The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 36 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 2659
5. The manuscript does not indicate the speakers. For the woman:
conjectural; the manuscript has instead: “What warrior now | hath
worked this woe?” The manuscript indicates line 3 as beginning a new
stanza. Line 5, apparently modeled on line 4 of stanza 13, is probably
spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 77
21. The war I remember, | the first in the world,
When the gods with spears | had smitten Gollveig,
And in the hall | of Hor had burned her,—
Three times burned, | and three times born,
Oft and again, | yet ever she lives.
The Poetic Edda, passage 676
37. “I write thee a charm | and three runes therewith,
Longing and madness and lust;
But what I have writ | I may yet unwrite
If I find a need therefor.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 996
38. Snorri mentions Tyr’s incompetence as a peacemaker. Fenrir: the
wolf, Loki’s son; cf. Voluspo, 39.
The Poetic Edda, passage 960
57. “Unmanly one, cease, | or the mighty hammer,
Mjollnir, shall close thy mouth;
Thy shoulder-cliff | shall I cleave from thy neck,
And so shall thy life be lost.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2159
44. Vingskornir: Brynhild’s horse, not elsewhere mentioned.
Victory-bringer: the word thus translated is in the original
“sigrdrifa.” The compiler of the collection, not being familiar with
this word, assumed that it was a proper name, and in the prose
following stanza 4 of the Sigrdrifumol he specifically states that this
was the Valkyrie’s name. Editors, until recently, have followed him in
this error, failing to recognize that “sigrdrifa” was simply an epithet
for Brynhild. It is from this blunder that the so-called Sigrdrifumol
takes its name. Brynhild’s dual personality as a Valkyrie and as the
daughter of Buthli has made plenty of trouble, but the addition of a
second Valkyrie in the person of the supposed “Sigrdrifa” has made
still more.
The Poetic Edda, passage 391
102. Rask adds at the beginning of this stanza two lines from a late
paper manuscript, running:
The Poetic Edda, passage 3625
Vaf′-thrūth-nir, a giant, 68–83.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1530
9. Some editors combine the first two lines with parts of stanza 8, and
the last two with the first half of stanza 10. Njars: there has been
much, and inconclusive, discussion as to what this name means; probably
it applies to a semi-mythical people somewhere vaguely in “the East.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1709
41. “. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
Nine did we | in Sogunes
Of wolf-cubs have; | I their father was.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 605
23. This and the following stanza stand in reversed order in Regius.
Snorri quotes stanza 23 as a proof of the vast size of Valhall. The
last two lines refer to the final battle with Fenrir and the other
enemies.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3614
Thryms′-kvith-a, the Lay of Thrym, 12, 82, 107, 122, 128, 129, 143,
159, 166, 169, 174–183, 185, 195, 210, 252, 274, 471.
The Poetic Edda, passage 60
4. Then Bur’s sons lifted | the level land,
Mithgarth the mighty | there they made;
The sun from the south | warmed the stones of earth,
And green was the ground | with growing leeks.
The Poetic Edda, passage 906
7. “Why sit ye silent, | swollen with pride,
Ye gods, and no answer give?
At your feast a place | and a seat prepare me,
Or bid me forth to fare.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1535
15. In this poem the manuscript indicates the speakers. Some editors
make lines 1–2 into a separate stanza, linking lines 3–5 (or 4–5) with
stanza 16. Line 3 is very possibly spurious, a mere expansion of
“Nithuth spake.” Nithuth, of course, has come with his men to capture
Völund, and now charges him with having stolen his treasure.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2293
The lament of Guthrun (Kriemhild) is almost certainly among the oldest
parts of the story. The lament was one of the earliest forms of poetry
to develop among the Germanic peoples, and I suspect, though the matter
is not susceptible of proof, that the lament of Sigurth’s wife had
assumed lyric form as early as the seventh century, and reached the
North in that shape rather than in prose tradition (cf. Guthrunarkvitha
II, introductory note). We find traces of it in the seventeenth
Aventiure of the Nibelungenlied, and in the poems of the Edda it
dominates every appearance of Guthrun. The two first Guthrun lays (I
and II) are both laments, one for Sigurth’s death and the other
including both that and the lament over the slaying of her brothers;
the lament theme is apparent in the third Guthrun lay and in the
Guthrunarhvot.
