The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 60 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 1482
9. This Nithuth learned, | the lord of the Njars,
That Völund alone | in Ulfdalir lay;
By night went his men, | their mail-coats were studded,
Their shields in the waning | moonlight shone.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3507
Ōth′-rör-ir, a goblet, 51, 61.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2540
24. Much evil was brewed | within the beer,
Blossoms of trees, | and acorns burned,
Dew of the hearth, | and holy entrails,
The liver of swine,— | all grief to allay.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1686
18. Down from her horse | sprang Hogni’s daughter,—
The shields were still,— | and spake to the hero:
“Other tasks | are ours, methinks,
Than drinking beer | with the breaker of rings.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2885
94. “Slain was the Hun-king, | soon happiness vanished,
In her grief the widow | so young sat weeping;
Yet worse seemed the sorrow | to seek Atli’s house,
A hero was my husband, | and hard was his loss.
The Poetic Edda, passage 426
164. This stanza is almost certainly an interpolation, and seems to
have been introduced after the list of charms and the Loddfafnismol
(stanzas 111–138) were combined in a single poem, for there is no other
apparent excuse for the reference to Loddfafnir at this point. The
words “if thou mightest get them” are a conjectural emendation.
The Poetic Edda, passage 807
42. Just what Othin means, or why his words should so have enraged
Thor, is not evident, though he may imply that Thor is open to bribery.
Perhaps a passage has dropped out before stanza 43.
The Poetic Edda, passage 259
65. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Oft for the words | that to others one speaks
He will get but an evil gift.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1256
37. Something—one or two lines, or a longer passage—has clearly been
lost, describing the beginning of Jarl’s journey. Yet many editors,
relying on the manuscript punctuation, make 37 and 38 into a single
stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 679
40. “Barri there is, | which we both know well,
A forest fair and still;
And nine nights hence | to the son of Njorth
Will Gerth there grant delight.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2504
12. Eight nights: elsewhere (cf. Gripisspo, 42) the time is stated as
three nights, not eight. There is a confusion of traditions here, as in
Gripisspo. In the version of the story wherein Sigurth met Brynhild
before he encountered the Gjukungs, Sigurth was bound by no oaths, and
the union was completed; it is only in the alternative version that the
episode of the sword laid between the two occurs.
The Poetic Edda, passage 486
1. The phrases “Othin spake,” “Frigg spake,” etc., appear in
abbreviated form in both manuscripts. Frigg: Othin’s wife; cf. Voluspo,
34 and note. Vafthruthnir (“the Mighty in Riddles”): nothing is known
of this giant beyond what is told in this poem.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1715
47. “Better, Sinfjotli, | thee ’twould beseem
Battle to give | and eagles to gladden,
Than vain and empty | words to utter,
Though ring-breakers oft | in speech do wrangle.
The Poetic Edda, passage 745
25. “Unequal gifts | of men wouldst thou give to the gods,
If might too much thou shouldst have.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3300
Gym′-ir, a giant, 109, 111, 112, 114, 165, 228.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2057
11. Apparently an interpolation (cf. Introductory Note). Vigfusson
tries to reconstruct lines 2 and 4 to fit the Ljothahattr rhythm, but
without much success. Hreithmar urges his daughter, as she has no sons,
to bear a daughter who, in turn, will have a son to avenge his
great-grandfather. Grundtvig worked out an ingenious theory to fit this
stanza, making Sigurth’s grandfather, Eylimi, the husband of
Lyngheith’s daughter, but there is absolutely no evidence to support
this. The stanza may have nothing to do with Hreithmar.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1969
46. “What may for the bride | requital be,
The wife we won | with subtle wiles?
