The Poetic Edda

Prose. Niflungs: regarding the mistaken application of this name to the sons of Gjuki, who were Burgundians, cf. Brot, 17 and note. Draught of forgetfulness: according to the Volsungasaga Grimhild, Guthrun’s mother, administered this, just as she did the similar draught which made Sigurth forget Brynhild. Erp and Eitil: Guthrun kills her two sons by Atli as part of her revenge; the annotator here explains her act further by saying that Guthrun asked her sons to intercede with their father in favor of Guthrun’s brothers, but that they refused, a detail which he appears to have invented, as it is found nowhere else. Svanhild: cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 54 and note. Vingi or Knefröth: Atlakvitha (stanza 1) calls the messenger Knefröth; Atlamol (stanza 4) speaks of two messengers, but names only one of them, Vingi. The annotator has here tried, unsuccessfully, to combine the two accounts. Andvaranaut: regarding the origin of Andvari’s ring cf. Reginsmol, prose after stanzas 4 and 5 and notes; Sigurth gave the ring to Guthrun. Here again the annotator is combining two stories; in Atlakvitha (stanza 8) Guthrun sends a ring (not Andvaranaut) with a wolf’s hair; in Atlamol (stanza 4) she sends a message written in runes. The messenger obscures these runes, and Kostbera, Hogni’s wife, who attempts to decipher them, is not clear as to their meaning, though she suspects danger. Oddrun: cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 57 and note. Glaumvor: almost nothing is told of Gunnar’s second wife, though she appears frequently in the Atlamol. Kostbera (or Bera), Hogni’s wife, is known only as skilled in runes. Her brother was Orkning. The sons of Hogni and Kostbera, according to the Atlamol (stanza 28), were Solar and Snævar; the third son, Gjuki, named after his grandfather, seems to be an invention of the annotator’s. Adder: according to Oddrunargratr (stanza 30) Atli’s mother assumed this form in order to complete her son’s vengeance.

17. Laufey: Loki’s mother, cf. Lokasenna, 52 and note.

19. “Glittering worm, | thy hissing was great, And hard didst show thy heart; But hatred more | have the sons of men For him who owns the helm.”

5. In the manuscript this stanza stands between stanzas 11 and 12; most editions have made the change here indicated. South of the Rhine: the definite localization of the action shows how clearly all this part of the story was recognized in the North as of German origin. Atli (Attila; cf. introductory note to Gripisspo): the Northern version of the story makes him Brynhild’s brother. His marriage with Guthrun, and his slaying of her brothers, are told in the Atli poems. Regarding the manner of Sigurth’s death cf. concluding prose passage and note. Stanza 13 indicates that after stanza 5 a stanza containing the words of an eagle has been lost.

4. East, etc.: the Norns give Helgi fame in the East, West, and North; in the North his renown is particularly to endure. This suggests that the poet was aware of the spread of the Helgi story over many lands. Neri’s kinswoman: evidently one of the Norns, but nothing further is known of Neri, and the word may not be a proper name at all.

17. “How won ye success with your women?”

80. An unwise man, | if a maiden’s love Or wealth he chances to win, His pride will wax, | but his wisdom never, Straight forward he fares in conceit.

17. No gap is indicated in the manuscript, and some editions attach these two lines to stanza 16. Niflungs: this name (German Nibelungen), meaning “sons of the mist,” seems to have belonged originally to the race of supernatural beings to which the treasure belonged in the German version. It was subsequently extended to include the Gjukungs and their Burgundians. This question, of minor importance in the Norse poems, has evoked an enormous amount of learned discussion in connection with the Nibelungenlied.

Frān′-mar, Sigrlin’s foster-father, 273, 275.

Beginning with this poem, and thence to the end of the cycle, the German features of the narrative predominate (cf. introductory note to Gripisspo).