The Poetic Edda, passage 729
9. “My name indeed shall I tell, | though in danger I am,
And all my race; | I am Othin’s son,
Meili’s brother, | and Magni’s father,
The strong one of the gods; | with Thor now speech canst thou
get.
And now would I know | what name thou hast.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 743
23. “Eastward I fared, | of the giants I felled
Their ill-working women | who went to the mountain;
And large were the giants’ throng | if all were
alive;
No men would there be | in Mithgarth more.
What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 444
14. “Hrimfaxi name they | the steed that anew
Brings night for the noble gods;
Each morning foam | from his bit there falls,
And thence come the dews in the dales.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3071
8. Some editors regard this stanza as interpolated. Erp and Eitil:
regarding Guthrun’s slaying of her sons by Atli, cf. Atlamol, 72–75.
The Erp here referred to is not to be confused with the Erp, son of
Jonak, who appears in stanza 13. The whole of stanza 8 is in doubtful
shape, and many emendations have been suggested.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2318
22. Then Brynhild spake, | the daughter of Buthli:
“May the witch now husband | and children want
Who, Guthrun, loosed | thy tears at last,
And with magic today | hath made thee speak.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3138
At″-la-mǭl′, the Ballad of Atli, 448, 449, 463, 480–482, 485, 487, 491,
494, 498–535, 538, 540, 545, 548.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1472
The manuscript of the Völundarkvitha is in such bad shape, and the
conjectural emendations have been so numerous, that in the notes I have
attempted to record only the most important of them.
The Poetic Edda, passage 749
29. “Eastward I was, | and the river I guarded well,
Where the sons of Svarang | sought me there;
Stones did they hurl; | small joy did they have of winning;
Before me there | to ask for peace did they fare.
What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 199
5. Wits must he have | who wanders wide,
But all is easy at home;
At the witless man | the wise shall wink
When among such men he sits.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1336
18. Another interpolation, as Ketil (stanza 19, line 1) is the husband
of Hildigun (stanza 17). Dag: one of Halfdan’s sons, and ancestor of
the Döglings. Line 5 may be a late addition.
The Poetic Edda, passage 93
37. Northward a hall | in Nithavellir
Of gold there rose | for Sindri’s race;
And in Okolnir | another stood,
Where the giant Brimir | his beer-hall had.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1780
57. Yngvi: one of the sons of Halfdan the Old, and traditional ancestor
of the Ynglings, with whom the Ylfings seem to have been confused (cf.
Hyndluljoth, 11 and note). The confusion between the Ylfings (or
Ynglings) and Volsungs was carried far enough so that Sigurth himself
is once called a descendant of Yngvi (Reginsmol, 14). Gering identifies
the name of Yngvi with the god Freyr, but the Volsungs certainly
claimed descent from Othin, not Freyr, and there is nothing to indicate
that Helgi in the Danish tradition was supposed to be descended from
Freyr, whereas his descent from Yngvi Halfdansson fits well with the
rest of his story. However, cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 24 and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3447
Log′-a-fjoll, a mountain, 294, 295, 316, 317.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1229
5. The manuscript has lines 1–2 in inverse order, but marks the word
“Rig” as the beginning of a stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1073
27. For clearness I have inserted Thrym’s name in place of the pronoun
of the original. Fire: the noun is lacking in the manuscript; most
editors have inserted it, however, following a late paper manuscript.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2213
1. This stanza, and the two lines included in the prose after stanza 4,
and possibly stanza 5 as well, evidently come from a different poem
from stanzas 2–4. Lines 3–4 in the original are obscure, though the
general meaning is clear.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2583
29. Sigmund: son of Sigurth and Guthrun, killed at Brynhild’s behest.
The Poetic Edda, passage 990
30. According to Snorri, Freyja was a model of fidelity to her husband,
Oth.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2795
8. Then the famed ones brought mead, | and fair was the feast,
Full many were the horns, | till the men had drunk deep;
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
Then the mates made ready | their beds for resting.
