The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 31 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 3200
Eg′-il, father of Thjalfi (?), 141.
The Poetic Edda, passage 191
Five separate elements are pretty clearly recognizable: (1) the Hovamol
proper (stanzas 1–80), a collection of proverbs and counsels for the
conduct of life; (2) the Loddfafnismol (stanzas 111–138), a collection
somewhat similar to the first, but specifically addressed to a certain
Loddfafnir; (3) the Ljothatal (stanzas 147–165), a collection of
charms; (4) the love-story of Othin and Billing’s daughter (stanzas
96–102), with an introductory dissertation on the faithlessness of
women in general (stanzas 81–95), which probably crept into the poem
first, and then pulled the story, as an apt illustration, after it; (5)
the story of how Othin got the mead of poetry—the draught which gave
him the gift of tongues—from the maiden Gunnloth (stanzas 103–110).
There is also a brief passage (stanzas 139–146) telling how Othin won
the runes, this passage being a natural introduction to the Ljothatal,
and doubtless brought into the poem for that reason.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3489
Nō′-a-tūn, home of Njorth, 90, 91, 108, 179, 180.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1569
The first of the three Helgi poems, the lay of Helgi the son of
Hjorvarth, is a somewhat distant cousin of the other two. The Helgi in
question is apparently the same traditional figure, and he leads a
naval expedition, but he is not the son of Sigmund, there is no
connection with the Volsung cycle, and his wife is Svava, not Sigrun.
At the same time, the points of general resemblance with the two Helgi
Hundingsbane lays are such as to indicate a common origin, provided one
goes far enough back. The annotator brings the stories together by the
naive expedient of having Helgi “born again,” and not once only, but
twice.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1886
28. Line 5 looks like an interpolation.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1893
38. This stanza apparently comes from an otherwise lost passage
containing a contest of words between Helgi and Hunding; indeed the
name of Hunding may have been substituted for another one beginning
with “H,” and the stanza originally have had no connection with Helgi
at all. The annotator inserts it here through an obvious
misunderstanding, taking it to be Helgi’s application of the power
conferred on him by Othin.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2065
18. The Volsungasaga quotes this stanza. Hnikar and Fjolnir: Othin
gives himself both these names in Grimnismol, 47; Feng (“The Seizer”)
does not appear elsewhere. According to the Volsungasaga, no one knew
Othin’s name when he came to Volsung’s house and left the sword there
for Sigmund.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1334
16. Compare stanza 11. All or part of this stanza may be interpolated.
The Poetic Edda, passage 312
118. I saw a man | who was wounded sore
By an evil woman’s word;
A lying tongue | his death-blow launched,
And no word of truth there was.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1821
“To life would I call | them who slaughtered lie,
If safe on thy breast I might be.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 654
15. “One stands without | who has leapt from his steed,
And lets his horse loose to graze;”
. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Poetic Edda, passage 2466
56. This stanza probably ought to follow stanza 52, as it refers solely
to the winning of Brynhild by Gunnar and Sigurth. Müllenhoff regards
stanzas 53–55 as interpolated. The manuscript indicates no gap after
line 3.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1316
47. “Hence shalt thou fare, | for fain would I sleep,
From me thou gettest | few favors good;
My noble one, out | in the night thou leapest
As Heithrun goes | the goats among.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1371
4. “Long is the way, | long must thou wander,
But long is love as well;
Thou mayst find, perchance, | what thou fain wouldst have,
If the fates their favor will give.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2076
Here, as in the Reginsmol, there is very little that bespeaks the
German origin of the Sigurth story. Sigurth’s winning of the treasure
is in itself undoubtedly a part of the earlier southern legend, but the
manner in which he does it is thoroughly Norse. Moreover, the
concluding section, which points toward the finding of the sleeping
Brynhild, relates entirely to the northern Valkyrie, the warrior-maiden
punished by Othin, and not at all to the southern Brynhild the daughter
of Buthli. The Fafnismol is, however, sharply distinguished from the
Reginsmol by showing no clear traces of the Helgi tradition, although a
part of the bird song (stanzas 40–44, in Fornyrthislag form, as
distinct from the body of the poem) sounds suspiciously like the bird
passage in the beginning of the Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar. Regarding
the general relations of the various sets of traditions in shaping the
story of Sigurth, see the introductory note to Gripisspo.
The Poetic Edda, passage 790
14. Hrungnir: this giant rashly wagered his head that his horse,
Gullfaxi, was swifter than Othin’s Sleipnir. In the race, which
Hrungnir lost, he managed to dash uninvited into the home of the gods,
where he became very drunk. Thor ejected him, and accepted his
challenge to a duel. Hrungnir, terrified, had a helper made for him in
the form of a dummy giant nine miles high and three miles broad.
