The Poetic Edda
Henry Adams Bellows (translator)
3,671 passages indexed from The Poetic Edda (Henry Adams Bellows (translator)) — Page 18 of 74
License: Public Domain
The Poetic Edda, passage 192
It is idle to discuss the authorship or date of such a series of
accretions as this. Parts of it are doubtless among the oldest relics
of ancient Germanic poetry; parts of it may have originated at a
relatively late period. Probably, however, most of its component
elements go pretty far back, although we have no way of telling how or
when they first became associated.
The Poetic Edda, passage 121
65. There comes on high, | all power to hold,
A mighty lord, | all lands he rules.
. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . .
The Poetic Edda, passage 229
35. Forth shall one go, | nor stay as a guest
In a single spot forever;
Love becomes loathing | if long one sits
By the hearth in another’s home.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2278
1. The fragment begins with the last words of line 1 (probably line 3
of the stanza). A few editors ascribe this speech to Gunnar and the
next to Brynhild; one reconstruction of lines 1–2 on this probably
false assumption runs: “Why art thou, Brynhild, | daughter of
Buthli, / Scheming ill | with evil counsel?” Hogni (German Hagene):
brother of Gunnar and Guthrun.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2118
36. “Less wise must be | the tree of battle
Than to me would seem | the leader of men,
If forth he lets | one brother fare,
When he of the other | the slayer is.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1236
13. The names mean: Drumba, “The Log”; Kumba, “The Stumpy”;
Ökkvinkalfa, “Fat-Legged”; Arinnefja, “Homely-Nosed”; Ysja, “The
Noisy”; Ambott, “The Servant”; Eikintjasna, “The Oaken Peg” (?);
Totrughypja, “Clothed in Rags”; Tronubeina, “Crane-Legged.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2973
88. The manuscript marks line 2 as the beginning of a stanza, and many
editions make a stanza out of lines 2–4, or combine them with stanza
89. Some question the genuineness of line 4.
The Poetic Edda, passage 222
28. Wise shall he seem | who well can question,
And also answer well;
Nought is concealed | that men may say
Among the sons of men.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1876
Prose. The manuscript indicates no division. Here again, the annotator
has drawn practically all his information from Helgakvitha Hundingsbana
I, which he specifically mentions and even quotes. The only new
features are the names of Hogni’s sons, Bragi and Dag. Bragi is
mentioned in stanza 18, though it is not there stated that he is
Hogni’s son. Dag, who figures largely in stanzas 28–34, is a puzzle,
for the verse never names him, and it is an open question where the
annotator got his name. Frekastein: cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 39
and note. As is written: the two lines are quoted, with a change of two
words, from Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 33. Sinfjotli: cf. Helgakvitha
Hundingsbana I, 6 and note, and stanzas 33–48, in which the whole
dialogue is given. Loyalty: apparently the annotator got this bit of
information out of stanza 29, in which Sigrun refers to the oaths which
her brother had sworn to Helgi.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3322
Heith′-draup-nir, Mimir (?), 393, 394.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1242
19. The manuscript marks line 2 as the beginning of a stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1332
12. Instein: mentioned in the Halfssaga as one of the warriors of King
Half of Horthaland (the so-called Halfsrekkar). The others mentioned in
this stanza appear in one of the later mythical accounts of the
settlement of Norway.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1105
24. “‘Sea’ men call it, | gods ‘The Smooth-Lying,’
‘The Wave’ is it called by the Wanes;
‘Eel-Home’ the giants, | ‘Drink-Stuff’ the elves,
For the dwarfs its name is ‘The Deep.’”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1220
46. With Rig-Jarl soon | the runes he shared,
More crafty he was, | and greater his wisdom;
The right he sought, | and soon he won it,
Rig to be called, | and runes to know.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1142
1. Once were the gods | together met,
And the goddesses came | and council held,
And the far-famed ones | the truth would find,
Why baleful dreams | to Baldr had come.
The Poetic Edda, passage 437
7. “Who is the man | that speaks to me,
Here in my lofty hall?
Forth from our dwelling | thou never shalt fare,
Unless wiser than I thou art.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 759
39. “She-wolves they were like, | and women but little;
My ship, which well | I had trimmed, did they shake;
With clubs of iron they threatened, | and Thjalfi they drove
off.