From me she has | the oaths I made,
And kept not long; | they gladdened her little.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1744
20. No gap indicated in the manuscript; some editors combine the stanza
with the fragmentary stanza 21, and others fill in with “And home will
carry | Hogni’s daughter.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2239
31. The meaning is that it is better to go forth to battle than to stay
at home and be burned to death. Many a Norse warrior met his death in
this latter way; the burning of the house in the Njalssaga is the most
famous instance.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2687
The two Atli poems deal with substantially the same material: the visit
of the sons of Gjuki to Atli’s court, their deaths, and the subsequent
revenge of their sister, Guthrun, Atli’s wife, on her husband. The
shorter of the two, the Atlakvitha, tells the story with little
elaboration; the Atlamol, with about the same narrative basis, adds
many details, some of them apparently of the poet’s invention, and with
a romantic, not to say sentimental, quality quite lacking in the
Atlakvitha. Both poems are sharply distinguished from the rest of the
collection by their metrical form, which is the Malahattr (used
irregularly also in the Harbarthsljoth), employed consistently and
smoothly in the Atlamol, and with a considerable mixture of what appear
to be Fornyrthislag lines (cf. Introduction) in the Atlakvitha.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2194
20. “Now shalt thou choose, | for the choice is given,
Thou tree of the biting blade;
Speech or silence, | ’tis thine to say,
Our evil is destined all.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2486
5. “Truth from the wagon | here I tell thee,
Witless one, | if know thou wilt
How the heirs of Gjuki | gave me to be
Joyless ever, | a breaker of oaths.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2299
3. Then the wives | of the warriors came,
Gold-adorned, | and Guthrun sought;
Each one then | of her own grief spoke,
The bitterest pain | she had ever borne.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1259
42. The names mean: Bur, “Son”; Barn, “Child”; Joth, “Child”; Athal,
“Offspring”; Arfi, “Heir”; Mog, “Son”; Nith, “Descendant”; Svein,
“Boy”; Sun, “Son”; Nithjung, “Descendant”; Kund, “Kinsman”; Kon, “Son”
(of noble birth). Concerning the use made of this last name, see note
on stanza 44. It is curious that there is no list of the daughters of
Jarl and Erna, and accordingly Vigfusson inserts here the names listed
in stanza 25. Grundtvig rearranges the lines of stanzas 42 and 43.
The Poetic Edda, passage 248
54. A measure of wisdom | each man shall have,
But never too much let him know;
The fairest lives | do those men live
Whose wisdom wide has grown.
The Poetic Edda, passage 412
143. This and the following stanza belong together, and in many
editions appear as a single stanza. They presumably come from some lost
poem on the authorship of the runes. Lines 2 and 3 follow line 4 in the
manuscript; the transposition was suggested by Bugge. The king of
singers: Othin. The magic signs (runes) were commonly carved in wood,
then colored red.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2166
The Sigrdrifumol, then, must be regarded simply as a collection of
fragments, most of them originally having no relation to the main
subject. All of the story, the dialogue and the characterization are
embodied in stanzas 1–4 and 20–21 and in the prose notes accompanying
the first four stanzas; all of the rest might equally well (or better)
be transferred to the Hovamol, where its character entitles it to a
place. Yet stanzas 2–4 are as fine as anything in Old Norse poetry, and
it is out of the scanty material of these three stanzas that Wagner
constructed much of the third act of “Siegfried.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 548
20. O’er Mithgarth Hugin | and Munin both
Each day set forth to fly;
For Hugin I fear | lest he come not home,
But for Munin my care is more.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3432
Kjār, father of Olrun, 254–256, 485.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1268
Neither poem is of any great value, either as mythology or as poetry.
The author of “the short Voluspo” seems, indeed, to have been more or
less confused as to his facts; and both poets were too late to feel
anything of the enthusiasm of the earlier school. The names of Hyndla’s
heroes, of course, suggest an unlimited number of stories, but as most
of these have no direct relation to the poems of the Edda, I have
limited the notes to a mere record of who the persons mentioned were,
and the saga-groups in which they appeared.