Hrungnir himself had a three-horned heart of stone and a head of stone;
his shield was of stone and his weapon was a grindstone. But Thjalfi,
Thor’s servant, told him the god would attack him out of the ground,
wherefore Hrungnir laid down his shield and stood on it. The hammer
Mjollnir shattered both the grindstone and Hrungnir’s head, but part of
the grindstone knocked Thor down, and the giant fell with his foot on
Thor’s neck (cf. note on stanza 9). Meanwhile Thjalfi dispatched the
dummy giant without trouble.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1266
The Hyndluljoth is found in neither of the great manuscripts of the
Poetic Edda, but is included in the so-called Flateyjarbok (Book of the
Flat Island), an enormous compilation made somewhere about 1400. The
lateness of this manuscript would of itself be enough to cast a doubt
upon the condition in which the poem has been preserved, and there can
be no question that what we have of it is in very poor shape. It is, in
fact, two separate poems, or parts of them, clumsily put together. The
longer one, the Poem of Hyndla proper, is chiefly a collection of
names, not strictly mythological but belonging to the semi-historical
hero-sagas of Norse tradition. The wise-woman, Hyndla, being asked by
Freyja to trace the ancestry of her favorite, Ottar, for the purpose of
deciding a wager, gives a complex genealogy including many of the
heroes who appear in the popular sagas handed down from days long
before the Icelandic settlements. The poet was learned, but without
enthusiasm; it is not likely that he composed the Hyndluljoth much
before the twelfth century, though the material of which it is
compounded must have been very much older. Although the genealogies are
essentially continental, the poem seems rather like a product of the
archæological period of Iceland.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2580
26. Thy father’s: So the manuscript, in which case the reference is
obviously to Gjuki. But some editions omit the “thy,” and if Atli, and
not Grimhild, is speaking (cf. note on stanza 25), the reference may
be, as in line 3 of stanza 27, to the wealth of Atli’s father, Buthli.
Hlothver: the northern form of the Frankish name Chlodowech (Ludwig),
but who this Hlothver was, beyond the fact that he was evidently a
Frankish king, is uncertain. If Atli is speaking, he is presumably a
Frankish ruler whose land Atli and his Huns have conquered.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2985
Regarding the exact status of the Guthrunarhvot and the Hamthesmol
there has been a great deal of discussion. That they are closely
related is obvious; indeed the first parts of the two poems are nearly
identical in content and occasionally so in actual diction. The
annotator, in his concluding prose note, refers to the second poem as
the “old” ballad of Hamther, wherefore it has been assumed by some
critics that the composer of the Guthrunarhvot used the Hamthesmol,
approximately as it now stands, as the source of part of his material.
The extant Hamthesmol, however, is almost certainly a patchwork; part
of it is in Fornyrthislag (cf. Introduction), including most of the
stanzas paralleled in the Guthrunarhvot, and likewise the stanza
followed directly by the reference to the “old” ballad, while the rest
is in Malahattr. The most reasonable theory, therefore, is that there
existed an old ballad of Hamther, all in Fornyrthislag, from which the
composer of the Guthrunarhvot borrowed a few stanzas as the
introduction for his poem, and which the composer of the extant, or
“new,” Hamthesmol likewise used, though far more clumsily.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1494
So was it done: the sinews in his knee-joints were cut, and he was set
in an island which was near the mainland, and was called Sævarstath.
There he smithied for the king all kinds of precious things. No man
dared to go to him, save only the king himself. Völund spake:
The Poetic Edda, passage 234
40. None so free with gifts | or food have I found
That gladly he took not a gift,
Nor one who so widely | scattered his wealth
That of recompense hatred he had.
The Poetic Edda, passage 126
4. Bur’s sons: Othin, Vili, and Ve. Of Bur we know only that his wife
was Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn; cf. Hovamol, 141. Vili and Ve are
mentioned by name in the Eddic poems only in Lokasenna, 26. Mithgarth
(“Middle Dwelling”): the world of men. Leeks: the leek was often used
as the symbol of fine growth (cf. Guthrunarkvitha I, 17), and it was
also supposed to have magic power (cf. Sigrdrifumol, 7).
The Poetic Edda, passage 3443
Ljōth′-a-tal, the List of Charms, 28, 44, 60, 63, 236.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2099
20. “I counsel thee, Sigurth, | heed my speech,
And ride thou homeward hence;
The sounding gold, | the glow-red wealth,
And the rings thy bane shall be.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1263
47. This stanza has often been combined with 48, either as a whole or
in part. Crow: birds frequently play the part of mentor in Norse
literature; cf., for example, Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 5, and
Fafnismol, 32.
The Poetic Edda, passage 865
5. Elivagar (“Stormy Waves”): possibly the Milky Way; cf.
Vafthruthnismol, 31, note. Hymir: this giant figures only in this
episode. It is not clear why Tyr, who is elsewhere spoken of as a son
of Othin, should here call Hymir his father. Finnur Jonsson, in an
attempt to get round this difficulty, deliberately changed the word
“father” to “grandfather,” but this does not help greatly.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2049
4. The manuscript does not name the speaker. Vathgelmir (“Raging to
Wade”): a river not elsewhere mentioned, but cf. Voluspo, 39.
The Poetic Edda, passage 172
54. As quoted by Snorri the first line of this stanza runs: “Fares
Othin’s son | to fight with the wolf.” Sigfather (“Father of
Victory”): Othin. His son, Vithar, is the silent god, famed chiefly for
his great shield, and his strength, which is little less than Thor’s.