The Poetic Edda, passage 381
76. In the manuscript this stanza follows 78, the order being: 77, 78,
76, 80, 79, 81. Fitjung (“the Nourisher”): Earth.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1051
30. Then loud spake Thrym, | the giants’ leader:
“Bring in the hammer | to hallow the bride;
On the maiden’s knees | let Mjollnir lie,
That us both the hand | of Vor may bless.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2646
24. “To the warriors ruddy | rings we offered,
That nought to Atli | e’er they should say;
But swiftly home | they hastened thence,
And eager all | to Atli told.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2025
One day, when he came to Regin’s house, he was gladly welcomed. Regin
said:
The Poetic Edda, passage 2006
Sigurth went to Hjalprek’s stud and chose for himself a horse, who
thereafter was called Grani. At that time Regin, the son of Hreithmar,
was come to Hjalprek’s home; he was more ingenious than all other men,
and a dwarf in stature; he was wise, fierce and skilled in magic. Regin
undertook Sigurth’s bringing up and teaching, and loved him much. He
told Sigurth of his forefathers, and also of this: that once Othin and
Hönir and Loki had come to Andvari’s waterfall, and in the fall were
many fish. Andvari was a dwarf, who had dwelt long in the waterfall in
the shape of a pike, and there he got his food. “Otr was the name of a
brother of ours,” said Regin, “who often went into the fall in the
shape of an otter; he had caught a salmon, and sat on the high bank
eating it with his eyes shut. Loki threw a stone at him and killed him;
the gods thought they had had great good luck, and stripped the skin
off the otter. That same evening they sought a night’s lodging at
Hreithmar’s house, and showed their booty. Then we seized them, and
told them, as ransom for their lives, to fill the otter skin with gold,
and completely cover it outside as well with red gold. Then they sent
Loki to get the gold; he went to Ron and got her net, and went then to
Andvari’s fall and cast the net in front of the pike, and the pike
leaped into the net.” Then Loki said:
The Poetic Edda, passage 2353
6. By herself at the end | of day she sat,
And in open words | her heart she uttered:
“I shall Sigurth have, | the hero young,
E’en though within | my arms he die.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2244
The gap of eight leaves in the Codex Regius (cf. introductory note to
the Sigrdrifumol) is followed by a passage of twenty stanzas which is
evidently the end of a longer poem, the greater part of it having been
contained in the lost section of the manuscript. There is here little
question of such a compilation as made up the so-called Reginsmol,
Fafnismol, and Sigrdrifumol; the extant fragment shows every sign of
being part of a poem which, as it stood in the manuscript, was a
complete and definite unit. The end is clearly marked; the following
poem, Guthrunarkvitha I, carries a specific heading in the manuscript,
so that there is no uncertainty as to where the fragment closes.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3439
Leg′-gjald-i, son of Thræll, 206.
The Poetic Edda, passage 711
37. Again the scribe seems to have been uncertain as to the stanza
divisions. This time the first line is preceded by a period, but begins
with a small letter. Many editors have made line 2 into two half-lines.
A charm: literally, the rune Thurs (þ); the runic letters all had magic
attributes; cf. Sigrdrifumol, 6–7 and notes.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1063
10. No superscription in the manuscript.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1225
1. No gap is indicated, but editors have generally assumed one. Some
editors, however, add line 1 of stanza 2 to stanza 1.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3096
The pronunciations indicated in the following index are in many cases,
at best, mere approximations, and in some cases the pronunciation of
the Old Norse is itself more or less conjectural. For the sake of
clarity it has seemed advisable to keep the number of phonetic symbols
as small as possible, even though the result is occasional failure to
distinguish between closely related sounds. In every instance the
object has been to provide the reader with a clearly comprehensible and
approximately correct pronunciation, for which reason, particularly in
such matters as division of syllables, etymology has frequently been
disregarded for the sake of phonetic clearness. For example, when a
root syllable ends in a long (double) consonant, the division has
arbitrarily been made so as to indicate the sounding of both elements
(e.g., Am-ma, not Amm-a).
The Poetic Edda, passage 175
57. With this stanza ends the account of the destruction.
The Poetic Edda, passage 242
48. The lives of the brave | and noble are best,
Sorrows they seldom feed;
But the coward fear | of all things feels,
And not gladly the niggard gives.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3395
Hrō′-ar, brother of Borghild (?), 334.