The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 25 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 1310
41. Much have I told thee, | and further will tell;
There is much that I know;— | wilt thou hear yet more?
The Poetic Edda, passage 2373
26. “Too young, methinks, | is my son as yet,
He cannot flee | from the home of his foes;
Fearful and deadly | the plan they found,
The counsel new | that now they have heeded.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1399
29. “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask,
For now the truth would I know:
What call they the tree | that casts abroad
Its limbs o’er every land?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2009
3. “Andvari, say, | if thou seekest still
To live in the land of men,
What payment is set | for the sons of men
Who war with lying words?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1453
35. The last two lines have been variously emended.
The Poetic Edda, passage 28
Of the men who composed these poems,—“wrote” is obviously the wrong
word,—we know absolutely nothing, save that some of them must have been
literary artists with a high degree of conscious skill. The Eddic poems
are “folk-poetry,”—whatever that may be,—only in the sense that some of
them strongly reflect racial feelings and beliefs; they are anything
but crude or primitive in workmanship, and they show that not only the
poets themselves, but also many of their hearers, must have made a
careful study of the art of poetry.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2083
4. “My race, methinks, | is unknown to thee,
And so am I myself;
Sigurth my name, | and Sigmund’s son,
Who smote thee thus with the sword.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 230
36. Better a house, | though a hut it be,
A man is master at home;
A pair of goats | and a patched-up roof
Are better far than begging.
The Poetic Edda, passage 828
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1972
49. “In wrath and grief | full little good
The noble bride | shall work thee now;
No shame thou gavest | the goodly one,
Though the monarch’s wife | with wiles didst cheat.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1834
32. “Vengeance were mine | for Helgi’s murder,
Wert thou a wolf | in the woods without,
Possessing nought | and knowing no joy,
Having no food | save corpses to feed on.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2283
8. Some editions set stanzas 8 and 9 after stanza 11; Sijmons marks
them as spurious. Buthli: cf. Gripisspo, 19, note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 555
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.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2577
22. Stanzas 22–25 describe the draught of forgetfulness which Grimhild
gives Guthrun, just as she gave one to Sigurth (in one version of the
story) to make him forget Brynhild. The draught does not seem to work
despite Guthrun’s statement in stanza 25 (cf. stanza 30), for which
reason Vigfusson, not unwisely, places stanzas 22–25 after stanza 34.
Blood of swine: cf. Hyndluljoth, 39 and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1613
Hethin was at home with his father, King Hjorvarth, in Norway. Hethin
was coming home alone from the forest one Yule-eve, and found a
troll-woman; she rode on a wolf, and had snakes in place of a bridle.
She asked Hethin for his company. “Nay,” said he. She said, “Thou shalt
pay for this at the king’s toast.” That evening the great vows were
taken; the sacred boar was brought in, the men laid their hands
thereon, and took their vows at the king’s toast. Hethin vowed that he
would have Svava, Eylimi’s daughter, the beloved of his brother Helgi;
then such great grief seized him that he went forth on wild paths
southward over the land, and found Helgi, his brother. Helgi said:
The Poetic Edda, passage 1999
As a matter of fact, it is by no means clear that the compiler of the
Eddic collection regarded this or either of the two following poems,
the Fafnismol and the Sigrdrifumol, as separate and distinct poems at
all. There are no specific titles given, and the prose notes link the
three poems in a fairly consecutive whole. Furthermore, the prose
passage introducing the Reginsmol connects directly with Fra Dautha
Sinfjotla, and only the insertion of the Gripisspo at this point, which
may well have been done by some stupid copyist, breaks the continuity
of the story.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1622
37. “Hither now | has Helgi sent me,
With thee, Svava, | thyself to speak;
The hero said | he fain would see thee
Ere life the nobly | born should leave.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 200
6. A man shall not boast | of his keenness of mind,
But keep it close in his breast;
To the silent and wise | does ill come seldom
When he goes as guest to a house;
(For a faster friend | one never finds
Than wisdom tried and true.)