He survives the destruction. The giant’s son: Fenrir.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2808
20. The high-born ones wakened, | and like speech they had,
Then did Glaumvor tell | how in terror she dreamed,
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
. . . . . Gunnar | two roads they should go.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2217
5. This stanza is perhaps, but by no means surely, from the same poem
as stanza 1. Tree of battle: warrior. Runes: the earliest runes were
not letters, but simply signs supposed to possess magic power; out of
them developed the “runic alphabet.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3515
Reg″-ins-mǭl′, the Ballad of Regin, 7, 8, 114, 151, 270, 295, 308, 333,
336, 342, 343, 356–371, 376, 378, 384, 386, 387, 402, 411, 426, 428,
448, 450, 493, 538.
The Poetic Edda, passage 284
90. The love of women | fickle of will
Is like starting o’er ice | with a steed unshod,
A two-year-old restive | and little tamed,
Or steering a rudderless | ship in a storm,
Or, lame, hunting reindeer | on slippery rocks.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3503
Orv′-ar = Odds′-sag-a, the Saga of Orvar-Odd, 225.
The Poetic Edda, passage 98
42. On a hill there sat, | and smote on his harp,
Eggther the joyous, | the giants’ warder;
Above him the cock | in the bird-wood crowed,
Fair and red | did Fjalar stand.
The Poetic Edda, passage 287
93. Fault for loving | let no man find
Ever with any other;
Oft the wise are fettered, | where fools go free,
By beauty that breeds desire.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3370
Hnik′-ar, Othin, 103, 357, 366, 367.
The Poetic Edda, passage 705
31. The confusion noted as to the preceding stanza, and a metrical
error in the third line, have led to various rearrangements and
emendations; line 3 certainly looks like an interpolation. Three-headed
giants: concerning giants with numerous heads, cf. Vafthruthnismol, 33,
and Hymiskvitha, 8.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2830
42. Then wild was their anger | when all heard his words;
Their fingers were swift | on their bowstrings to seize,
Full sharply they shot, | by their shields were they guarded.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2971
86. The manuscript does not name the speakers. It marks line 4 as the
beginning of a new stanza, and many editions follow this arrangement,
in most cases making a stanza of lines 4–5 and line 1 of stanza 87.
However, line 1 may well have been interpolated here from stanza 75.
Grundtvig adds after line 3: “His father he avenged, | and his
kinsmen fully.” Some editors assume the loss of one or two lines after
line 5.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3456
Mīm (or Mīm′-ir), a water-spirit, 12, 13, 20, 61, 81, 242, 393, 394.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2591
39. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza. The
manuscript and most editions do not indicate the speakers in this and
the following stanzas.
The Poetic Edda, passage 136
17. Here the poem resumes its course after the interpolated section.
Probably, however, something has been lost, for there is no apparent
connection between the three giant-maids of stanza 8 and the three
gods, Othin, Hönir and Lothur, who in stanza 17 go forth to create man
and woman. The word “three” in stanzas 8 and 17 very likely confused
some early reciter, or perhaps the compiler himself. Ask and Embla: ash
and elm; Snorri gives them simply as the names of the first man and
woman, but says that the gods made this pair out of trees.
The Poetic Edda, passage 270
76. Among Fitjung’s sons | saw I well-stocked folds,—
Now bear they the beggar’s staff;
Wealth is as swift | as a winking eye,
Of friends the falsest it is.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1404
34. “Vithofnir his name, | and now he shines
Like lightning on Mimameith’s limbs;
And great is the trouble | with which he grieves
Both Surt and Sinmora.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 483
53. “The wolf shall fell | the father of men,
And this shall Vithar avenge;
The terrible jaws | shall he tear apart,
And so the wolf shall he slay.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3522
Rosk′-va, sister of Thjalfi, 141.
The Poetic Edda, passage 622
40. This and the following stanza are quoted by Snorri. They seem to
have come from a different source from the others of this poem; Edzardi
suggests an older version of the Vafthruthnismol. This stanza is
closely parallel to Vafthruthnismol, 21, which see, as also Voluspo, 3.
Snorri, following this account, has a few details to add. The stones
were made out of Ymir’s teeth and such of his bones as were broken.
Mithgarth was a mountain-wall made out of Ymir’s eyebrows, and set
around the earth because of the enmity of the giants.
The Poetic Edda, passage 920
20. “Be silent, Gefjun! | for now shall I say
Who led thee to evil life;
The boy so fair | gave a necklace bright,
And about him thy leg was laid.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2478
68. The door: The gate of Hel’s domain, like that of Mengloth’s house
(cf. Svipdagsmol, 26 and note), closes so fast as to catch any one
attempting to pass through. Apparently the poet here assumes that the
gate of Valhall does likewise, but that it will be kept open for
Sigurth’s retinue.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3385
Hǭv″-a-mǭl′, the Ballad of the High One, 4, 28–68, 71, 75, 112, 117,
130, 188, 193, 205, 215, 236, 237, 247, 357, 367, 368, 379, 387, 393,
397.