The Poetic Edda

13. Eight: the giant’s glance, besides breaking the beam, knocks down all the kettles with such violence that all but the one under which Thor and Tyr are hiding are broken.

Hat′-i, a giant, 278, 280, 281.

After Sigurth has spent three nights with Brynhild, laying his sword between them (cf. Gripisspo, 41 and note), he and Gunnar return home, while Brynhild goes to the dwelling of her brother-in-law, Heimir, and makes ready for her marriage with Gunnar, directing Heimir to care for her daughter by Sigurth, Aslaug. The wedding takes place, to be followed soon after by the quarrel between Guthrun and Brynhild, in which the former betrays the fact that it was Sigurth, and not Gunnar, who rode through the flames. Brynhild speaks with contempt of Guthrun and her whole family, and the following stanza, which presumably belongs to the same Sigurth lay as the Brot, is quoted at this point:

Erp, son of Atli, 448, 461, 482, 495–498, 525, 540, 541, 548.

46. Sickle: i.e., tail feather. With this the circle of impossibilities is completed. To get past the dogs, they must be fed with the wing-joints of the cock Vithofnir; the cock can be killed only with the sword in Sinmora’s possession, and Sinmora will give up the sword only in return for the tail feather of the cock.

162. A sixteenth I know, | if I seek delight To win from a maiden wise; The mind I turn | of the white-armed maid, And thus change all her thoughts.

19. Cf. note on stanza 18. Ill way: very likely the road leading through the gate of Jormunrek’s town at which Svanhild was trampled to death. Sister’s son: many editors change the text to read “stepson,” for the reference is certainly to Randver, son of Jormunrek, hanged by his father on Bikki’s advice (cf. Guthrunarhvot, introductory note). Wolf-tree: the gallows, the wolf being symbolical of outlaws. Cranes’-bait: presumably either snakes or worms, but the passage is doubtful.

The Harbarthsljoth is found complete in the Codex Regius, where it follows the Skirnismol, and from the fourth line of stanza 19 to the end of the poem in the Arnamagnæan Codex, of which it occupies the first page and a half.

2. “What kind of a peasant is yon, | that calls o’er the bay?”

42. Most editors assume the loss of one line, after either line 1 or line 3.

64. “I have said to the gods | and the sons of the gods The things that whetted my thoughts; But before thee alone | do I now go forth, For thou fightest well, I ween.

57. “Hail to thee, hero! | full happy with men, Offspring of Yngvi, | shalt ever live, For thou the fearless | foe hast slain Who to many the dread | of death had brought.

13. “To the sea I went, | my heart full sore For the Norns, whose wrath | I would now escape; But the lofty billows | bore me undrowned, Till to land I came, | so I longer must live.

22. “The oak must have | what it shaves from another; In such things each for himself. What, Thor, didst thou the while?”

10. Grieving could not | Guthrun weep, Such grief she had | for her husband dead, And so grim her heart | by the hero’s body.

6. Hyndla detects Ottar, and accuses Freyja of having her lover with her. Unless Ottar is identical with Oth (cf. Voluspo, 25 and note), which seems most unlikely, there is no other reference to this love affair. The way of the slain: the road to Valhall.

Borg′-hild, mother of Helgi, 270, 291, 293, 310, 333–335.

Hjorvarth and Sigrlin had a son, mighty and of noble stature; he was a silent man, and no name stuck fast to him. He sat on a hill, and saw nine Valkyries riding; one of them was the fairest of all. She spake:

19. Many editors combine lines 3 and 4 with stanza 20. Fortress, etc.: the ox’s head; cf. introductory note concerning the diction of this poem. Several editors assume a lacuna after stanza 19, but this seems unnecessary.

18. “An eagle I saw flying | from the end through the house, Our fate must be bad, | for with blood he sprinkled us; . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . From the evil I fear | that ’twas Atli’s spirit.”

Brā′-lund, birthplace of Helgi, 291, 292, 310.

46. Now the tale is all told, | nor in later time Will a woman in byrnie | avenge so her brothers; The fair one to three | of the kings of the folk Brought the doom of death | ere herself she died.

11. “On Grani rode | the giver of gold, Where my foster-father | ruled his folk; Best of all | he seemed to be, The prince of the Danes, | when the people met.

51. “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What call they the mountain | on which the maid Is lying so lovely to see?”

34. So must I do | as the kings besought, And against my will | for my kinsmen wed; Ne’er with my husband | joy I had, And my sons by my brothers’ | fate were saved not.

25. “I dreamed that by night | came dead women hither, Sad were their garments, | and thee were they seeking; They bade thee come swiftly | forth to their benches, And nothing, methinks, | could the Norns avail thee.”

27. Eyes that see | need the sons of men Who fight in battle fierce; Oft witches evil | sit by the way, Who blade and courage blunt.

2. ’Twixt the fires now | eight nights have I sat, And no man brought meat to me, Save Agnar alone, | and alone shall rule Geirröth’s son o’er the Goths.

42. The wolf did Loki | with Angrbotha win, And Sleipnir bore he | to Svathilfari; The worst of marvels | seemed the one That sprang from the brother | of Byleist then.

Fāf″-nis-mǭl′, the Ballad of Fafnir, 6, 7, 125, 151, 188, 215, 226, 273, 343, 344, 356, 357, 365, 369–388, 390, 402, 411, 417, 445, 450, 474, 476, 509.

23. “Here may Hothbrodd | Helgi find, The hater of flight, | in the midst of the fleet; The home of all | thy race he has, And over the realm | of the fishes he rules.”