The Poetic Edda, passage 2513
The poem has evidently been preserved in rather bad shape, with a
number of serious omissions and some interpolations, but in just this
form it lay before the compilers of the Volsungasaga, who paraphrased
it faithfully, and quoted five of its stanzas. The interpolations are
on the whole unimportant; the omissions, while they obscure the sense
of certain passages, do not destroy the essential continuity of the
poem, in which Guthrun reviews her sorrows from the death of Sigurth
through the slaying of her brothers to Atli’s dreams foretelling the
death of their sons. It is, indeed, the only Norse poem of the Sigurth
cycle antedating the year 1000 which has come down to us in anything
approaching complete form; the Reginsmol, Fafnismol, and Sigrdrifumol
are all collections of fragments, only a short bit of the “long”
Sigurth lay remains, and the others—Gripisspo, Guthrunarkvitha I and
III, Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, Helreith Brynhildar, Oddrunargratr,
Guthrunarhvot, Hamthesmol, and the two Atli lays—are all generally
dated from the eleventh and even the twelfth centuries.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1608
27. “Hrimgerth, mark, | if thy hurts I requite,
Tell now the truth to the king;
Was there one who the ships | of the warrior warded,
Or did many together go?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1659
Prose. Some editors place all or part of this prose passage after
stanza 35. Following-spirits: the “fylgja” was a female guardian spirit
whose appearance generally betokened death. The belief was common
throughout the North, and has come down to recent times in Scottish and
Irish folk-lore. Individuals and sometimes whole families had these
following-spirits, but it was most unusual for a person to have more
than one of them. Alf: son of the Hrothmar who killed Helgi’s
grandfather, and who was in turn later killed by Helgi. Sigarsvoll
(“Sigar’s Field”): cf. stanza 8 and note; the Sigar in question may be
the man who appears as Helgi’s messenger in stanzas 36–39.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2898
8. No gap is indicated in the manuscript; Bugge adds (line 3): “Then
the warriors rose, | and to slumber made ready.” The manuscript
indicates line 4 as beginning a new stanza, and some editions make a
separate stanza out of lines 1–2. Others suggest the loss of a line
after line 4.
The Poetic Edda, passage 964
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.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1812
Sinfjotli, Sigmund’s son, answered him, and that too is written.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2490
9. “He beset me with shields | in Skatalund,
Red and white, | their rims o’erlapped;
He bade that my sleep | should broken be
By him who fear | had nowhere found.
The Poetic Edda, passage 353
159. A thirteenth I know, | if a thane full young
With water I sprinkle well;
He shall not fall, | though he fares mid the host,
Nor sink beneath the swords.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3224
Fen′-sal-ir, Frigg’s hall, 15.
The Poetic Edda, passage 386
85. Stanzas 85–88 and 90 are in Fornyrthislag, and clearly come from a
different source from the rest of the Hovamol.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2157
42. Hindarfjoll: “Mountain of the Hind.” Light of the flood: gold; cf.
Reginsmol, 1 and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 395
104. The giant Suttung (“the old giant”) possessed the magic mead, a
draught of which conferred the gift of poetry. Othin, desiring to
obtain it, changed himself into a snake, bored his way through a
mountain into Suttung’s home, made love to the giant’s daughter,
Gunnloth, and by her connivance drank up all the mead. Then he flew
away in the form of an eagle, leaving Gunnloth to her fate. While with
Suttung he assumed the name of Bolverk (“the Evil-Doer”).
The Poetic Edda, passage 2424
8. Glacier: a bit of Icelandic (or Greenland) local color.
The Poetic Edda, passage 231
37. Better a house, | though a hut it be,
A man is master at home;
His heart is bleeding | who needs must beg
When food he fain would have.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2815
27. Then bright shone the morning, | the men all were ready,
They said, and yet each | would the other hold back;
Five were the warriors, | and their followers all
But twice as many,— | their minds knew not wisdom.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1716
48. “Good I find not | the sons of Granmar,
But for heroes ’tis seemly | the truth to speak;
At Moinsheimar | proved the men
That hearts for the wielding | of swords they had.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2586
33. Very likely the remains of two stanzas; the manuscript marks line 4
as beginning a new stanza. On the other hand, lines 3 and 5 may be
interpolations. Vinbjorg and Valbjorg: apparently imaginary
place-names.