The Poetic Edda, passage 478
48. “Much have I fared, | much have I found,
Much have I got of the gods:
What maidens are they, | so wise of mind,
That forth o’er the sea shall fare?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 942
42. “The daughter of Gymir | with gold didst thou buy,
And sold thy sword to boot;
But when Muspell’s sons | through Myrkwood ride,
Thou shalt weaponless wait, poor wretch.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2488
7. “The monarch bold | the swan-robes bore
Of the sisters eight | beneath an oak;
Twelve winters I was, | if know thou wilt,
When oaths I yielded | the king so young.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3520
Rog′-heim, Home of Battle, 289.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1952
29. “Of many a joy | the maiden robs thee,
Fair to see, | whom Heimir fosters;
Sleep thou shalt find not, | feuds thou shalt end not,
Nor seek out men, | if the maid thou seest not.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3248
Frōth′-i, father of Hledis, 222.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2343
Prose. The manuscript has “Gunnar” in place of “Guthrun,” but this is
an obvious mistake; the entire prose passage is based on
Guthrunarkvitha II, 14. The Volsungasaga likewise merely paraphrases
Guthrunarkvitha II, and nothing further is known of Thora or her
father, Hokon, though many inconclusive attempts have been made to
identify the latter. Brynhild: the story of her death is told in great
detail in the latter part of Sigurtharkvitha en skamma.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3480
Nifl′-hel, land of the dead, 80, 196.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3065
2. Some editors regard lines 1–2 as interpolated, while others question
line 3. Guthrun, etc.: regarding the marriage of Jonak and Guthrun
(daughter of Gjuki, sister of Gunnar and Hogni, and widow first of
Sigurth and then of Atli), and the sons of this marriage, Hamther and
Sorli (but not Erp), cf. Guthrunarhvot, introductory prose and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1502
26. And from the teeth | of the twain he wrought
A brooch for the breast, | to Bothvild he sent it;
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
The Poetic Edda, passage 3575
Sprund, daughter of Karl, 210.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3535
Sig′-ars-voll, a battlefield, 277, 287, 293.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1083
2. “What, pray, art thou? | Why so pale round the nose?
By the dead hast thou lain of late?
To a giant like | dost thou look, methinks;
Thou wast not born for the bride.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1829
Helgi took Sigrun to wife, and they had sons. Helgi did not reach old
age. Dag, the son of Hogni, offered sacrifice to Othin to be avenged
for his father’s death; Othin gave Dag his spear. Dag found Helgi, his
brother-in-law, at a place which is called Fjoturlund. He thrust the
spear through Helgi’s body. Then Helgi fell, and Dag rode to Sevafjoll
and told Sigrun the tidings:
The Poetic Edda, passage 193
It seems all but meaningless to talk about “interpolations” in a poem
which has developed almost solely through the process of piecing
together originally unrelated odds and ends. The notes, therefore, make
only such suggestions as are needed to keep the main divisions of the
poem distinct.
The Poetic Edda, passage 440
10. “If a poor man reaches | the home of the rich,
Let him wisely speak or be still;
For to him who speaks | with the hard of heart
Will chattering ever work ill.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1182
8. The skin was wrinkled | and rough on his hands,
Knotted his knuckles, | . . . . . . . .
Thick his fingers, | and ugly his face,
Twisted his back, | and big his heels.
The Poetic Edda, passage 543
15. The tenth is Glitnir; | its pillars are gold,
And its roof with silver is set;
There most of his days | does Forseti dwell,
And sets all strife at end.
The Poetic Edda, passage 148
30. This is apparently the transitional stanza, in which the Volva,
rewarded by Othin for her knowledge of the past (stanzas 1–29), is
induced to proceed with her real prophecy (stanzas 31–66). Some editors
turn the stanza into the third person, making it a narrative link.
Bugge, on the other hand, puts it after stanza 28 as the third stanza
of the poem. No lacuna is indicated in the manuscripts, and editors
have attempted various emendations. Heerfather (“Father of the Host”):
Othin.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3076
14. The stanza is obviously defective. Many editors add Erp’s name in
line 1, and insert between lines 2 and 3 a line based on stanza 15 and
the Volsungasaga paraphrase: “As a flesh-grown hand | another
helps.” In the Volsungasaga, after Erp’s death, Hamther stumbles and
saves himself from falling with his hand, whereupon he says: “Erp spake
truly; I had fallen had I not braced myself with my hand.” Soon
thereafter Sorli has a like experience, one foot slipping but the other
saving him from a fall. “Then they said that they had done ill to Erp,
their brother.”