The Poetic Edda

Prose. The fleet, and the subsequent storm, are also reminiscent of the Helgi cycle; cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 29–31, and II, prose after stanza 16. A man: Othin.

9. The manuscript does not name the speaker. In line 2 the word rendered “earn” is omitted in the manuscript, but nearly all editions have supplied it. Line 5 is clearly either interpolated or out of place. It may be all that is left of a stanza which stood between stanzas 15 and 16, or it may belong in stanza 12.

31. The manuscript of lines 1–3 is obviously defective, as there are too many words for two lines, and not enough for the full three. The meaning, however, is clearly very much as indicated in the translation. Gering’s emendation, which I have followed, consists simply in shifting “set before them” from the first line to the second—where the manuscript has no verb,—and supplying the verb “brought” in line 1. The various editions contain all sorts of suggestions.

Gjal″-lar-horn′, Heimdall’s horn, 12, 20.

19. “What giant is here, | in front of the house, To the wayfarer welcome denying?”

10. “Stand forth then, Vithar, | and let the wolf’s father Find a seat at our feast; Lest evil should Loki | speak aloud Here within Ægir’s hall.”

Nifl′-ungs, the people of Gjuki (Nibelungs), 408, 447, 448, 486, 487, 489, 492, 493, 515, 517, 541.

16. Line 1, abbreviated in the manuscript, very likely should be simply “Gollrond spake.”

46. So is it with him | whom thou hardly wilt trust, And whose mind thou mayst not know; Laugh with him mayst thou, | but speak not thy mind, Like gifts to his shalt thou give.

79. “Of thy sons now thou knowest; | few suffer more sorrow; My guilt have I told, | fame it never shall give me.”

41. Then spake Nithuth, | lord of the Njars: “Rise up, Thakkrath, | best of my thralls, Bid Bothvild come, | the bright-browed maid, Bedecked so fair, | with her father to speak.”

60. Of seasoned shingles | and strips of bark For the thatch let one know his need, And how much of wood | he must have for a month, Or in half a year he will use.

47. Brynhild tells Gunnar that Sigurth really possessed her during the three nights when he slept by her in Gunnar’s form, thus violating his oath. Here again there is a confusion of two traditions. If Sigurth did not meet Brynhild until after his oath to Gunnar (cf. note on stanza 13), Brynhild’s charge is entirely false, as she herself admits in Helreith Brynhildar. On the other hand, according to the version in which Sigurth finds Brynhild before he meets Gjuki’s sons, their union was not only completed, but she had by him a daughter, Aslaug, whom she leaves in Heimir’s charge before going to become Gunnar’s wife. This is the Volsungasaga version, and thus the statement Brynhild makes to Gunnar, as a result of which Sigurth is slain, is quite true.

20. Snorri quotes this stanza in the Skaldskaparmal. Waverer: the word is uncertain, the Prose Edda manuscripts giving it in various forms. Blustering Blast: two Prose Edda manuscripts give a totally different word, meaning “The Pounder.”

16. Sigmund’s ship | by the land was sailing, Golden the figure-head, | gay the beaks; On board we wove | the warriors faring, Sigar and Siggeir, | south to Fjon.

5. They were kindly with ale, | and fires they kindled, They thought not of craft | from the guests who had come; The gifts did they take | that the noble one gave them, On the pillars they hung them, | no fear did they harbor.

The fourteenth (or late thirteenth) century annotator identifies Rig with Heimdall, but there is nothing in the poem itself, and very little anywhere else, to warrant this, and it seems likely that the poet had Othin, and not Heimdall, in mind, his purpose being to trace the origin of the royal estate to the chief of the gods. The evidence bearing on this identification is briefly summed up in the note on the introductory prose passage, but the question involves complex and baffling problems in mythology, and from very early times the status of Heimdall was unquestionably confusing to the Norse mind.

5. Some editors assume the loss of a line, after either line 1 or line 3. I prefer to believe that here and in stanza 10 the poet knew exactly what he was doing, and that both stanzas are correct.

6. Charms: cf. Sigrdrifumol, 8.

33. Thus was he there | for three nights long, Then forward he went | on the midmost way, And so nine months | were soon passed by.

5. “What hero claims | such right to hold O’er the bride that shines so bright? Not many will know thee, | thou wandering man! Who was bought with rings to bear thee?”

2. This Oddrun learned, | the sister of Atli, That sore the maiden’s | sickness was; The bit-bearer forth | from his stall she brought, And the saddle laid | on the steed so black.

