The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 69 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 2091
12. “Tell me then, Fafnir, | for wise thou art famed,
And much thou knowest now:
Who are the Norns | who are helpful in need,
And the babe from the mother bring?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3617
Tron′-u-eyr, Crane-Strand, 298.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3027
19. The manuscript does not indicate line 1 as beginning a stanza, and
it immediately follows the fragmentary line 3 of stanza 18. The
resemblance between stanzas 19–21 and stanzas 64–69 of Sigurtharkvitha
en skamma suggests that, in some otherwise lost version of the story,
Guthrun, like Brynhild, sought to die soon after Sigurth’s death. Thy
steed: Guthrun’s appeal to the dead Sigurth to ride back to earth to
meet her is reminiscent of the episode related in Helgakvitha
Hundingsbana II, 39–48. The promise mentioned in stanza 20 is spoken of
elsewhere only in the Volsungasaga paraphrase of this passage.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2405
58. “Ill to thee | shall Atli bring,
When he casts thee down | in the den of snakes.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2940
53. The manuscript does not name the speaker. The Volsungasaga gives
the speech, in somewhat altered form, to Hogni: “Why speakest thou so?
Thou wast the first to break peace; thou didst take my kinswoman and
starved her in a prison, and murdered her and took her wealth; that was
not kinglike; and laughable does it seem to me that thou talkest of thy
sorrow, and good shall I find it that all goes ill with thee.” This
presumably represents the correct form of the stanza, for nowhere else
is it intimated that Atli killed Guthrun’s mother, Grimhild, nor is the
niece elsewhere mentioned. Some editions make a separate stanza of
lines 4–5, Grundtvig adding a line after line 3 and two more after line
5. Other editors are doubtful about the authenticity of either line 3
or line 5.
The Poetic Edda, passage 362
6. Lines 5 and 6 appear to have been added to the stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2081
2. “The Noble Hart | my name, and I go
A motherless man abroad;
Father I had not, | as others have,
And lonely ever I live.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 602
20. Mithgarth (“The Middle Home”): the earth. Hugin (“Thought”) and
Munin (“Memory”): the two ravens who sit on Othin’s shoulders, and fly
forth daily to bring him news of the world.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2661
7. Hogni’s slayer: obviously Vilmund, but unless he was the one of
Atli’s followers who actually cut out Hogni’s heart (cf. Drap
Niflunga), there is nothing else to connect him with Hogni’s death.
Sijmons emends the line to read “Born of the sister | of Hogni’s
slayer.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 928
28. “Thou wilt then, Frigg, | that further I tell
Of the ill that now I know;
Mine is the blame | that Baldr no more
Thou seest ride home to the hall.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2613
5. Regarding the death of Thjothrek’s men cf. Guthrunarkvitha II,
introductory prose, note. It was on these stanzas of Guthrunarkvitha
III that the annotator based his introduction to Guthrunarkvitha II.
The manuscript repeats the “thirty” in line 2, in defiance of metrical
requirements.
The Poetic Edda, passage 780
60. “Get hence where every evil thing shall have thee!”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2931
43. The manuscript reading of lines 1–2, involving a metrical error,
is: “In the house came the word | of the warring without, / Loud in
front of the hall | they heard a thrall shouting.” Some editors
assume a gap of two lines after line 2, the missing passage giving the
words of the thrall. The manuscript marks line 3 as the beginning of a
stanza, and many editions make a separate stanza of lines 3–5, some of
them assuming the loss of a line after line 3. With the stanza as here
given, line 5 may well be spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 886
31. The loved one: Hymir’s wife and Tyr’s mother; cf. stanza 8 and
note. The idea that a giant’s skull is harder than stone or anything
else is characteristic of the later Norse folk-stories, and in one of
the so-called “mythical sagas” we find a giant actually named
Hard-Skull.
The Poetic Edda, passage 562
34. More serpents there are | beneath the ash
Than an unwise ape would think;
Goin and Moin, | Grafvitnir’s sons,
Grabak and Grafvolluth,
Ofnir and Svafnir | shall ever, methinks,
Gnaw at the twigs of the tree.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2404
57. “Oddrun as wife | thou fain wouldst win,
But Atli this | from thee withholds;
Yet in secret tryst | ye twain shall love;
She shall hold thee dear, | as I had done
If kindly fate | to us had fallen.
The Poetic Edda, passage 938
38. “Be silent, Tyr! | for between two men
Friendship thou ne’er couldst fashion;
Fain would I tell | how Fenrir once
Thy right hand rent from thee.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 111
55. Hither there comes | the son of Hlothyn,
The bright snake gapes | to heaven above;
. . . . . . . . . .
Against the serpent | goes Othin’s son.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3608
Thōr′-ir, follower of Hrolf, 224.
The Poetic Edda, passage 71
15. There were Draupnir | and Dolgthrasir,
Hor, Haugspori, | Hlevang, Gloin,
Dori, Ori, | Duf, Andvari,
Skirfir, Virfir, | Skafith, Ai.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3024
16. Some editors assume a gap of two lines after line 2, and make a
separate stanza of lines 3–5; Gering adds a sixth line of his own
coining, while Grundtvig inserts one between lines 3 and 4. The
manuscript indicates line 5 as beginning a new stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3438
Lauf′-ey, mother of Loki, 9, 157, 168, 177–179.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2514
An added reason for believing that Guthrunarkvitha II traces its origin
back to a lament which reached the North from Germany in verse form is
the absence of most of the characteristic Norse additions to the
narrative, except in minor details. Sigurth is slain in the forest, as
“German men say” (cf. Brot, concluding prose); the urging of Guthrun by
her mother and brothers to become Atli’s wife, the slaying of the
Gjukungs (here only intimated, for at that point something seems to
have been lost), and Guthrun’s prospective revenge on Atli, all belong
directly to the German tradition (cf. introductory note to Gripisspo).
