The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 45 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 2959
74. The manuscript indicates line 3 as beginning a new stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3619
Ulf′-dal-ir, Völund’s home, 254, 255, 257, 259.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3189
Dag, husband of Thora, 223, 454.
The Poetic Edda, passage 838
18. “Go to the herd, | if thou hast it in mind,
Thou slayer of giants, | thy bait to seek;
For there thou soon | mayst find, methinks,
Bait from the oxen | easy to get.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3060
29. “In fashion of wolves | it befits us not
Amongst ourselves to strive,
Like the hounds of the Norns, | that nourished were
In greed mid wastes so grim.
The Poetic Edda, passage 572
44. The best of trees | must Yggdrasil be,
Skithblathnir best of boats;
Of all the gods | is Othin the greatest,
And Sleipnir the best of steeds;
Bilrost of bridges, | Bragi of skalds,
Hobrok of hawks, | and Garm of hounds.
The Poetic Edda, passage 981
19. Gefjun: a goddess, not elsewhere mentioned in the poems, who,
according to Snorri, was served by the women who died maidens. Beyond
this nothing is known of her. Lines 3–4 in the manuscript are puzzling,
and have been freely emended.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1955
32. “What sayst thou, Gripir? | give me the truth,
Does fickleness hide | in the hero’s heart?
Can it be that troth | I break with the maid,
With her I believed | I loved so dear?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3308
Hālfs′-sag-a, the Saga of Half, 222, 223.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3435
Kon, son of Rig, 201, 209, 210, 214, 215, 236, 256, 306.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3648
Vil′-mund, lover of Borgny, 469–472.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1582
The king bade that they should go another time, and he went with them
himself. But when they came up on the mountain, they saw Svavaland
burning and mighty dust-clouds from many steeds. The king rode from the
mountain forward into the land, and made a night’s stay hard by a
stream. Atli kept watch and went over the stream; he found there a
house. A great bird sat on the housetop to guard it, but he was asleep.
Atli hurled his spear at the bird and slew it, and in the house he
found Sigrlin the king’s daughter and Alof the jarl’s daughter, and he
brought them both thence with him. Jarl Franmar had changed himself
into the likeness of an eagle, and guarded them from the enemy host by
magic. Hrothmar was the name of a king, a wooer of Sigrlin; he slew the
king of Svavaland and had plundered and burned his land. King Hjorvarth
took Sigrlin, and Atli took Alof.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3130
Angr′-both-a, a giantess, 17, 21, 146, 196, 230, 231.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1232
8. In the manuscript line 1 of stanza 9 stands before stanza 8, neither
line being capitalized as the beginning of a stanza. I have followed
Bugge’s rearrangement. The manuscript indicates no gap in line 2, but
nearly all editors have assumed one, Grundtvig supplying “and rough his
nails.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 858
38. Not long had they fared | ere one there lay
Of Hlorrithi’s goats | half-dead on the ground;
In his leg the pole-horse | there was lame;
The deed the evil | Loki had done.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3144
Auth′-a, sister of Agnar, 390, 444, 445.
The Poetic Edda, passage 158
40. The Hauksbok version inserts after stanza 39 the refrain-stanza
(44), and puts stanzas 40 and 41 between 27 and 21. With this stanza
begins the account of the final struggle itself. The giantess: her name
is nowhere stated, and the only other reference to Ironwood is in
Grimnismol, 39, in this same connection. The children of this giantess
and the wolf Fenrir are the wolves Skoll and Hati, the first of whom
steals the sun, the second the moon. Some scholars naturally see here
an eclipse-myth.
The Poetic Edda, passage 643
5. “Thy longings, methinks, | are not so large
That thou mayst not tell them to me;
Since in days of yore | we were young together,
We two might each other trust.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 773
53. “One counsel I bring thee now: | row hither thy boat;
No more of scoffing; | set Magni’s father across.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2572
17. No gap is indicated in the manuscript, and most editions combine
these two lines either with lines 3–4 of stanza 16, with lines 1–2 of
stanza 18, or with the whole of stanza 18. Line 2 has been filled out
in various ways. The Volsungasaga paraphrase indicates that these two
lines are the remains of a full stanza, the prose passage running: “Now
Guthrun was somewhat comforted of her sorrows. Then Grimhild learned
where Guthrun was now dwelling.” The first two lines may be the ones
missing. Gothic: the term “Goth” was used in the North without much
discrimination to apply to all south-Germanic peoples. In Gripisspo,
35, Gunnar, Grimhild’s son, appears as “lord of the Goths.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 728
8. “Hildolf is he | who bade me have it,
A hero wise; | his home is at Rathsey’s sound.
He bade me no robbers to steer, | nor stealers of steeds,
But worthy men, | and those whom well do I know.
Say now thy name, | if over the sound thou wilt fare.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1769
46. A few editions give this stanza to Sinfjotli. Frekastein: cf.
Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 39 and note. A stanza may have been lost
after stanza 46, parallel to stanza 25 of the second Helgi Hundingsbane
lay.
