The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 37 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 374
61. The fifth line is probably a spurious addition.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1061
7. No superscription in the manuscript. Vigfusson made up and inserted
lines like “Then spake Loki | the son of Laufey” whenever he
thought they would be useful.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1693
25. The young king answered | the other then:
“Long were it to tell | from Tronueyr
The long-stemmed ships | with warriors laden
That come from without | into Orvasund.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2598
Guthrunarkvitha III is, then, little more than a dramatic German story
made into a narrative lay by a Norse poet, with the names of Guthrun,
Atli, Thjothrek, and Herkja incorporated for the sake of greater
effectiveness. Its story probably nowhere formed a part of the living
tradition of Sigurth and Atli, but the poem has so little distinctively
Norse coloring that it may possibly have been based on a story or even
a poem which its composer heard in Germany or from the lips of a German
narrator.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1109
28. “Men call it ‘The Wood,’ | gods ‘The Mane of the Field,’
‘Seaweed of Hills’ in hell;
‘Flame-Food’ the giants, | ‘Fair-Limbed’ the elves,
‘The Wand’ is it called by the Wanes.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3142
Aur′-both-a, Mengloth’s handmaid, 249.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3181
Bund″-in-skeg′-gi, son of Karl, 209.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3664
Ygg′-dras-il, the world-ash, 1, 3, 4, 9, 12, 17, 20, 27, 60, 62, 81,
94, 96–98, 102, 242, 243.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1211
37. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
Forward he rode | through the forest dark,
O’er the frosty crags, | till a hall he found.
The Poetic Edda, passage 542
14. The ninth is Folkvang, | where Freyja decrees
Who shall have seats in the hall;
The half of the dead | each day does she choose,
And half does Othin have.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1806
13. Sigrun the joyful | chieftain sought,
Forthwith Helgi’s | hand she took;
She greeted the hero | helmed and kissed him,
The warrior’s heart | to the woman turned.
The Poetic Edda, passage 110
54. Then comes Sigfather’s | mighty son,
Vithar, to fight | with the foaming wolf;
In the giant’s son | does he thrust his sword
Full to the heart: | his father is avenged.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1836
34. “Thy brother rings | so red will give thee,
All Vandilsve | and Vigdalir;
Take half my land | to pay the harm,
Ring-decked maid, | and as meed for thy sons.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3646
Vīg′-dal-ir, Battle-Dale, 324, 325.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1118
2. The dwarfs, living beyond the reach of the sun, which was fatal to
them (cf. stanzas 16 and 35), were necessarily pale. Line 3 is, of
course, ironical.
The Poetic Edda, passage 544
16. The eleventh is Noatun; | there has Njorth
For himself a dwelling set;
The sinless ruler | of men there sits
In his temple timbered high.
The Poetic Edda, passage 309
115. I rede thee, Loddfafnir! | and hear thou my rede,—
Profit thou hast if thou hearest,
Great thy gain if thou learnest:
Seek never to win | the wife of another,
Or long for her secret love.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3182
Bur, father of Othin, 4, 160, 228.
The Poetic Edda, passage 761
41. “Wilt thou now say | that hatred thou soughtest to bring
us?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2958
73. The manuscript does not name the speakers. It indicates line 3 as
beginning a new stanza, in which it is followed by many editions. The
Volsungasaga paraphrases line 4 thus: “But it is shameful for thee to
do this.” Either the text of the line has been changed or the
Volsungasaga compilers misunderstood it. The angry one: Atli.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3558
Skīth′-blath-nir, a ship, 101, 102.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2089
10. “Some one the hoard | shall ever hold,
Till the destined day shall come;
For a time there is | when every man
Shall journey hence to hell.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1637
7. Gift: not only was it customary to give gifts with the naming of a
child, but the practice frequently obtained when a permanent epithet
was added to the name of an adult.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1104
23. “Answer me, Alvis! | thou knowest all,
Dwarf, of the doom of men:
What call they the sea, | whereon men sail,
In each and every world?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1526
5. Line 3 looks like an interpolation, but line 5, identical with line
2 of stanza 1, may be the superfluous one.
The Poetic Edda, passage 485
55. “No man can tell | what in olden time
Thou spak’st in the ears of thy son;
With fated mouth | the fall of the gods
And mine olden tales have I told;
With Othin in knowledge | now have I striven,
And ever the wiser thou art.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2697
5. “The field shall be given you | of wide Gnitaheith,
With loud-ringing lances, | and stems gold-o’erlaid,
Treasures full huge, | and the home of Danp,
And the mighty forest | that Myrkwood is called.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2804
16. “A bear saw I enter, | the pillars he broke,
And he brandished his claws | so that craven we were;
With his mouth seized he many, | and nought was our might,
And loud was the tumult, | not little it was.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2690
As has been said, the Atlakvitha is metrically in a chaotic state, the
normal Malahattr lines being frequently interspersed with lines and
even stanzas which apparently are of the older Fornyrthislag type. How
much of this confusion is due to faulty transmission is uncertain, but
it has been suggested that the composer of the Atlakvitha made over in
Malahattr an older Atli poem in Fornyrthislag, and this suggestion has
much to recommend it. That he worked on the basis of an older poem is,
indeed, almost certain, for in oral prose tradition a far larger number
of distinctively Norse traits would unquestionably have crept in than
are found in the material of the Atlakvitha. As for the Atlamol, here
again the poet seems to have used an older poem as his basis, possibly
the Atlakvitha itself, although in that case he must have had other
material as well, for there are frequent divergences in such matters as
proper names.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1595
14. “Who now, thou mighty | man, art thou?