43. But back she cast | all those who came, Nor from the long road | let them hold her; In counsel then | did he Hogni call: “Of wisdom now | full great is our need.

34. “Eighth answer me well, | if wise thou art called, If thou knowest it, Vafthruthnir, now: What farthest back | dost thou bear in mind? For wide is thy wisdom, giant!”

19. We five: see note on preceding stanza. Some editors mark lines 1–2 as spurious, and either assume a gap of two lines after line 4 or combine lines 3–4 with stanza 20. Whence lead the ways: a proverbial expression signifying “whence the trouble comes.”

4. Water and towels | and welcoming speech Should he find who comes to the feast; If renown he would get, | and again be greeted, Wisely and well must he act.

Guthrunarkvitha I is immediately followed in the Codex Regius by a long poem which in the manuscript bears the heading “Sigurtharkvitha,” but which is clearly referred to in the prose link between it and Guthrunarkvitha I as the “short” Lay of Sigurth. The discrepancy between this reference and the obvious length of the poem has led to many conjectures, but the explanation seems to be that the “long” Sigurth lay, of which the Brot is presumably a part, was materially longer even than this poem. The efforts to reduce the “short” Sigurth lay to dimensions which would justify the appellation in comparison with other poems in the collection, either by separating it into two poems or by the rejection of many stanzas as interpolations, have been utterly inconclusive.

6. The phrase “Völund home from a weary way” is an emendation of Bugge’s, accepted by many editors. Some of those who do not include it reject line 4, and combine the remainder of the stanza with all or part of stanza 7.

This was before Atli went on his journey; but when he came home, and the king asked his tidings, he said:

Sigmund, the son of Volsung, was a king in the land of the Franks; Sinfjotli was his eldest son, the second was Helgi, and the third Hamund. Borghild, Sigmund’s wife, had a brother who was named ——. Sinfjotli, her stepson, and —— both wooed the same woman, wherefore Sinfjotli slew him. And when he came home, Borghild bade him depart, but Sigmund offered her atonement-money, and this she had to accept. At the funeral feast Borghild brought in ale; she took poison, a great horn full, and brought it to Sinfjotli. But when he looked into the horn, he saw that it was poison, and said to Sigmund: “Muddy is the drink, Father!” Sigmund took the horn and drank therefrom. It is said that Sigmund was so hardy that poison might not harm him, either outside or in, but all his sons could withstand poison only without on their skin. Borghild bore another horn to Sinfjotli and bade him drink, and all happened as before. And yet a third time she brought him a horn, and spoke therewith scornful words of him if he should not drink from it. He spoke as before with Sigmund. The latter said: “Let it trickle through your beard, Son!” Sinfjotli drank, and straightway was dead. Sigmund bore him a long way in his arms, and came to a narrow and long fjord, and there was a little boat and a man in it. He offered to take Sigmund across the fjord. But when Sigmund had borne the corpse out into the boat, then the craft was full. The man told Sigmund to go round the inner end of the fjord. Then the man pushed the boat off, and disappeared.

9. Then did Sorli speak out, | for wise was he ever: “With my mother I never | a quarrel will make; Full little in speaking | methinks ye both lack; What askest thou, Guthrun, | that will give thee no tears?

Guth″-rūn-ar-kvith′-a I (en Fyrst′-a), the First Lay of Guthrun, 4, 293, 325, 402, 409, 411–420, 422, 423, 426, 429, 430, 450, 452–454, 475, 479.

7. “I have hidden | Hlorrithi’s hammer, Eight miles down | deep in the earth; And back again | shall no man bring it If Freyja I win not | to be my wife.”

Still more is told in the Greenland ballad of Atli.

9. “Answer me, Alvis! | thou knowest all, Dwarf, of the doom of men: What call they the earth, | that lies before all, In each and every world?”

Hag′-al, Helgi’s foster-father, 310–312.

33. “Othin grows angry, | angered is the best of the gods, Freyr shall be thy foe, Most evil maid, | who the magic wrath Of gods hast got for thyself.

