The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 61 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 2121
39. “Not so rich a fate | shall Regin have
As the tale of my death to tell;
For soon the brothers | both shall die,
And hence to hell shall go.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2967
82. The manuscript does not indicate the speakers. Many editions make
two separate stanzas of the four lines. Another light: a fairly clear
indication of the influence of Christianity; cf. Introductory Note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 595
13. Himinbjorg (“Heaven’s Cliffs”): the dwelling at the end of the
bridge Bifrost (the rainbow), where Heimdall (cf. Voluspo, 27) keeps
watch against the coming of the giants. In this stanza the two
functions of Heimdall—as father of mankind (cf. Voluspo, 1 and note,
and Rigsthula, introductory prose and note) and as warder of the
gods—seem both to be mentioned, but the second line in the manuscripts
is apparently in bad shape, and in the editions is more or less
conjectural.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1791
Hamal was the name of Hagal’s son. King Hunding sent men to Hagal to
seek Helgi, and Helgi could not save himself in any other way, so he
put on the clothes of a bond-woman and set to work at the mill. They
sought Helgi but found him not.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1930
7. “Of men thou shalt be | on earth the mightiest,
And higher famed | than all the heroes;
Free of gold-giving, | slow to flee,
Noble to see, | and sage in speech.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1352
35. This stanza is quoted by Snorri (Gylfaginning, 5). Of Vitholf
(“Forest Wolf”), Vilmeith (“Wish-Tree”) and Svarthofthi (“Black Head”)
nothing further is known. Ymir: cf. Voluspo, 3.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1490
16. “The gold was not | on Grani’s way,
Far, methinks, is our realm | from the hills of the Rhine;
I mind me that treasures | more we had
When happy together | at home we were.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1949
26. “No scorn I know | for the noble king,
But counsel good | from Gripir I seek;
Well will I know, | though evil awaits,
What Sigurth may | before him see.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 696
18. The Arnamagnæan Codex omits this stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 132
10. Very few of the dwarfs named in this and the following stanzas are
mentioned elsewhere. It is not clear why Durin should have been singled
out as authority for the list. The occasional repetitions suggest that
not all the stanzas of the catalogue came from the same source. Most of
the names presumably had some definite significance, as Northri,
Suthri, Austri, and Vestri (“North,” “South,” “East,” and “West”),
Althjof (“Mighty Thief”), Mjothvitnir (“Mead-Wolf”), Gandalf (“Magic
Elf”), Vindalf (“Wind Elf”), Rathsvith (“Swift in Counsel”),
Eikinskjaldi (“Oak Shield”), etc., but in many cases the
interpretations are sheer guesswork.
The Poetic Edda, passage 206
12. Less good there lies | than most believe
In ale for mortal men;
For the more he drinks | the less does man
Of his mind the mastery hold.
The Poetic Edda, passage 365
14. Fjalar: apparently another name for Suttung. This stanza, and
probably 13, seem to have been inserted as illustrative.
The Poetic Edda, passage 665
26. “I strike thee, maid, | with my magic staff,
To tame thee to work my will;
There shalt thou go | where never again
The sons of men shall see thee.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1339
21. Olmoth: one of the sons of Ketil Hortha-Kari. Line 4: here, and
generally hereafter when it appears in the poem, this refrain-line is
abbreviated in the manuscript to the word “all.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1554
34. No gap indicated in the manuscript, but it seems clear that
something has been lost. Some editors combine these two lines with
lines 3–4 of stanza 33. Völund is now flying over Nithuth’s hall.
The Poetic Edda, passage 690
10. Some editors reject line 3 as spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3360
Hlīf, Mengloth’s handmaid, 248.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2458
47. The manuscript marks line 3, and not line 1, as beginning a stanza,
and some editions treat lines 3–4 as a separate stanza, or combine them
with stanza 48.
