The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 7 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 2034
They sailed to the land, and the man went on board the ship, and the
storm subsided. Sigurth spake:
The Poetic Edda, passage 571
43. In days of old | did Ivaldi’s sons
Skithblathnir fashion fair,
The best of ships | for the bright god Freyr,
The noble son of Njorth.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1611
30. “It is day, Hrimgerth, | for Atli held thee
Till now thy life thou must lose;
As a harbor mark | men shall mock at thee,
Where in stone thou shalt ever stand.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 388
“In a light, clear sky | or a laughing throng,
In the howl of a dog | or a harlot’s grief.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2880
89. “To the famed one as bride-gift | I gave jewels fair,
I gave thirty slaves, | and handmaidens seven;
There was honor in such gifts, | yet the silver was greater.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2999
11. “A greater sorrow | I saw not nor knew,
Yet more it seemed | I must suffer yet
When the princes great | to Atli gave me.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2021
11. “A daughter, woman | with wolf’s heart, bear,
If thou hast no son | with the hero brave;
If one weds the maid, | for the need is mighty,
Their son for thy hurt | may vengeance seek.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2116
34. “Less by a head | let the chatterer hoary
Go from here to hell;
Then all of the wealth | he alone can wield,
The gold that Fafnir guarded.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 55
This final passage, in particular, has caused wide differences of
opinion as to the date and character of the poem. That the poet was
heathen and not Christian seems almost beyond dispute; there is an
intensity and vividness in almost every stanza which no archaizing
Christian could possibly have achieved. On the other hand, the
evidences of Christian influence are sufficiently striking to outweigh
the arguments of Finnur Jonsson, Müllenhoff and others who maintain
that the Voluspo is purely a product of heathendom. The roving Norsemen
of the tenth century, very few of whom had as yet accepted
Christianity, were nevertheless in close contact with Celtic races
which had already been converted, and in many ways the Celtic influence
was strongly felt. It seems likely, then, that the Voluspo was the work
of a poet living chiefly in Iceland, though possibly in the “Western
Isles,” in the middle of the tenth century, a vigorous believer in the
old gods, and yet with an imagination active enough to be touched by
the vague tales of a different religion emanating from his neighbor
Celts.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1761
38. Wolves: the Volsungasaga tells that Sigmund and Sinfjotli lived in
the woods for a time as werewolves. Brothers: Sinfjotli killed the two
sons of his mother, Signy, and her husband, Siggeir, as part of the
vengeance wreaked on Siggeir for the treacherous murder of Sigmund’s
father, Volsung, and nine of his brothers (cf. Fra Dautha Sinfjotla and
note). The manuscript marks line 3 as the beginning of a new stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2703
11. “The wolves then shall rule | the wealth of the Niflungs,
Wolves aged and grey-hued, | if Gunnar is lost,
And black-coated bears | with rending teeth bite,
And make glad the dogs, | if Gunnar returns not.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1218
44. But Kon the Young | learned runes to use,
Runes everlasting, | the runes of life;
Soon could he well | the warriors shield,
Dull the swordblade, | and still the seas.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3453
Mag′-ni, son of Thor, 82, 125, 135.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2474
64. Line 5 is very probably spurious.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3192
Digr′-ald-i, son of Thræll, 206.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3506
Oth′-lings, a mythical race, 221, 223, 226.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1172
In the case of the Rigsthula the poet unquestionably had not only
picked up bits of the Celtic speech (the name Rig itself is almost
certainly of Celtic origin, and there are various other Celtic words
employed), but also had caught something of the Celtic literary spirit.
This explains the cultural nature of the poem, quite foreign to Norse
poetry in general. On the other hand, the style as a whole is
vigorously Norse, and thus the explanation that the poem was composed
by an itinerant Norse poet who had lived for some time in the Celtic
islands, and who was on a visit to the court of a Danish king, fits the
ascertainable facts exceedingly well. As Christianity was introduced
into Denmark around 960, the Rigsthula is not likely to have been
composed much after that date, and probably belongs to the first half
of the tenth century. Gorm the Old died about the year 935, and was
succeeded by Harald Blue-Tooth, who died about 985.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3616
Tron″-u-bein′-a, daughter of Thræll, 207.
The Poetic Edda, passage 103
47. Yggdrasil shakes, | and shiver on high
The ancient limbs, | and the giant is loose;
To the head of Mim | does Othin give heed,
But the kinsman of Surt | shall slay him soon.
The Poetic Edda, passage 718
Verse-form, substance, and certain linguistic peculiarities, notably
the suffixed articles, point to a relatively late date (eleventh
century) for the poem in its present form. Probably it had its origin
in the early days, but its colloquial nature and its vulgarity made it
readily susceptible to changes.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1117
1. Alvis (“All-Knowing”): a dwarf, not elsewhere mentioned. The
manuscript nowhere indicates the speakers’ names. The bride in question
is Thor’s daughter; Thruth (“Might”) is the only daughter of his whose
name is recorded, and she does not appear elsewhere in the poems. Her
mother was Sif, Thor’s wife, whereas the god’s sons were born of a
giantess. Benches: cf. Lokasenna, 15 and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1841
38. “Thou shalt, Hunding, | of every hero
Wash the feet, | and kindle the fire,
Tie up dogs, | and tend the horses,
And feed the swine | ere to sleep thou goest.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1496
20. He sat, nor slept, | and smote with his hammer,
Fast for Nithuth | wonders he fashioned;
Two boys did go | in his door to gaze,
Nithuth’s sons, | into Sævarstath.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2717
25. Then Hogni laughed | when they cut out the heart
Of the living helm-hammerer; | tears he had not.