King Hjalprek gave Sigurth a fleet for the avenging of his father. They ran into a great storm, and were off a certain headland. A man stood on the mountain, and said:

Guthrun went forth to the sea after she had slain Atli. She went out into the sea and fain would drown herself, but she could not sink. The waves bore her across the fjord to the land of King Jonak; he took her as wife; their sons were Sorli and Erp and Hamther. There was brought up Svanhild, Sigurth’s daughter; she was married to the mighty Jormunrek. With him was Bikki, who counselled that Randver, the king’s son, should have her. This Bikki told to the king. The king had Randver hanged, and Svanhild trodden to death under horses’ feet. And when Guthrun learned this, she spake with her sons.

15. He bade write on the shield | before the shining goddess, On Arvak’s ear, | and on Alsvith’s hoof, On the wheel of the car | of Hrungnir’s killer, On Sleipnir’s teeth, | and the straps of the sledge.

19. An ash I know, | Yggdrasil its name, With water white | is the great tree wet; Thence come the dews | that fall in the dales, Green by Urth’s well | does it ever grow.

Sig′-ar, father of Siggeir, 455.

Īth′-i, brother of Thjazi, 128.

Vols″-ung-a-sag′-a, the Saga of the Volsungs, 218, 226, 270, 276, 297, 299, 301, 332–334, 336, 340, 342, 345, 349, 350, 352, 353, 356, 361, 365, 366, 368, 370, 371, 373, 375, 377–379, 381, 383, 386, 391, 395, 396, 399, 400, 402, 403, 405, 407, 410–412, 418, 419, 425, 427, 433, 438, 440, 448, 450, 453, 455–458, 465, 469, 477, 478, 480, 486, 487, 500, 506, 508, 512–514, 518–522, 525–530, 532, 534, 537, 538, 543, 549, 550, 553, 554.

46. “The sickle bright | in thy wallet bear, Mid Vithofnir’s feathers found; To Sinmora give it, | and then shall she grant That the weapon by thee be won.”

This view is supported by the fact that not one of the three poems in question, and least of all the Reginsmol, can possibly be regarded as a unit. For one thing, each of them includes both types of stanza commonly used in the Eddic poems, and this, notwithstanding the efforts of Grundtvig and Müllenhoff to prove the contrary, is almost if not quite conclusive proof that each poem consists of material taken from more than one source. Furthermore, there is nowhere continuity within the verse itself for more than a very few stanzas. An analysis of the Reginsmol shows that stanzas 1–4, 6–10, and 12, all in Ljothahattr stanza form, seem to belong together as fragments of a poem dealing with Loki’s (not Andvari’s) curse on the gold taken by the gods from Andvari and paid to Hreithmar, together with Hreithmar’s death at the hands of his son, Fafnir, as the first result of this curse. Stanza 5, in Fornyrthislag, is a curse on the gold, here ascribed to Andvari, but the only proper name in the stanza, Gust, is quite unidentifiable, and the stanza may originally have had to do with a totally different story. Stanza 11, likewise in Fornyrthislag, is merely a father’s demand that his daughter rear a family to avenge his death; there is nothing in it to link it necessarily with the dying Hreithmar. Stanzas 13–18, all in Fornyrthislag, give Regin’s welcome to Sigurth (stanzas 13–14), Sigurth’s announcement that he will avenge his father’s death on the sons of Hunding before he seeks any treasure (stanza 15), and a dialogue between a certain Hnikar, who is really Othin, and Regin, as the latter and Sigurth are on the point of being shipwrecked. This section (stanzas 13–18) bears a striking resemblance to the Helgi lays, and may well have come originally from that cycle. Next follows a passage in Ljothahattr form (stanzas 19–22 and 24–25) in which Hnikar-Othin gives some general advice as to lucky omens and good conduct in battle; the entire passage might equally well stand in the Hovamol, and I suspect that it originally came from just such a collection of wise saws. Inserted in this passage is stanza 23, in Fornyrthislag, likewise on the conduct of battle, with a bit of tactical advice included. The “poem” ends with a single stanza, in Fornyrthislag, simply stating that the bloody fight is over and that Sigurth fought well—a statement equally applicable to any part of the hero’s career.

32. I saw for Baldr, | the bleeding god, The son of Othin, | his destiny set: Famous and fair | in the lofty fields, Full grown in strength | the mistletoe stood.

29. “Look eastward, Hrimgerth, | for Helgi has struck thee Down with the runes of death; Safe in harbor floats | the prince’s fleet, And safe are the monarch’s men.”

Gylf″-a-gin′-ning, the Deceiving of Gylfi, 120, 228, 229, 231, 248, 370.

Skirn′-ir, Freyr’s servant, 107–115, 119, 120, 152.