9. Cf. Sigrdrifumol, prose introduction. Skatalund (“Warriors’ Grove”): a mythical name; elsewhere the place where Brynhild lay is called Hindarfjoll.

1. “(What evil deed | has Sigurth) done, That the hero’s life | thou fain wouldst have?”

7. “The bodies all | with my own hands then I decked for the grave, | and the dead I buried; A half-year brought me | this to bear; And no one came | to comfort me.

Hlē′-dīs, mother of Ottar, 222.

18. “Maid, not fair | is all thy fortune, The Norns I blame | that this should be; This morn there fell | at Frekastein Bragi and Hogni | beneath my hand.

6. The manuscript indicates no gap, but most editors assume the loss of one, two or even more lines before the two here given.

22. The Volsungasaga places its paraphrase of this stanza between those of stanzas 15 and 16.

65. Lyfjaberg cf. stanza 52 and note.

Bekk′-hild, sister of Brynhild, 345, 346.

2. Most editions make line 5 a part of the stanza, as here, but some indicate it as the sole remnant of one or more stanzas descriptive of Ai and Edda, just as Afi and Amma, Fathir and Mothir, are later described. Ai and Edda: Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother; the latter name was responsible for Jakob Grimm’s famous guess at the meaning of the word “Edda” as applied to the whole collection (cf. Introduction).

29. Rig knew well | wise words to speak, Soon in the midst | of the room he sat, And on either side | the others were.

7. The stanza is clearly in bad shape; the manuscript indicates line 5 as beginning a new stanza. In line 5 the manuscript has “and shield” after “helm.” Kjar: Gering ingeniously identifies this Kjar with Kjar the father of Olrun, mentioned in the Völundarkvitha, introductory prose and stanza 2, on the basis of a genealogy in the Flateyjarbok, in which Authi, the grandfather of Kjar (by no means certainly the same man) and Buthli, father of Atli, are mentioned as making a raiding voyage together. This identification, however, rests on slight evidence.

Erp, son of Jonak, 361, 439, 538, 540, 546, 548, 550, 554.

There is even less agreement about the birthplace, authorship and date of the Eddic poems themselves than about the nature of the existing collection. Clearly the poems were the work of many different men, living in different periods; clearly, too, most of them existed in oral tradition for generations before they were first committed to writing. In general the mythological poems are strongly heathen in character, and as Christianity became generally accepted throughout Norway and Iceland early in the eleventh century, it is altogether likely that most of the poems dealing with the Norse gods antedate the year 1000. On the other hand, Hoffory, Finnur Jonsson and others have shown pretty conclusively from linguistic evidence that these poems cannot have assumed anything like their present form before the ninth century. As for the poems belonging to the hero cycles, one or two of them appear to be as late as 1100, but most of them clearly belong to the hundred years following 950. It is a fairly safe guess that the years between 900 and 1050 saw the majority of the Eddic poems put into shape, but it must be remembered that many changes took place during the long subsequent period of oral transmission, and also that many of the legends, both mythological and heroic, on which the poems were based, certainly existed in Norway, and quite possibly in verse form, long before the year 900. In considering such poems it is essential to forget the present mode of composition, whereby a poet at once fixes his thought and his style by means of writing, and to remember that for at least two centuries, and possibly much longer, the correct transmission of many of the Eddic poems depended solely on accurate hearing and retentive memory.

33. Snorri gives, without materially elaborating on it, the same account of how Ymir’s son and daughter were born under his left arm, and how his feet together created a son. That this offspring should have had six heads is nothing out of the ordinary, for various giants had more than the normal number, and Hymir’s mother is credited with a little matter of nine hundred heads; cf. Hymiskvitha, 8. Of the career of Ymir’s six-headed son we know nothing; he may have been the Thruthgelmir of stanza 29.