The Poetic Edda, passage 420
156. House-riders: witches, who ride by night on the roofs of houses,
generally in the form of wild beasts. Possibly one of the last two
lines is spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 168
50. Hrym: the leader of the giants, who comes as the helmsman of the
ship Naglfar (line 4). The serpent: Mithgarthsorm, one of the children
of Loki and Angrbotha (cf. stanza 39, note). The serpent was cast into
the sea, where he completely encircles the land; cf. especially
Hymiskvitha, passim. The eagle: the giant Hræsvelg, who sits at the
edge of heaven in the form of an eagle, and makes the winds with his
wings; cf. Vafthruthnismol, 37, and Skirnismol, 27. Naglfar: the ship
which was made out of dead men’s nails to carry the giants to battle.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3158
Bil′-skirn-ir, Thor’s dwelling, 88, 93.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2133
5. Line 4, utterly obscure in the manuscript, is guesswork.
The Poetic Edda, passage 642
4. “How shall I tell thee, | thou hero young,
Of all my grief so great?
Though every day | the elfbeam dawns,
It lights my longing never.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2173
2. “Hail, day! | Hail, sons of day!
And night and her daughter now!
Look on us here | with loving eyes,
That waiting we victory win.
The Poetic Edda, passage 751
31. “Full fair was thy woman-finding.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3569
Sōl′-ar, son of Hogni, 449, 487, 509, 517.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1201
27. Within two gazed | in each other’s eyes,
Fathir and Mothir, | and played with their fingers;
There sat the house-lord, | wound strings for the bow,
Shafts he fashioned, | and bows he shaped.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3088
26. The manuscript marks line 3, and not line 1, as beginning a stanza.
Of the race of the gods: the reference here is apparently to Jormunrek,
but in the Volsungasaga the advice to kill Hamther and Sorli with
stones, since iron will not wound them (cf. note on stanza 11), comes
from Othin, who enters the hall as an old man with one eye.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1483
10. From their saddles the gable | wall they sought,
And in they went | at the end of the hall;
Rings they saw there | on ropes of bast,
Seven hundred | the hero had.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1231
7. After line 1 the manuscript has only four words: “cloth,” “black,”
“named,” and “Thræll.” No gap is anywhere indicated. Editors have
pieced out the passage in various ways. Water, etc.: concerning the
custom of sprinkling water on children, which long antedated the
introduction of Christianity, cf. Hovamol, 159 and note. Black: dark
hair, among the blond Scandinavians, was the mark of a foreigner, hence
of a slave. Thræll: Thrall or Slave.
The Poetic Edda, passage 760
40. “In the host I was | that hither fared,
The banners to raise, | and the spear to redden.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3087
25. Some editors mark line 1 as an interpolation. The manuscript marks
line 4 as beginning a new stanza. As in the story told by Jordanes,
Hamther and Sorli succeed in wounding Jormunrek (here they cut off his
hands and feet), but do not kill him.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2817
29. Then did Glaumvor speak forth, | the wife of Gunnar,
To Vingi she said | that which wise to her seemed:
“I know not if well | thou requitest our welcome,
Full ill was thy coming | if evil shall follow.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2399
52. “Sit now, Gunnar! | for I shall speak
Of thy bride so fair | and so fain to die;
Thy ship in harbor | home thou hast not,
Although my life | I now have lost.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3201
Eg″-ils-sag′-a, the Saga of Egil, 139.
The Poetic Edda, passage 33
The years between 875 and 1100 were the great spontaneous period of
oral literature. Most of the military and political leaders were also
poets, and they composed a mass of lyric poetry concerning the
authorship of which we know a good deal, and much of which has been
preserved. Narrative prose also flourished, for the Icelander had a
passion for story-telling and story-hearing. After 1100 came the day of
the writers. These sagamen collected the material that for generations
had passed from mouth to mouth, and gave it permanent form in writing.
The greatest bulk of what we now have of Old Norse literature,—and the
published part of it makes a formidable library,—originated thus in the
earlier period before the introduction of writing, and was put into
final shape by the scholars, most of them Icelanders, of the hundred
years following 1150.
The Poetic Edda, passage 687
6. Gymir: a mountain-giant, husband of Aurbotha, and father of Gerth,
fairest among women. This is all Snorri tells of him in his paraphrase
of the story.
The Poetic Edda, passage 845
25. The monsters roared, | and the rocks resounded,
And all the earth | so old was shaken;
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
Then sank the fish | in the sea forthwith.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1426
56. “Soon aid they all | who offerings give
On the holy altars high;
And if danger they see | for the sons of men,
Then each from ill do they guard.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 929
29. “Mad art thou, Loki, | that known thou makest
The wrong and shame thou hast wrought;
The fate of all | does Frigg know well,
Though herself she says it not.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 947
47. “Drunk art thou, Loki, | and mad are thy deeds,
Why, Loki, leavst thou this not?
For drink beyond measure | will lead all men
No thought of their tongues to take.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3078
16. In the manuscript this stanza stands between stanzas 12 and 13.
Some editors make line 4 a part of Erp’s speech.
The Poetic Edda, passage 700
26. With this stanza, bribes and threats having failed, Skirnir begins
a curse which, by the power of his magic staff, is to fall on Gerth if
she refuses Freyr.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1599
18. “Witch, in front | of the ship thou wast,
And lay before the fjord;
To Ron wouldst have given | the ruler’s men,
If a spear had not stuck in thy flesh.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3037
6. Then Hamther spake forth, | the high of heart:
“Small praise didst thou, Guthrun, | to Hogni’s deed give
When they wakened thy Sigurth | from out of his sleep,
Thou didst sit on the bed | while his slayers laughed.
The Poetic Edda, passage 833
13. Eight fell from the ledge, | and one alone,
The hard-hammered kettle, | of all was whole;
Forth came they then, | and his foes he sought,
The giant old, | and held with his eyes.