The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 70 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 2449
36. Some editions place this stanza after stanza 39, on the theory that
stanzas 37–39 are interpolated. Line 4, as virtually a repetition of
line 3, has generally been marked as spurious. In this version of the
winning of Brynhild it appears that Atli pointed out Sigurth as Gunnar,
and Brynhild promptly fell in love with the hero whom, as he rode on
Grani and was decked with some of the spoils taken from Fafnir, she
recognized as the dragon’s slayer. Thus no change of form between
Sigurth and Gunnar was necessary. The oath to marry Gunnar had to be
carried out even after Brynhild had discovered the deception.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2389
42. Up rose Gunnar, | the people’s ruler,
And flung his arms | round her neck so fair;
And all who came, | of every kind,
Sought to hold her | with all their hearts.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1378
11. “Then sixth I will chant thee, | if storms on the sea
Have might unknown to man:
Yet never shall wind | or wave do harm,
And calm is the course of thy boat.
The Poetic Edda, passage 950
50. “Though on rocks the gods bind me | with bowels torn
Forth from my frost-cold son,
I was first and last | at the deadly fight
There where Thjazi we caught.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 351
157. An eleventh I know, | if needs I must lead
To the fight my long-loved friends;
I sing in the shields, | and in strength they go
Whole to the field of fight,
Whole from the field of fight,
And whole they come thence home.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2482
1. “Thou shalt not further | forward fare,
My dwelling ribbed | with rocks across;
More seemly it were | at thy weaving to stay,
Than another’s husband | here to follow.
The Poetic Edda, passage 143
25. Possibly, as Finn Magnusen long ago suggested, there is something
lost after stanza 24, but it was not the custom of the Eddic poets to
supply transitions which their hearers could generally be counted on to
understand. The story referred to in stanzas 25–26 (both quoted by
Snorri) is that of the rebuilding of Asgarth after its destruction by
the Wanes. The gods employed a giant as builder, who demanded as his
reward the sun and moon, and the goddess Freyja for his wife. The gods,
terrified by the rapid progress of the work, forced Loki, who had
advised the bargain, to delay the giant by a trick, so that the work
was not finished in the stipulated time (cf. Grimnismol, 44, note). The
enraged giant then threatened the gods, whereupon Thor slew him. Oth’s
bride: Freyja; of Oth little is known beyond the fact that Snorri
refers to him as a man who “went away on long journeys.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1960
37. “Ye three shall all | the oaths then take,
Gunnar and Hogni, | and, hero, thou;
Your forms ye shall change, | as forth ye fare,
Gunnar and thou; | for Gripir lies not.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2381
34. “To thee I say, | and thyself thou knowest,
That all these ills | thou didst early shape;
No bonds I knew, | nor sorrow bore,
And wealth I had | in my brother’s home.
The Poetic Edda, passage 156
38. Stanzas 38 and 39 follow stanza 43 in the Hauksbok version. Snorri
quotes stanzas 38, 39, 40 and 41, though not consecutively. Nastrond
(“Corpse-Strand”): the land of the dead, ruled by the goddess Hel. Here
the wicked undergo tortures. Smoke-vent: the phrase gives a picture of
the Icelandic house, with its opening in the roof serving instead of a
chimney.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2763
26. Line 1 may belong elsewhere (stanzas 18 or 22).
The Poetic Edda, passage 1870
10. Helgi’s meaning in lines 3–4 is that, although he has already
declared himself an Ylfing (stanza 8, line 1), there are many heroes of
that race, and he does not understand how Sigrun knows him to be Helgi.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1631
1. Glasir’s wood: Snorri in the Skaldskaparmal quotes a half stanza to
the effect that “Glasir stands with golden leaves before Othin’s hall,”
and calls it “the fairest wood among gods and men.” The phrase as used
here seems to mean little.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3419
Ith′-mund, follower of Hjorvarth, 273, 274.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2224
14. This stanza is clearly in bad shape; perhaps, as the manuscript
indicates, a new stanza, of which most has been lost, should begin with
line 3. Brimir: a giant (cf. Voluspo, 9 and 37); why Othin should have
his sword is unknown.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3108
H enters into combinations with various following consonants; with “v”
the sound is approximately that of wh in “what”; with “l,” “r” and “n”
it produces sounds which have no exact English equivalents, but which
can be approximated by pronouncing the consonants with a marked initial
breathing.