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
On a platter they bore it, | and brought it to Gunnar.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3598
Thakk′-rāth, Nithuth’s thrall, 268.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3269
Gnit′-a-heith, Fafnir’s mountain, 343, 365, 371, 484.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3266
Glit′-nir, Forseti’s dwelling, 91.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1852
Sigrun made ready a bed in the hill.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2655
Prose. Nothing further is known of Heithrek, Borgny or Vilmund. The
annotator has added the name of Borgny’s father, but otherwise his
material comes from the poem itself. Oddrun, sister of Atli and
Brynhild, here appears as proficient in birth-runes (cf. Sigrdrifumol,
8). Regarding her love for Gunnar, Guthrun’s brother, and husband of
her sister, Brynhild, cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 57 and note.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1241
18. I have followed Bugge’s conjectural construction of the missing
stanza, taking lines 2 and 3 from stanzas 31 and 4.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1463
56. The first line is based on a conjectural emendation.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3
BY
HENRY ADAMS BELLOWS
The Poetic Edda, passage 2541
25. Then I forgot, | when the draught they gave me,
There in the hall, | my husband’s slaying;
On their knees the kings | all three did kneel,
Ere she herself | to speak began:
The Poetic Edda, passage 448
18. “Vigrith is the field | where in fight shall meet
Surt and the gracious gods;
A hundred miles | each way does it measure,
And so are its boundaries set.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 152
34. Frigg: Othin’s wife. Some scholars have regarded her as a solar
myth, calling her the sun-goddess, and pointing out that her home in
Fensalir (“the sea-halls”) symbolizes the daily setting of the sun
beneath the ocean horizon.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3282
Grim′-nir, Othin, 84, 86, 87, 103, 104.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1293
25. “The sons of Jormunrek | all of yore
To the gods in death | were as offerings given;
He was kinsman of Sigurth,— | hear well what I say,—
The foe of hosts, | and Fafnir’s slayer.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3169
Brag′-i, a god, 102, 152, 155–158, 228, 314, 394.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1295
27. “Gunnar and Hogni, | the heirs of Gjuki,
And Guthrun as well, | who their sister was;
But Gotthorm was not | of Gjuki’s race,
Although the brother | of both he was:
And all are thy kinsmen, | Ottar, thou fool!
The Poetic Edda, passage 2664
10–20. In the manuscript the order is as follows: 12; 13; 14; 15, 3–4;
10; 11; 16; 17; 18; 19, 1–2; 15, 1–2; 19, 3–4; 20. The changes made
here, following several of the editions, are: (a) the transposition of
stanzas 10–11, which are clearly dialogue, out of the body of the
lament to a position just before it; (b) the transposition of lines 1–2
of stanza 15 to their present position from the middle of stanza 19.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1636
6. Battle-tree: poetic phrase for “warrior.” Shining fields: the words
in the manuscript may form a proper name, Rothulsvoll, having this
meaning.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2750
11. Bugge thinks this stanza is spoken by Gunnar’s terrified followers;
Grundtvig assigns it to Hogni. Apparently, however, Gunnar means that
if he and his men are not valiant enough to make the journey and return
safely, it matters little what may happen to them. Niflungs: regarding
the application of this name to Gunnar’s Burgundians cf. Brot, 17 and
note. Bears: these “black” bears have been used as arguments against
the Greenland origin of the poem. And make glad the dogs: i.e., by
giving them corpses to eat, but the phrase in the original is more than
doubtful.
The Poetic Edda, passage 160
42. In the Hauksbok version stanzas 42 and 43 stand between stanzas 44
and 38. Eggther: this giant, who seems to be the watchman of the
giants, as Heimdall is that of the gods and Surt of the dwellers in the
fire-world, is not mentioned elsewhere in the poems. Fjalar, the cock
whose crowing wakes the giants for the final struggle.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2926
38. Possibly two lines have been lost after line 2.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3341
Hild, mother of King Half, 223, 224.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3227
Fjal′-ar, Utgartha-Loki (?), 130.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3127
An′-gan-tȳr, a berserker, 225.
The Poetic Edda, passage 835
15. By a head was each | the shorter hewed,
And the beasts to the fire | straight they bore;
The husband of Sif, | ere to sleep he went,
Alone two oxen | of Hymir’s ate.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1792
2. Then Blind spake out, | the evil-minded:
“Of Hagal’s bond-woman | bright are the eyes;
Yon comes not of churls | who stands at the quern;
The millstones break, | the boards are shattered.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2522
6. Long I waited | and pondered well
Ere ever the king | for tidings I asked.
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .