The Poetic Edda, passage 699

25. The first two lines are abbreviated in both manuscripts.

The Poetic Edda, passage 315

121. I rede thee, Loddfafnir! | and hear thou my rede,— Profit thou hast if thou hearest, Great thy gain if thou learnest: Be never the first | to break with thy friend The bond that holds you both; Care eats the heart | if thou canst not speak To another all thy thought.

The Poetic Edda, passage 2214

Prose (after stanza 1). In the manuscript stanza 4 stands before this prose note and stanzas 2–3. The best arrangement of the stanzas seems to be the one here given, following Müllenhoff’s suggestion, but the prose note is out of place anywhere. The first sentence of it ought to follow stanza 4 and immediately precede the next prose note; the second sentence ought to precede stanza 5.

The Poetic Edda, passage 836

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.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 281

87. In a calf that is sick | or a stubborn thrall, A flattering witch | or a foe new slain.

The Poetic Edda, passage 2984

Chief among the popular tales of Ermanarich’s cruelty was one concerning the death of a certain Sunilda or Sanielh, whom, according to Jordanes, he caused to be torn asunder by wild horses because of her husband’s treachery. Her brothers, Sarus and Ammius, seeking to avenge her, wounded but failed to kill Ermanarich. In this story is the root of the two Norse poems included in the Codex Regius. Sunilda easily became the wife as well as the victim of the tyrant, and, by the process of legend-blending so frequently observed, the story was connected with the more famous one of the Nibelungs by making her the daughter of Sigurth and Guthrun. To account for her brothers, a third husband had to be found for Guthrun; the Sarus and Ammius of Jordanes are obviously the Sorli and Hamther, sons of Guthrun and Jonak, of the Norse poems. The blending of the Sigurth and Ermanarich legends probably, though not certainly, took place before the story reached the North, in other words before the end of the eighth century.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1734

8. Hringstathir (“Ring-Stead”): quite possibly the historical Ringsted, long a possession of the Danish kings, and thus a relic of the old Helgi tradition. Hringstoth may be another form of the same name. Solfjoll (“Sun-Mountain”) and Snæfjoll (“Snow-Mountain”) are fictitious names. Regarding Sigarsvoll cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, stanzas 8 and 35. Saxo mentions a Danish king named Sigar, and the frequency with which the name appears in the Helgi poems may be taken as a reminiscence of Denmark. Hotun (“High Place”): possibly the village of Tune in Seeland. Himinvangar (“Heaven’s Field”): an imaginary place. Blood-snake: a sword. Sinfjotli: cf. note on stanza 6.

The Poetic Edda, passage 610

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.

The Poetic Edda, passage 2072

Prose. In Regius there is no break of any kind between this prose passage and the prose introduction to the Fafnismol (cf. Introductory Note).

The Poetic Edda, passage 361

2. Probably the first and second lines had originally nothing to do with the third and fourth, the last two not referring to host or guest, but to the general danger of backing one’s views with the sword.

The Poetic Edda, passage 652

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.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 2683

30. The manuscript marks line 3 as beginning a new stanza. Atli’s mother: the Volsungasaga does not follow this version; Gunnar puts all the serpents but one to sleep with his harp playing, “but a mighty and evil adder crawled to him and drove his fangs into him till they reached his heart, and so he died.” It is possible that “Atli” is a scribal error for a word meaning “of serpents.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 2735

43. Unwise then was Atli, | he had drunk to wildness, No weapon did he have, | and of Guthrun bewared not; Oft their play was better | when both in gladness Each other embraced | among princes all.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1957

34. “Might I with Gunnar | kinship make, And Guthrun win | to be my wife, Well the hero | wedded would be, If my treacherous deed | would trouble me not.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 803

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.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1882

23. Lines 3–4 are obscure, and in the manuscript show signs of error. Helgi had not at this time, so far as we know, conquered any of Hothbrodd’s land. The realm of the fishes, in line 4, presumably means the sea, but the word here translated “fishes” is obscure, and many editors treat it as a proper name, “the realm of the Fjorsungs,” but without further suggestion as to who or what the Fjorsungs are.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1327

7. Various experiments have been made in condensing the stanza into four lines, or in combining it with stanza 8. Hildisvini (“Battle-Swine”): perhaps Freyja refers to the boar with golden bristles given, according to Snorri, to her brother Freyr by the dwarfs. Dain: a dwarf; cf. Voluspo, 11. Nabbi: a dwarf nowhere else mentioned.

The Poetic Edda, passage 2557

41. “Of plants I dreamed, | in the garden drooping, That fain would I have | full high to grow; Plucked by the roots, | and red with blood, They brought them hither, | and bade me eat.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1873

Prose. The manuscript indicates no division. Most of this prose passage is evidently based on Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I; the only new features are the introduction of Starkath as a third son of Granmar, which is clearly an error based on a misunderstanding of stanza 19, and the reference to the kings’ meeting, based on stanza 15. Kings’ meetings, or councils, were by no means unusual; the North in early days was prolific in kings. For the remaining names, cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I: Granmar, stanza 19; Hothbrodd, stanza 19; Gothmund, stanza 33; Svarin’s hill, stanza 32; Logafjoll, stanza 13; Alf, Eyjolf, Hjorvarth and Hervarth, stanza 14. The old Volsung lay: cf. Introductory Note.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1167

14. Concerning Loki’s escape and his relation to the destruction of the gods, cf. Voluspo, 35 and 51, and notes. While the wise-woman probably means only that she will never speak again till the end of the world, it has been suggested, and is certainly possible, that she intends to give Loki her counsel, thus revenging herself on Othin.