The Poetic Edda, passage 2742
2. Falseness: i.e., Gunnar’s followers concealed their fear and hatred
of the Huns at the feast; but the word may mean “fear of treachery.”
War-hall: the word used is “Valhall,” the name of Othin’s hall of slain
warriors.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1470
The swan-maiden story appears, of course, in many places quite distinct
from the Weland tradition, and, in another form, became one of the most
popular of German folk-tales. Like the story of Weland, however, it is
of German rather than Scandinavian origin, and the identification of
the swan-maidens as Valkyries, which may have taken place before the
legend reached the North, may, on the other hand, have been simply an
attempt to connect southern tradition with figures well known in
northern mythology.
The Poetic Edda, passage 366
25. The first two lines are abbreviated in the manuscript, but are
doubtless identical with the first two lines of stanza 24.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1430
60. “Hearken, Mengloth, | a man is come;
Go thou the guest to see!
The hounds are fawning, | the house bursts open,—
Svipdag, methinks, is there.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 415
146. This stanza as translated here follows the manuscript reading,
except in assuming a gap between lines 3 and 5. In Vigfusson and
Powell’s Corpus Poeticum Boreale the first three lines have somehow
been expanded into eight. The last two lines are almost certainly
misplaced; Bugge suggests that they belong at the end of stanza 144.
Thund: another name for Othin. When home he came: presumably after
obtaining the runes as described in stanzas 139 and 140.
The Poetic Edda, passage 984
23. There is no other reference to Loki’s having spent eight years
underground, or to his cow-milking. On one occasion, however, he did
bear offspring. A giant had undertaken to build the gods a fortress,
his reward being Freyja and the sun and moon, provided the work was
done by a given time. His sole helper was his horse, Svathilfari. The
work being nearly done, and the gods fearing to lose Freyja and the sun
and moon, Loki turned himself into a mare, and so effectually
distracted Svathilfari from his task that shortly afterwards Loki gave
birth to Othin’s eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. In such contests of
abuse a man was not infrequently taunted with having borne children;
cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 39–45. One or two of the last three
lines may be spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 857
37. He stood and cast | from his back the kettle,
And Mjollnir, the lover | of murder, he wielded;
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
So all the whales | of the waste he slew.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2132
4. The manuscript marks line 3 as the beginning of a stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1859
Sigrun was early dead of sorrow and grief. It was believed in olden
times that people were born again, but that is now called old wives’
folly. Of Helgi and Sigrun it is said that they were born again; he
became Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara the daughter of Halfdan, as
is told in the Lay of Kara, and she was a Valkyrie.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3392
Hrīm″-gerth-ar-mǭl′, the Ballad of Hrimgerth, 271, 278–284.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3588
Svart′-hofth-i, a magician, 229.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2727
35. Then Atli rode | on his earth-treading steed,
Seeking his home, | from the slaughter-place;
There was clatter of hoofs | of the steeds in the court,
And the clashing of arms | as they came from the field.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1018
The Thrymskvitha is found only in the Codex Regius, where it follows
the Lokasenna. Snorri does not quote from it, nor, rather oddly, does
the story occur in the Prose Edda.
The Poetic Edda, passage 673
34. “Give heed, frost-rulers, | hear it, giants,
Sons of Suttung,
And gods, ye too,
How I forbid | and how I ban
The meeting of men with the maid,
(The joy of men with the maid.)
The Poetic Edda, passage 1615
32. “A deed more evil | I have done
Than, brother mine, | thou e’er canst mend;
For I have chosen | the child of the king,
Thy bride, for mine | at the monarch’s toast.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2497
2. Valland: this name (“Land of Slaughter”) is used elsewhere of
mythical places; cf. Harbarthsljoth, 24, and prose introduction to
Völundarkvitha; it may here not be a proper name at all. Gold-goddess:
poetic circumlocution for “woman.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1027
“Ill fare the gods, | ill fare the elves!
Hast thou hidden | Hlorrithi’s hammer?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3004
16. “Gold I gave her | and garments bright,
Ere I let her go | to the Gothic folk;
Of my heavy woes | the hardest it was
When Svanhild’s tresses | fair were trodden
In the mire by hoofs | of horses wild.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1369
2. “What evil vexes | mine only son,
What baleful fate hast thou found,
That thou callest thy mother, | who lies in the mould,
And the world of the living has left?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1029
8. Then Loki flew, | and the feather-dress whirred,
Till he left behind him | the home of the giants,
And reached at last | the realm of the gods.
There in the courtyard | Thor he met:
Hear now the speech | that first he spake:
The Poetic Edda, passage 3338
Her′-varth, son of Hunding, 316, 317.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3440
Līf, mother of the new race, 80.
The Poetic Edda, passage 334
140. None made me happy | with loaf or horn,
And there below I looked;
I took up the runes, | shrieking I took them,
And forthwith back I fell.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1270
2. “The favor of Heerfather | seek we to find,
To his followers gold | he gladly gives;
To Hermoth gave he | helm and mail-coat,
And to Sigmund he gave | a sword as gift.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3280
Gret″-tis-sag′-a, the Saga of Grettir, 129.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1771
48. Moinsheimar: a battlefield of which nothing is known, where,
however, the sons of Granmar appear to have fought bravely.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3205
Eist′-la, mother of Heimdall, 229.