The Poetic Edda, passage 961
58. “Lo, in has come | the son of Earth:
Why threaten so loudly, Thor?
Less fierce thou shalt go | to fight with the wolf
When he swallows Sigfather up.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 6
This series of Scandinavian Classics is published by The American-
Scandinavian Foundation in the belief that greater familiarity with
the chief literary monuments of the North will help Americans to a
better understanding of Scandinavians, and thus serve to stimulate
their sympathetic coöperation to good ends.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2537
21. Each to give me | gifts was fain,
Gifts to give, | and goodly speech,
Comfort so | for my sorrows great
To bring they tried, | but I trusted them not.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1572
It seems probable, rather, that as the Helgi tradition spread from its
native Denmark through the Norse regions of the North and West, and
became gradually interwoven, although not in essentials, with the other
great hero cycle from the South, that of the Volsungs, a considerable
number of poems dealing with Helgi were composed, at different times
and in different places, reflecting varied forms of the story. Many
generations afterwards, when Iceland’s literary period had arrived,
some zealous scribe committed to writing such poems or fragments of
poems as he knew, piecing them together and annotating them on the
basis of information which had reached him through other channels. The
prose notes to Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II frankly admit this patchwork
process: a section of four stanzas (13–16) is introduced with the
phrase, “as is said in the Old Volsung Lay”; the final prose note cites
an incident “told in the Karuljoth (Lay of Kara),” and a two-line
speech is quoted “as it was written before in the Helgakvitha.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 3039
8. “Thou wouldst strike at Atli | by the slaying of Erp
And the killing of Eitil; | thine own grief was worse;
So should each one wield | the wound-biting sword
That another it slays | but smites not himself.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 393
He makes these two lines plus lines 1 and 2 a full stanza, and lines 3,
4, 5, and 6 a second stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1055
1. Vingthor (“Thor the Hurler”): another name for Thor, equivalent to
Vingnir (Vafthruthnismol, 51). Concerning Thor and his hammer,
Mjollnir, cf. Hymiskvitha, Lokasenna, and Harbarthsljoth, passim.
Jorth: Earth, Thor’s mother, Othin being his father.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1434
64. “Welcome thou art, | for long have I waited;
The welcoming kiss shalt thou win!
For two who love | is the longed-for meeting
The greatest gladness of all.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3230
Fjol′-svith, Mengloth’s watchman, 234, 239–250.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1388
“Greeting full fair | thou never shalt find,
So hence shalt thou get thee home.
The Poetic Edda, passage 554
26. Eikthyrnir is the hart | who stands by Heerfather’s hall
And the branches of Lærath he bites;
From his horns a stream | into Hvergelmir drops,
Thence all the rivers run.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2946
61. It is probable that a stanza describing the casting of Gunnar into
the serpents’ den has been lost after this stanza. Sons of day: the
phrase means no more than “men.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2882
91. “Thou liest now, Atli, | though little I heed it;
If I seldom was kindly, | full cruel wast thou;
Ye brothers fought young, | quarrels brought you to battle,
And half went to hell | of the sons of thy house,
And all was destroyed | that should e’er have done good.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2505
14. The idea apparently conveyed in the concluding lines, that Sigurth
and Brynhild will be together in some future life, is utterly out of
keeping with the Norse pagan traditions, and the whole stanza indicates
the influence of Christianity.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1674
6. “In mail-coat stands | the son of Sigmund,
A half-day old; | now day is here;
His eyes flash sharp | as the heroes’ are,
He is friend of the wolves; | full glad are we.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 4
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The Poetic Edda, passage 1264
48. This fragment is not indicated as a separate stanza in the
manuscript. Perhaps half a line has disappeared, or, as seems more
likely, the gap includes two lines and a half. Sijmons actually
constructs these lines, largely on the basis of stanzas 35 and 38.
Bugge fills in the half-line lacuna as indicated above with “The sword
to wield.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 97
41. There feeds he full | on the flesh of the dead,
And the home of the gods | he reddens with gore;
Dark grows the sun, | and in summer soon
Come mighty storms: | would you know yet more?
The Poetic Edda, passage 1500
24. They came to the chest, | and they craved the keys,
The evil was open | when in they looked;
He smote off their heads, | and their feet he hid
Under the sooty | straps of the bellows.
The Poetic Edda, passage 861
1. Twigs: Vigfusson comments at some length on “the rite practised in
the heathen age of inquiring into the future by dipping bunches of
chips or twigs into the blood (of sacrifices) and shaking them.” But
the two operations may have been separate, the twigs being simply
“divining-rods” marked with runes. In either case, the gods were
seeking information by magic as to where they could find plenty to
drink. Ægir: a giant who is also the god of the sea; little is known of
him outside of what is told here and in the introductory prose to the
Lokasenna, though Snorri has a brief account of him, giving his home as
Hlesey (Läsö, cf. Harbarthsljoth, 37). Grimnismol, 45, has a reference
to this same feast.
The Poetic Edda, passage 310
116. I rede thee, Loddfafnir! | and hear thou my rede,—
Profit thou hast if thou hearest,
Great thy gain if thou learnest:
If o’er mountains or gulfs | thou fain wouldst go,
Look well to thy food for the way.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3179
Brun″-a-vāg′-ar, a harbor, 313, 314.
The Poetic Edda, passage 631
50. Nothing further is known of the episode here mentioned. Sokkmimir
is presumably Mithvitnir’s son. Snorri quotes the names Svithur and
Svithrir, but omits all the remainder of the stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3162
Blīth, Mengloth’s handmaid, 249.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1045
24. Early it was | to evening come,
And forth was borne | the beer for the giants;
Thor alone ate an ox, | and eight salmon,
All the dainties as well | that were set for the
women;
And drank Sif’s mate | three tuns of mead.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2212
Prose. The introductory prose follows without break the prose
concluding the Fafnismol, the point of division being arbitrary and not
agreed upon by all editors. Hindarfjoll: cf. Fafnismol, 42 and note.
Franks: this does not necessarily mean that Sigurth was on his way to
the Gjukungs’ home, for Sigmund had a kingdom in the land of the Franks
(cf. Fra Dautha Sinfjotla). Shields: the annotator probably drew the
notion of the shield-tower from the reference in Helreith Brynhildar,
9. The flame-girt tower was not uncommon; cf. Mengloth’s hall in
Svipdagsmol.
The Poetic Edda, passage 830
10. Late to his home | the misshapen Hymir,
The giant harsh, | from his hunting came;
The icicles rattled | as in he came,
For the fellow’s chin-forest | frozen was.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2857
69. “But the fierceness of men | rules the fate of women,
The tree-top bows low | if bereft of its leaves,
The tree bends over | if the roots are cleft under it;
Now mayest thou, Atli, | o’er all things here rule.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 848
28. Hlorrithi stood | and the stem he gripped,
And the sea-horse with water | awash he lifted;
Oars and bailer | and all he bore
With the surf-swine home | to the giant’s house.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3049
18. Their cloaks they shook, | their swords they sheathed,
The high-born men | wrapped their mantles close.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3250
Ful′-la, Frigg’s handmaid, 86.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3401
Hrōth′-mar, lover of Sigrlin, 275, 276, 278, 286.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3159
Bjort, Mengloth’s handmaid, 249.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2231
21. It is quite possible that the original poem concluded with two
stanzas after this, paraphrased thus in the Volsungasaga: “Sigurth
said: ‘Nowhere is to be found any one wiser than thou, and this I
swear, that I shall have thee for mine, and that thou art after my
heart’s desire.’ She answered: ‘I would rather have thee though I might
choose among all men.’ And this they bound between them with oaths.”
Stanzas 22–37, which the Volsungasaga paraphrases, may have been
introduced at a relatively early time, but can hardly have formed part
of the original poem.