The Poetic Edda, passage 56
How much the poem was altered during the two hundred years between its
composition and its first being committed to writing is largely a
matter of guesswork, but, allowing for such an obvious interpolation as
the catalogue of dwarfs, and for occasional lesser errors, it seems
quite needless to assume such great changes as many editors do. The
poem was certainly not composed to tell a story with which its early
hearers were quite familiar; the lack of continuity which baffles
modern readers presumably did not trouble them in the least. It is, in
effect, a series of gigantic pictures, put into words with a directness
and sureness which bespeak the poet of genius. It is only after the
reader, with the help of the many notes, has familiarized himself with
the names and incidents involved that he can begin to understand the
effect which this magnificent poem must have produced on those who not
only understood but believed it.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1011
58. Son of Earth: Thor, son of Othin and Jorth (Earth). The manuscript
omits the word “son,” but all editors have agreed in supplying it. The
wolf: Fenrir, Loki’s son, who slays Othin (Sigfather: “Father of
Victory”) in the final battle. Thor, according to Snorri and to the
Voluspo, 56, fights with Mithgarthsorm and not with Fenrir, who is
killed by Vithar.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3052
21. Men came and the tale | to Jormunrek told
How warriors helmed | without they beheld:
“Take counsel wise, | for brave ones are come,
Of mighty men | thou the sister didst murder.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2740
Prose. On the marriage of Guthrun to Atli at the instigation of her
brothers, Gunnar and Hogni, and on the slaying of Atli and his two
sons, Erp and Eitil, cf. Drap Niflunga and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1324
4. No lacuna after line 2 is indicated in the manuscript. Editors have
attempted various experiments in rearranging this and the following
stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2534
18. Her needlework cast she | aside, and called
Her sons to ask, | with stern resolve,
Who amends to their sister | would make for her son,
Or the wife requite | for her husband killed.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1240
17. The manuscript jumps from stanza 17, line 1, to stanza 19, line 2.
Bugge points out that the copyist’s eye was presumably led astray by
the fact that 17, 1, and 19, 1, were identical. Lines 2–3 of 17 are
supplied from stanzas 3 and 29.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3540
Sig′-nȳ, sister of Sigmund, 270, 290, 293, 302, 332, 333, 455.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1197
23. Home did they bring | the bride for Karl,
In goatskins clad, | and keys she bore;
Snör was her name, | ’neath the veil she sat;
A home they made ready, | and rings exchanged,
The bed they decked, | and a dwelling made.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1373
6. “Then first I will chant thee | the charm oft-tried,
That Rani taught to Rind;
From the shoulder whate’er | mislikes thee shake,
For helper thyself shalt thou have.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1881
22. With this stanza begins the dispute between Gothmund and Sinfjotli
which, together with Helgi’s rebuke to his half-brother, appears at
much greater length in Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 33–48. It is
introduced here manifestly in the wrong place. The version here given
is almost certainly the older of the two, but the resemblance is so
striking, and in some cases (notably in Helgi’s rebuke) the stanzas are
so nearly identical, that it seems probable that the composer of the
first Helgi Hundingsbane lay borrowed directly from the poem of which
the present dialogue is a fragment. Flag: the banner (“gunnfani,” cf.
“gonfalon”) here serves as the signal for war instead of the red shield
mentioned in Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 34. Battle-light: perhaps the
“northern lights.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1132
28. In hell: the word simply means “men,” and it is only a guess,
though a generally accepted one, that here it refers to the dead.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2101
22. “Regin betrayed me, | and thee will betray,
Us both to death will he bring;
His life, methinks, | must Fafnir lose,
For the mightier man wast thou.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 263
69. All wretched is no man, | though never so sick;
Some from their sons have joy,
Some win it from kinsmen, | and some from their wealth,
And some from worthy works.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2611
2. The manuscript omits the names of the speakers throughout.