The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 65 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 3289
Gull″-in-tan′-ni, Heimdall, 97.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2308
12. The shroud she lifted | from Sigurth, laying
His well-loved head | on the knees of his wife:
“Look on thy loved one, | and lay thy lips
To his as if yet | the hero lived.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2665
10. The manuscript does not name the speaker; cf. note on stanzas
10–20.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1549
29. The manuscript does not name Völund as the speaker before line 3;
Vigfusson again inserts his convenient line, “Then Völund spake, |
sagest of elves.” A few editions combine lines 3–4 with the two lines
of stanza 30.
The Poetic Edda, passage 627
46. Concerning the condition of stanzas 46–50, quoted by Snorri,
nothing definite can be said. Lines and entire stanzas of this
“catalogue” sort undoubtedly came and went with great freedom all
through the period of oral transmission. Many of the names are not
mentioned elsewhere, and often their significance is sheer guesswork.
As in nearly every episode Othin appeared in disguise, the number of
his names was necessarily almost limitless. Grim: “The Hooded.”
Gangleri: “The Wanderer.” Herjan: “The Ruler.” Hjalmberi: “The
Helmet-Bearer.” Thekk: “The Much-Loved.” Thrithi: “The Third” (in
Snorri’s Edda the stories are all told in the form of answers to
questions, the speakers being Har, Jafnhar and Thrithi. Just what this
tripartite form of Othin signifies has been the source of endless
debate. Probably this line is late enough to betray the somewhat
muddled influence of early Christianity.) Thuth and Uth: both names
defy guesswork. Helblindi: “Hel-Blinder” (two manuscripts have
Herblindi—“Host-Blinder”). Hor: “The High One.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2197
23. Then second I rede thee, | to swear no oath
If true thou knowest it not;
Bitter the fate | of the breaker of troth,
And poor is the wolf of his word.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3029
22. Words of the poet’s, like stanza 1, and perhaps constituting a
later addition. Many editors assume the loss of a line after line 3.
The meaning, of course, is that the poet hopes the story of Guthrun’s
woes will make all other troubles seem light by comparison.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2624
4. “What news on earth, | . . . . . . . .
Or what has happened | in Hunland now?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3406
Hund′-land, Hunding’s kingdom, 294, 310, 311.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3355
Hjor′-varth, son of Hunding, 273, 295, 316, 317, 368.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1367
In later years the story of Svipdag and Mengloth became popular
throughout the North, and was made the subject of many Danish and
Swedish as well as Norwegian ballads. These have greatly assisted in
the reconstruction of the outlines of the narrative surrounding the
dialogue poems here given.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2641
19. “Love to Gunnar | then I gave,
To the breaker of rings, | as Brynhild might;
To Atli rings | so red they offered,
And mighty gifts | to my brother would give.
The Poetic Edda, passage 203
9. Happy the man | who has while he lives
Wisdom and praise as well,
For evil counsel | a man full oft
Has from another’s heart.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3641
Veg′-tam, Othin, 195, 197, 199.
The Poetic Edda, passage 402
129. Line 5 is apparently interpolated.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3615
Tot″-rug-hyp′-ja, daughter of Thræll, 207.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1920
Gripir was the name of Eylimi’s son, the brother of Hjordis; he ruled
over lands and was of all men the wisest and most forward-seeing.
Sigurth once was riding alone and came to Gripir’s hall. Sigurth was
easy to recognize; he found out in front of the hall a man whose name
was Geitir. Then Sigurth questioned him and asked:
The Poetic Edda, passage 3073
11. In the manuscript this stanza follows stanza 21, and some editors
take the word here rendered “fame-glad one” (hróþrglǫþ) to be a proper
name (Jormunrek’s mother or his concubine). The Volsungasaga, however,
indicates that Guthrun at this point “had so fashioned their war-gear
that iron would not bite into it, and she bade them to have nought to
do with stones or other heavy things, and told them that it would be
ill for them if they did not do as she said.” The substance of this
counsel may well have been conveyed in a passage lost after line 3,
though the manuscript indicates no gap. It is by being stoned that
Hamther and Sorli are killed (stanza 26). On the other hand, the second
part of line 3 may possibly mean “if silent ye are not,” in which case
the advice relates to Hamther’s speech to Jormunrek and Sorli’s
reproach to him thereupon (stanzas 25 and 27). Steps: the word in the
original is doubtful. Line 3 is thoroughly obscure. Some editors make a
separate stanza of lines 3–5, while others question line 5.
The Poetic Edda, passage 18
Icelandic tradition, however, persisted in ascribing either this Edda
or one resembling it to Snorri’s much earlier compatriot, Sæmund the
Wise (1056–1133). When, early in the seventeenth century, the learned
Arngrimur Jonsson proved to everyone’s satisfaction that Snorri and
nobody else must have been responsible for the work in question, the
next thing to determine was what, if anything, Sæmund had done of the
same kind. The nature of Snorri’s book gave a clue. In the mythological
stories related a number of poems were quoted, and as these and other
poems were to all appearances Snorri’s chief sources of information, it
was assumed that Sæmund must have written or compiled a verse
Edda—whatever an “Edda” might be—on which Snorri’s work was largely
based.