28. Apparently in Fornyrthislag. The manuscript indicates line 3 as the beginning of a stanza, and many editions combine lines 3–4 with stanza 29. This stanza explains Gunnar’s demand for Hogni’s heart in stanza 22.

Gun′-nar, son of Gjuki, 8, 226, 339, 343, 349–354, 361, 383, 403–405, 407–409, 414, 417–419, 421–424, 426, 427, 429–434, 436–38, 442, 447–449, 453, 456, 457, 459–461, 467, 469, 470, 473–479, 482–486, 488–494, 497–500, 502, 507–509, 513, 517–519, 521, 522, 532, 533, 539, 541, 543, 546–548.

1. Men say there went | by ways so green Of old the god, | the aged and wise, Mighty and strong | did Rig go striding. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .

Prose. Nithuth (“Bitter Hater”): here identified as a king of Sweden, is in the poem (stanzas 9, 15 and 32) called lord of the Njars, which may refer to the people of the Swedish district of Nerike. In any case, the scene of the story has moved from Saxon lands into the Northeast. The first and last sentences of the introduction refer to the second part of the poem; the rest of it concerns the swan-maidens episode. Bothvild (“Warlike Maid”): Völund’s victim in the latter part of the poem. King of the Finns: this notion, clearly later than the poem, which calls Völund an elf, may perhaps be ascribed to the annotator who composed the prose introduction. The Finns, meaning the dwellers in Lapland, were generally credited with magic powers. Egil appears in the Thithrekssaga as Völund’s brother, but Slagfith is not elsewhere mentioned. Ulfdalir (“Wolf-Dale”), Ulfsjar (“Wolf-Sea”), Valland (“Slaughter-Land”): mythical places without historical identification. Valkyries: cf. Voluspo, 31 and note; there is nothing in the poem to identify the three swan-maidens as Valkyries except one obscure word in line 2 of stanza 1 and again in line 5 of stanza 5, which may mean, as Gering translates it, “helmed,” or else “fair and wise.” I suspect that the annotator, anxious to give the Saxon legend as much northern local color as possible, was mistaken in his mythology, and that the poet never conceived of his swan-maidens as Valkyries at all. However, this identification of swan-maidens with Valkyries was not uncommon; cf. Helreith Brynhildar, 7. The three maidens’ names, Hlathguth, Hervor, and Olrun, do not appear in the lists of Valkyries. King Hlothver: this name suggests the southern origin of the story, as it is the northern form of Ludwig; the name appears again in Guthrunarkvitha II, 26, and that of Kjar is found in Atlakvitha, 7, both of these poems being based on German stories. It is worth noting that the composer of this introductory note seems to have had little or no information beyond what was actually contained in the poem as it has come down to us; he refers to the “old stories” about Völund, but either he was unfamiliar with them in detail or else he thought it needless to make use of them. His note simply puts in clear and connected form what the verse tells somewhat obscurely; his only additions are making Nithuth a king of Sweden and Völund’s father a king of the Finns, supplying the name Ulfsjar for the lake, identifying the swan-maidens as Valkyries, and giving Kjar a home in Valland.

23. Warder of men: Thor; cf. stanza 11. Worm’s destroyer: likewise Thor, who in the last battle slays, and is slain by, Mithgarthsorm; cf. Voluspo, 56. The foe of the gods: Mithgarthsorm, who lies in the sea, and surrounds the whole earth.

8. “Then give me the horse | that goes through the dark And magic flickering flames; And the sword as well | that fights of itself Against the giants grim.”

28. “Better is heart | than a mighty blade For him who shall fiercely fight; The brave man well | shall fight and win, Though dull his blade may be.

30. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . Quoth Völund: “Would | that well were the sinews Maimed in my feet | by Nithuth’s men.”

Freyr, a god, 10, 22, 88, 91, 101, 107–110, 112–115, 117, 119, 120, 152, 161–166, 169, 175, 220, 228, 284, 308, 428.

19. Heimir: the Volsungasaga says that Heimir was the husband of Brynhild’s sister, Bekkhild. Brynhild’s family connections involve a queer mixture of northern and southern legend. Heimir and Bekkhild are purely of northern invention; neither of them is mentioned in any of the earlier poems, though Brynhild speaks of her “foster-father” in Helreith Brynhildar. In the older Norse poems Brynhild is a sister of Atli (Attila), a relationship wholly foreign to the southern stories, and the father of this strangely assorted pair is Buthli, who in the Nibelungenlied is apparently Etzel’s grandfather. Add to this her role of Valkyrie, and it is small wonder that the annotator himself was puzzled.

48. “Now must I ride | the reddened ways, And my bay steed set | to tread the sky; Westward I go | to wind-helm’s bridges, Ere Salgofnir wakes | the warrior throng.”

68. “The door of the hall | shall strike not the heel Of the hero fair | with flashing rings, If hence my following | goes with him; Not mean our faring | forth shall be.

14. “Then to the bed— | of old was it better!— Of a King of the folk | a third time I came; Boys I bore | his heirs to be, Heirs so young, | the sons of Jonak.

Sig′-mund, son of Sigurth, 407, 424, 428, 429, 456, 460.

7. “Here for Baldr | the mead is brewed, The shining drink, | and a shield lies o’er it; But their hope is gone | from the mighty gods. Unwilling I spake, | and now would be still.”

32. Unavagar: “Friendly Waves.” Svarin’s hill: the hill where Granmar had his dwelling.

63. “Svipdag am I, | and Solbjart’s son; Thence came I by wind-cold ways; With the words of Urth | shall no man war, Though unearned her gifts be given.”

General Introduction xi

Sorl′-i, son of Jonak, 361, 439, 536, 538, 540, 545, 546, 548–550, 552–555.