (the Old), King of Gautland, 224.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1626
41. “I bid thee, Svava,— | weep not, bride,—
If thou wilt hearken | to these my words,
The bed for Hethin | have thou ready,
And yield thy love | to the hero young.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1087
6. “Vingthor, the wanderer | wide, am I,
And I am Sithgrani’s son;
Against my will | shalt thou get the maid,
And win the marriage word.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2772
35. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza. Two
(possibly three) of the lines appear to be in Fornyrthislag. Field: so
the manuscript, involving a metrical error; many editions have “wood.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2781
44. Guthrun allows the dogs and the house-thralls, who had no part in
Gunnar’s death, to escape before she burns the dwelling with all who
are left therein. In Atlamol, stanzas 83–84, Atli is slain by a son of
Hogni (Hniflung?) with Guthrun’s help.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3367
Hlym′-dal-ir, Brynhild’s home, 444.
The Poetic Edda, passage 377
“A man must be watchful | and wary as well,
And fearful of trusting a friend.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 546
18. In Eldhrimnir | Andhrimnir cooks
Sæhrimnir’s seething flesh,—
The best of food, | but few men know
On what fare the warriors feast.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2447
33. The manuscript does not name the speaker, and some editions add a
first line: “Then Brynhild, daughter | of Buthli, spake.”