The Poetic Edda, passage 776
56. “To refuse it is little, | to fare it is long;
A while to the stock, | and a while to the stone;
Then the road to thy left, | till Verland thou reachest;
And there shall Fjorgyn | her son Thor find,
And the road of her children | she shows him to Othin’s realm.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3009
21. “Pile ye up, jarls, | the pyre of oak,
Make it the highest | a hero e’er had;
Let the fire burn | my grief-filled breast,
My sore-pressed heart, | till my sorrows melt.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2948
63. There is some doubt as to the exact meaning of line 2. After this
line two lines may have been lost; Grundtvig adds: “Few braver shall
ever | be found on the earth, / Or loftier men | in the world
ever live.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3016
5. Bloody: a guess; a word in the original is clearly missing, and the
same is true of all in line 3. Thy sons: i.e., by killing her sons Erp
and Eitil (cf. Atlamol, 72–74) Guthrun deprived Hamther, Sorli, and the
second Erp of valuable allies in avenging Svanhild’s death.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1081
The translation of the many synonyms presents, of course, unusual
difficulties, particularly as many of the Norse words can be properly
rendered in English only by more or less extended phrases. I have kept
to the original meanings as closely as I could without utterly
destroying the metrical structure.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3628
Val′-bjorg, Grimhild’s land, 461.
The Poetic Edda, passage 189
This poem follows the Voluspo in the Codex Regius, but is preserved in
no other manuscript. The first stanza is quoted by Snorri, and two
lines of stanza 84 appear in one of the sagas.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1684
16. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
High under helms | on heaven’s field;
Their byrnies all | with blood were red,
And from their spears | the sparks flew forth.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1548
27. No gap indicated in the manuscript; the line and a half might be
filled out (partly with the aid of late paper manuscripts) thus: “But
soon it broke, | and swiftly to Völund / She bore it and said—”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3058
27. “Ill didst win, brother, | when the bag thou didst open,
Oft from that bag | came baleful counsel;
Heart hast thou, Hamther, | if knowledge thou hadst!
A man without wisdom | is lacking in much.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2163
Properly speaking, however, the strange conglomeration of stanzas which
the compiler of the collection has left for us, and which, in much the
same general form, seems to have lain before the authors of the
Volsungasaga, in which eighteen of its stanzas are quoted, is not a
poem at all. Even its customary title is an absurd error. The mistake
made by the annotator in thinking that the epithet “sigrdrifa,” rightly
applied to Brynhild as a “bringer of victory,” was a proper name has
already been explained and commented on (note on Fafnismol, 44). Even
if the collection of stanzas were in any real sense a poem, which it
emphatically is not, it is certainly not the “Ballad of Sigrdrifa”
which it is commonly called. “Ballad of Brynhild” would be a
sufficiently suitable title, and I have here brought the established
name “Sigrdrifumol” into accord with this by translating the epithet
instead of treating it as a proper name.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1030
9. “Hast thou found tidings | as well as trouble?
Thy news in the air | shalt thou utter now;
Oft doth the sitter | his story forget,
And lies he speaks | who lays himself down.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2604
5. “With thirty warriors | Thjothrek came,
Nor of all his men | doth one remain;
Thou hast murdered my brothers | and mail-clad men,
Thou hast murdered all | the men of my race.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3092
30. Some editors assume a gap after this stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1508
31. Laughing Völund | rose aloft,
Weeping Bothvild | went from the isle,
For her lover’s flight | and her father’s wrath.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2845
57. Then did Beiti speak, | he was Atli’s steward:
“Let us seize now Hjalli, | and Hogni spare we!
Let us fell the sluggard, | he is fit for death,
He has lived too long, | and lazy men call him.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 102
46. Fast move the sons | of Mim, and fate
Is heard in the note | of the Gjallarhorn;
Loud blows Heimdall, | the horn is aloft,
In fear quake all | who on Hel-roads are.