By what name art thou known to men?
He trusts thee well, | the prince who wills
That thou stand at the stem of his ship.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 779
59. “Short now shall be our speech, | for thou speakest in
mockery only;
The passage thou gavest me not | I shall pay thee if ever we
meet.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2120
38. “Let the head from the frost-cold | giant be hewed,
And let him of rings be robbed;
Then all the wealth | which Fafnir’s was
Shall belong to thee alone.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1119
3. Wagon-guider: Thor, who travels habitually on his goat-drawn wagon.
Bugge changes “Vagna vers” to “Vapna verþs,” rendering the line “I am
come to seek | the cost of the weapons.” In either case, Alvis does
not as yet recognize Thor.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1059
5. Thrym: a frost-giant. Gering declares that this story of the theft
of Thor’s hammer symbolizes the fact that thunderstorms rarely occur in
winter.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1534
13. Elves: the poem here identifies Völund as belonging to the race of
the elves. Hlothver’s daughter: Hervor; many editors treat the
adjective “all-wise” here as a proper name.
The Poetic Edda, passage 989
29. Freyja: daughter of Njorth and sister of Freyr; cf. note on
introductory prose. Snorri, in speaking of Frigg’s knowledge of the
future, makes a stanza out of Lokasenna, 21, 1; 47, 2; 29, 3–4, thus:
“Mad art thou, Loki, | and little of wit, / Why, Loki, leavst thou
this not? / The fate of all | does Frigg know well, / Though
herself she says it not.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3463
Mog′-thras-ir, a giant (?), 82.
The Poetic Edda, passage 628
47. Sath: “The Truthful.” Svipal: “The Changing.” Sanngetal: “The
Truth-Teller.” Herteit: “Glad of the Host.” Hnikar: “The Overthrower.”
Bileyg: “The Shifty-Eyed.” Baleyg: “The Flaming-Eyed.” Bolverk: “Doer
of Ill” (cf. Hovamol, 104 and note). Fjolnir: “The Many-Shaped.”
Grimnir: “The Hooded.” Glapsvith: “Swift in Deceit.” Fjolsvith: “Wide
of Wisdom.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2672
17. Cf. note on preceding stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 74
18. Soul they had not, | sense they had not,
Heat nor motion, | nor goodly hue;
Soul gave Othin, | sense gave Hönir,
Heat gave Lothur | and goodly hue.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2527
11. From him who spake | I turned me soon,
In the woods to find | what the wolves had left;
Tears I had not, | nor wrung my hands,
Nor wailing went, | as other women,
(When by Sigurth | slain I sat).
The Poetic Edda, passage 1654
30. Most editions give this stanza to Atli. With this the
Hrimgertharmol ends, and after the next prose passage the meter reverts
to that of the earlier sections.
The Poetic Edda, passage 349
155. A ninth I know, | if need there comes
To shelter my ship on the flood;
The wind I calm | upon the waves,
And the sea I put to sleep.
The Poetic Edda, passage 50
Wise was the woman, | she fain would use wisdom,
She saw well what meant | all they said in secret;
From her heart it was hid | how help she might render,
The sea they should sail, | while herself she should go not.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1498
22. “Come ye alone, | the next day come,
Gold to you both | shall then be given;
Tell not the maids | or the men of the hall,
To no one say | that me you have sought.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 462
32. “Seventh answer me well, | if wise thou art called,
If thou knowest it, Vafthruthnir, now:
How begat he children, | the giant grim,
Who never a giantess knew?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3342
Hild′-i-gun, daughter of Sækonung, 222, 223.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2989
1. A word-strife I learned, | most woeful of all,
A speech from the fullness | of sorrow spoken,
When fierce of heart | her sons to the fight
Did Guthrun whet | with words full grim.
The Poetic Edda, passage 376
65. The manuscript indicates no lacuna (lines 1 and 2). Many editors
have filled out the stanza with two lines from late paper manuscripts,
the passage running:
The Poetic Edda, passage 2947
62. Regarding Gunnar’s harp-playing, and his death, cf. Oddrunargratr,
27–30 and notes, and Atlakvitha, 34. Toes (literally “sole-twigs”): the
Volsungasaga explains that Gunnar’s hands were bound. Rafters: thus
literally, and probably correctly; Gering has an ingenious but unlikely
theory that the word means “harp.”