The Poetic Edda, passage 511

44. The mighty winter: Before the final destruction three winters follow one another with no intervening summers.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1271

3. “Triumph to some, | and treasure to others, To many wisdom | and skill in words, Fair winds to the sailor, | to the singer his art, And a manly heart | to many a hero.

The Poetic Edda, passage 882

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.

The Poetic Edda, passage 559

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.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1346

28. In the manuscript and in many editions these two lines stand between stanzas 33 and 34. The change here made follows Bugge. The manuscript indicates no gap between stanzas 27 and 29. Hvethna: wife of King Halfdan of Denmark.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1437

1. Svipdag (“Swift Day”): the names of the speakers are lacking in the manuscripts.

The Poetic Edda, passage 2710

18. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . “Too late is it, sister, | to summon the Niflungs, Long is it to come | to the throng of our comrades, The heroes gallant, | from the hills of the Rhine.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 1553

33. The manuscript does not name the speaker. It indicates line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza. Vigfusson adds before line 1, “Then spake Nithuth, | lord of the Njars.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 931

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.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 2092

13. “Of many births | the Norns must be, Nor one in race they were; Some to gods, others | to elves are kin, And Dvalin’s daughters some.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 786

8. Hildolf (“slaughtering wolf”): not elsewhere mentioned in the Edda. Rathsey (“Isle of Counsel”): likewise not mentioned elsewhere.

The Poetic Edda, passage 2846

58. Afraid was the pot-watcher, | he fled here and yon, And crazed with his terror | he climbed in the corners: “Ill for me is this fighting, | if I pay for your fierceness, And sad is the day | to die leaving my swine And all the fair victuals | that of old did I have.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 2870

81. “Still more would I seek | to slay thee thyself, Enough ill comes seldom | to such as thou art; Thou didst folly of old, | such that no one shall find In the whole world of men | a match for such madness. Now this that of late | we learned hast thou added, Great evil hast grasped, | and thine own death-feast made.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 2411

The Poetic Edda, passage 1348

30. At this point begins the fragmentary and interpolated “short Voluspo” identified by Snorri. The manuscript gives no indication of the break in the poem’s continuity. Eleven: there are various references to the “twelve” gods (including Baldr); Snorri (Gylfaginning, 20–33) lists the following twelve in addition to Othin: Thor, Baldr, Njorth, Freyr, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdall, Hoth, Vithar, Vali, Ull and Forseti; he adds Loki as of doubtful divinity. Baldr and Vali: cf. Voluspo, 32–33.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1939

16. “The mail-coat is broken, | the maiden speaks, The woman who | from sleep has wakened; What says the maid | to Sigurth then That happy fate | to the hero brings?”

The Poetic Edda, passage 1082

1. “Now shall the bride | my benches adorn, And homeward haste forthwith; Eager for wedlock | to all shall I seem, Nor at home shall they rob me of rest.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 19

So matters stood when, in 1643, Brynjolfur Sveinsson, Bishop of Skalholt, discovered a manuscript, clearly written as early as 1300, containing twenty-nine poems, complete or fragmentary, and some of them with the very lines and stanzas used by Snorri. Great was the joy of the scholars, for here, of course, must be at least a part of the long-sought Edda of Sæmund the Wise. Thus the good bishop promptly labeled his find, and as Sæmund’s Edda, the Elder Edda or the Poetic Edda it has been known to this day.

The Poetic Edda, passage 502

29. Bergelmir: when the gods slew Ymir in order to make the world out of his body, so much blood flowed from him that all the frost-giants were drowned except Bergelmir and his wife, who escaped in a boat; cf. stanza 35. Of Thruthgelmir (“the Mightily Burning”) we know nothing, but Aurgelmir was the frost-giants’ name for Ymir himself. Thus Ymir was the first of the giants, and so Othin’s question is answered.

The Poetic Edda, passage 3496

Ökk″-vin-kalf′-a, daughter of Thræll, 207.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1629

Of Helgi and Svava it is said that they were born again.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1275

The Poetic Edda, passage 2547

31. “Noblest of birth | is the ruler now I have found for thee, | and foremost of all; Him shalt thou have | while life thou hast, Or husbandless be | if him thou wilt choose not.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 2692

Guthrun, Gjuki’s daughter, avenged her brothers, as has become well known. She slew first Atli’s sons, and thereafter she slew Atli, and burned the hall with his whole company. Concerning this was the following poem made:

The Poetic Edda, passage 584

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.”

The Poetic Edda, passage 689

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.

The Poetic Edda, passage 2850

62. A harp Gunnar seized, | with his toes he smote it; So well did he strike | that the women all wept, And the men, when clear | they heard it, lamented; Full noble was his song, | the rafters burst asunder.

The Poetic Edda, passage 856

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.

The Poetic Edda, passage 1863

2. The manuscript indicates line 2 as the beginning of the stanza, the copyist evidently regarding line 1 as prose. This has caused various rearrangements in the different editions. Blind: leader of the band sent to capture Helgi.

The Poetic Edda, passage 2284

9. Goths: a generic term for any German race; cf. Gripisspo, 35 and note. Five sons: according to the Volsungasaga Sigurth had only one son, named Sigmund, who was killed at Brynhild’s behest. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma and Guthrunarkvitha II likewise mention only one son. The daughter of Sigurth and Guthrun, Svanhild, marries Jormunrek (Ermanarich).