The Poetic Edda, passage 955
He took the horn, and drank therefrom:
The Poetic Edda, passage 197
3. Fire he needs | who with frozen knees
Has come from the cold without;
Food and clothes | must the farer have,
The man from the mountains come.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1171
The poet, however, was certainly not a Dane, but probably a wandering
Norse singer, who may have had a dozen homes, and who clearly had spent
much time in some part of the western island world chiefly inhabited by
Celts. The extent of Celtic influence on the Eddic poems in general is
a matter of sharp dispute. Powell, for example, claims almost all the
poems for the “Western Isles,” and attributes nearly all their good
qualities to Celtic influence. Without here attempting to enter into
the details of the argument, it may be said that the weight of
authoritative opinion, while clearly recognizing the marks of Celtic
influence in the poems, is against this view; contact between the
roving Norsemen of Norway and Iceland and the Celts of Ireland and the
“Western Isles,” and particularly the Orkneys, was so extensive as to
make the presumption of an actual Celtic home for the poems seem quite
unnecessary.
The Poetic Edda, passage 738
18. “Lively women we had, | if they wise for us were;
Wise were the women we had, | if they kind for us were;
For ropes of sand | they would seek to wind,
And the bottom to dig | from the deepest dale.
Wiser than all | in counsel I was,
And there I slept | by the sisters seven,
And joy full great | did I get from each.
What, Thor, didst thou the while?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1054
33. And so his hammer | got Othin’s son.
The Poetic Edda, passage 998
40. Thy wife: there is no other reference to Tyr’s wife, nor do we know
who was the son in question.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3170
Brag′-i, brother of Sigrun, 318, 319.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1460
52. Lyfjaberg (“Hill of Healing”): the manuscripts vary as to this
name; I have followed Bugge’s suggestion. This stanza implies that
Mengloth is a goddess of healing, and hence, perhaps, an hypostasis of
Frigg, as already intimated by her name (cf. stanza 3, note). In stanza
54 Eir appears as one of Mengloth’s handmaidens, and Eir, according to
Snorri (Gylfaginning, 35) is herself the Norse Hygeia. Compare this
stanza with stanza 32.
The Poetic Edda, passage 802
35. Heel-biter: this effective parallel to our “back-biter” is not
found elsewhere in Old Norse.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2969
84. Line 4 may be in Fornyrthislag, and from another poem.
The Poetic Edda, passage 260
66. Too early to many | a meeting I came,
And some too late have I sought;
The beer was all drunk, | or not yet brewed;
Little the loathed man finds.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2215
2. Sons of day: the spirits of light. The daughter of night (Not),
according to Snorri, was Jorth (Earth).
The Poetic Edda, passage 3411
Hynd′-la, a giantess, 217–220, 222, 231–233.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1406
36. “Gif call they one, | and Geri the other,
If now the truth thou wouldst know;
Great they are, | and their might will grow,
Till the gods to death are doomed.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2791
4. Runes did she fashion, | but false Vingi made them,
The speeder of hatred, | ere to give them he sought;
Then soon fared the warriors | whom Atli had sent,
And to Limafjord came, | to the home of the kings.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3069
6. Lines 1–3 are nearly identical with lines 1–3 of Guthrunarhvot, 4.
On the death of Sigurth cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 21–24, and Brot,
concluding prose. The word thy in line 3 is omitted in the original.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2379
32. “A worthier woman | wouldst thou have been
If before thine eyes | we had Atli slain;
If thy brother’s bleeding | body hadst seen
And the bloody wounds | that thou shouldst bind.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2339
21. Cf. Gripisspo, 35 and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3430
Kār″-u-ljōth′, the Poem of Kara, 272, 311, 314, 315, 331.
The Poetic Edda, passage 995
37. Tyr: the god of battle; cf. notes on Hymiskvitha, 4, and Voluspo,
39. Freyr; concerning his noble qualities cf. Skirnismol, introductory
prose and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2535
19. Ready was Gunnar | gold to give,
Amends for my hurt, | and Hogni too;
Then would she know | who now would go,
The horse to saddle, | the wagon to harness,
(The horse to ride, | the hawk to fly,
And shafts from bows | of yew to shoot).
The Poetic Edda, passage 1682
14. The king then sat, | when he had slain
Eyjolf and Alf, | ’neath the eagle-stone;
Hjorvarth and Hovarth, | Hunding’s sons,
The kin of the spear-wielder, | all had he killed.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2780
43. The second half of line 4 is apparently an error, but none of the
editorial suggestions have improved it.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1069
18–19. The manuscript abbreviates all six lines, giving only the
initial letters of the words. The stanza division is thus arbitrary;
some editors have made one stanza of the six lines, others have
combined the last two lines of stanza 19 with stanza 20. It is possible
that a couple of lines have been lost.
The Poetic Edda, passage 883
27. No superscription in the manuscripts. In its place Bugge supplies a
line—“These words spake Hymir, | the giant wise.” The manuscripts
reverse the order of lines 2 and 3, and in both of them line 4 stands
after stanza 28. Goat of the flood: boat.
The Poetic Edda, passage 383
“Certain is that | which is sought from runes,
The runes—,” etc.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3257
Gerth, daughter of Gymir, 109, 111–115, 119, 120, 152, 165, 228.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2992
4. Then Hamther spake, | the high of heart:
“Little the deed | of Hogni didst love,
When Sigurth they wakened | from his sleep;
Thy bed-covers white | were red with blood
Of thy husband, drenched | with gore from his heart.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3275
Graf′-vol-luth, a serpent, 98.
The Poetic Edda, passage 495
19. With this stanza Vafthruthnir, sufficiently impressed with his
guest’s wisdom to invite him to share his own seat, resigns the
questioning to Othin.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3005
17. “The sorest it was | when Sigurth mine
On his couch, of victory | robbed, they killed;
And grimmest of all | when to Gunnar’s heart
There crept the bright-hued | crawling snakes.