In what form or forms the story of the Gjukungs and Atli reached the Greenland poet cannot be determined, but it seems likely that he was familiar with older poems on the subject, and possibly with the Atlakvitha itself. That the details which are peculiar to the Atlamol, such as the figures of Kostbera and Glaumvor, existed in earlier tradition seems doubtful, but the son of Hogni, who aids Guthrun in the slaying of Atli, appears, though under another name, in other late versions of the story, and it is impossible to say just how much the poet relied on his own imagination and how far he found suggestions and hints in the prose or verse stories of Atli with which he was familiar.

30. “Ye shall bring the wagon, | for now is he bound.”

26. Bloody eagle, etc.: the Nornageststhattr describes the manner in which the captured Lyngvi was put to death. “Regin advised that they should carve the bloody eagle on his back. So Regin took his sword and cleft Lyngvi’s back so that he severed his back from his ribs, and then drew out his lungs. So died Lyngvi with great courage.”

Sig′-ar, Helgi’s messenger, 287, 288.

12. Norns: cf. stanza 13 and note. Sigurth has no possible interest in knowing what Norns are helpful in childbirth, but interpolations were seldom logical.

5. Possibly the remains of two stanzas, or perhaps a line has been added. Sæmorn: this river is nowhere else mentioned.

27. Line 3 seems to have been interpolated from line 4 of Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II, 42. Ship’s-tents: the awnings spread over the deck to shelter the crews from sun and rain when the ships were at anchor. Varinsfjord: cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 22 and note.

17. The manuscript does not indicate line 1 as beginning a stanza. The giantess: presumably the reference is to Hel, goddess of the dead, but the phrase is doubtful.

Mū′-spell, father of the fire-dwellers, 22, 165.

Al″-vīss-mǭl, the Ballad of Alvis, 68, 109, 183–194, 252, 283, 546.

Vāl′-a-skjolf, Othin’s home, 88.

Loki saw all the gold that Andvari had. But when he had brought forth all the gold, he held back one ring, and Loki took this from him. The dwarf went into his rocky hole and said:

79. This stanza is certainly in bad shape, and probably out of place here. Its reference to runes as magic signs suggests that it properly belongs in some list of charms like the Ljothatal (stanzas 147–165). The stanza-form is so irregular as to show either that something has been lost or that there have been interpolations. The manuscript indicates no lacuna; Gering fills out the assumed gap as follows:

Hörv′-ir, follower of Hrolf, 224.

Eik″-in-tjas′-na, daughter of Thræll, 207.

40. The key-word in line 3 is missing in the manuscript, but editors have agreed in inserting a word meaning “generous.”

20. “On the ground full low | the slain are lying, Most are there | of the men of thy race; Nought hast thou won, | for thy fate it was Brave men to bring | to the battle-field.”

4. Then Othin rode | to the eastern door, There, he knew well, | was the wise-woman’s grave; Magic he spoke | and mighty charms, Till spell-bound she rose, | and in death she spoke:

18. Herjan: Othin; his maids are the Valkyries; cf. Voluspo, 31, where the same phrase is used.

63. Solbjart (“Sun-Bright”): not elsewhere mentioned. The words of Urth: i.e., the decrees of fate; cf. stanza 7.

93. The forest: i.e., men who were outlawed in the conquered land were restored to their rights—another purely Norse touch.

62. On the day following the adventure of the glove, Thor, Loki and Thor’s servants proceed on their way in company with Skrymir, who puts all their food in his wallet. At evening Skrymir goes to sleep, and Thor tries to get at the food, but cannot loosen the straps of the wallet. In a rage he smites Skrymir three times on the head with his hammer, but the giant—who, it subsequently appears, deftly dodges the blows—is totally undisturbed. Line 5 may well be spurious.

1. Snorri quotes this stanza. Water’s flame: gold, so called because Ægir, the sea-god, was wont to light his hall with gold.

Ham′-al, son of Hagal, 311, 314.

95. The head alone knows | what dwells near the heart, A man knows his mind alone; No sickness is worse | to one who is wise Than to lack the longed-for joy.