The Poetic Edda, passage 421
157. The last line looks like an unwarranted addition, and line 4 may
likewise be spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2943
57. Beiti: not elsewhere mentioned. The Atlakvitha version of this
episode (stanzas 23–25) does not mention Beiti, and in the Volsungasaga
the advice to cut out Hjalli’s heart instead of Hogni’s is given by an
unnamed “counsellor of Atli.” In the Atlakvitha Hjalli is actually
killed; the Volsungasaga combines the two versions by having Hjalli
first let off at Hogni’s intercession and then seized a second time and
killed, thus introducing the Atlakvitha episode of the quaking heart
(stanza 24). The text of the first half of line 3 is obscure, and there
are many and widely varying suggestions as to the word here rendered
“sluggard.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2325
4. Gjaflaug: nothing further is known of this aunt of Guthrun, or of
the many relatives whom she has lost. Very likely she is an invention
of the poet’s, for it seems improbable that otherwise all further trace
of her should have been lost. Line 4 has been marked by many editors as
spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3398
Hrō′-mund-ar Sag′-a Greips′-son-ar, the Saga of Hromund Greipsson, 311,
331.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1041
20. Then Loki spake, | the son of Laufey:
“As thy maid-servant thither | I go with thee;
We two shall haste | to the giants’ home.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 153
35. The translation here follows the Regius version. The Hauksbok has
the same final two lines, but in place of the first pair has, “I know
that Vali | his brother gnawed, / With his bowels then | was
Loki bound.” Many editors have followed this version of the whole
stanza or have included these two lines, often marking them as
doubtful, with the four from Regius. After the murder of Baldr, the
gods took Loki and bound him to a rock with the bowels of his son
Narfi, who had just been torn to pieces by Loki’s other son, Vali. A
serpent was fastened above Loki’s head, and the venom fell upon his
face. Loki’s wife, Sigyn, sat by him with a basin to catch the venom,
but whenever the basin was full, and she went away to empty it, then
the venom fell on Loki again, till the earth shook with his struggles.
“And there he lies bound till the end.” Cf. Lokasenna, concluding
prose.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1022
2. Hear now the speech | that first he spake:
“Harken, Loki, | and heed my words,
Nowhere on earth | is it known to man,
Nor in heaven above: | our hammer is stolen.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 719
Owing to the chaotic state of the text, and the fact that none of the
editors or commentators have succeeded in improving it much, I have not
in this case attempted to give all the important emendations and
suggestions. The stanza-divisions are largely arbitrary.
The Poetic Edda, passage 10
Voluspo 1
Hovamol 28
Vafthruthnismol 68
Grimnismol 84
Skirnismol 107
Harbarthsljoth 121
Hymiskvitha 138
Lokasenna 151
Thrymskvitha 174
Alvissmol 183
Baldrs Draumar 195
Rigsthula 201
Hyndluljoth 217
Svipdagsmol 234
The Poetic Edda, passage 3560
Skjold′-ungs, descendants of Skjold, 221–223.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3517
Rigs′-thul-a, the Song of Rig, 3, 90, 167, 183, 201–216, 230, 428, 484.
The Poetic Edda, passage 408
137. The list of “household remedies” in this stanza is doubtless
interpolated. Their nature needs no comment here.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2295
Guthrunarkvitha I, so far as the narrative underlying it is concerned,
shows very little northern addition to the basic German tradition.
Brynhild appears only as Guthrun’s enemy and the cause of Sigurth’s
death; the three women who attempt to comfort Guthrun, though unknown
to the southern stories, seem to have been rather distinct creations of
the poet’s than traditional additions to the legend. Regarding the
relations of the various elements in the Sigurth cycle, cf.
introductory note to Gripisspo.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2048
3. Stanzas 3–4 may well be fragments of some other poem. Certainly
Loki’s question does not fit the situation, and the passage looks like
an extract from some such poem as Vafthruthnismol. In Regius the phrase
“Loki spake” stands in the middle of line 1.
The Poetic Edda, passage 428
The Vafthruthnismol follows the Hovamol in the Codex Regius. From
stanza 20 on it is also included in the Arnamagnæan Codex, the first
part evidently having appeared on a leaf now lost. Snorri quotes eight
stanzas of it in the Prose Edda, and in his prose text closely
paraphrases many others.