What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2721
29. “The swift Rhine shall hold | the strife-gold of heroes,
That once was the gods’, | the wealth of the Niflungs,
In the depths of the waters | the death-rings shall glitter,
And not shine on the hands | of the Hunnish men.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2981
97. The manuscript does not indicate the speaker. Many editors assume a
gap either before or after line 1. A ship: the burial of Norse chiefs
in ships was of frequent occurrence, but the Greenland poet’s
application of the custom to Atli is somewhat grotesque.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1302
33. Much have I told thee, | and further will tell;
There is much that I know;— | wilt thou hear
yet more?
The Poetic Edda, passage 587
4. Thruthheim (“the Place of Might”): the place where Thor, the
strongest of the gods, has his hall, Bilskirnir, described in stanza
24.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1363
48. Oth: cf. stanza 6 and note, and Voluspo, 25 and note. Lines 3–4,
abbreviated in the manuscript, are very likely repeated here by
mistake.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3585
Svar′-in, a hill, 300, 316, 317.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3504
Ōth, husband of Freyja, 11, 12, 161, 220, 232.
The Poetic Edda, passage 142
23. This stanza and stanza 24 have been transposed from the order in
the manuscripts, for the former describes the battle and the victory of
the Wanes, after which the gods took council, debating whether to pay
tribute to the victors, or to admit them, as was finally done, to equal
rights of worship.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2823
35. Not long was it after— | the end must I tell—
That the home they beheld | that Buthli once had;
Loud the gates resounded | when Hogni smote them;
Vingi spake then a word | that were better unsaid:
The Poetic Edda, passage 1076
30. Hallow: just what this means is not clear, but there are references
to other kinds of consecration, though not of a bride, with the “sign
of the hammer.” According to Vigfusson, “the hammer was the holy sign
with the heathens, answering to the cross of the Christians.” In
Snorri’s story of Thor’s resuscitation of his cooked goat (cf.
Hymiskvitha, 38, note) the god “hallows” the goat with his hammer. One
of the oldest runic signs, supposed to have magic power, was named
Thor’s-hammer. Vor: the goddess of vows, particularly between men and
women; Snorri lists a number of little-known goddesses similar to Vor,
all of them apparently little more than names for Frigg.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1774
51. Lines 2–3 may be interpolated, or a new stanza may begin, as the
manuscript indicates, with line 5. Many editors combine lines 5–6 with
all or part of stanza 52. Possibly Gothmund is not the speaker.
Mast-ring harts: ships, so called from the ring attaching the yard to
the mast. Ylfings: cf. stanza 5 and note. Sogn: this name, which
actually belongs in western Norway, seems to have been used here with
no particular significance.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3214
Ey′-lim-i, father of Hjordis, 226, 270, 295, 335, 336, 340, 341, 363,
365.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2964
79. Perhaps these two lines should form part of stanza 78, or perhaps
they, rather than lines 3–4 of stanza 78, are a later addition. A gap
of two lines after line 1 has also been conjectured.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1677
9. Mighty he grew | in the midst of his friends,
The fair-born elm, | in fortune’s glow;
To his comrades gold | he gladly gave,
The hero spared not | the blood-flecked hoard.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2640
18. “Woeful for this | her vengeance was,
As so we learned | to our sorrow all;
In every land | shall all men hear
How herself at Sigurth’s | side she slew.
The Poetic Edda, passage 441
11. “Speak forth now, Gagnrath, | if there from the floor
Thou wouldst thy wisdom make known:
What name has the steed | that each morn anew
The day for mankind doth draw?”
The Poetic Edda, passage 1134
30. Snorri quotes this stanza in the Skaldskaparmal. The various Prose
Edda manuscripts differ considerably in naming the gods, the giants,
etc. Lightless: some manuscripts have “The Unsorrowing.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2578
23. The Volsungasaga quotes stanzas 23–24. Heather-fish: a snake.
Haddings’ land: the world of the dead, so called because, according to
Saxo Grammaticus, the Danish king Hadingus once visited it. It is
possible that the comma should follow “heather-fish,” making the “ear
uncut” (of grain) come from the world of the dead.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1673
5. Once sorrow had | the Ylfings’ son,
And grief the bride | who the loved one had borne.
* * * * * *
Quoth raven to raven, | on treetop resting,
Seeking for food, | “There is something I know.
The Poetic Edda, passage 414
145. This Malahattr stanza appears to be a regular religious formula,
concerned less with the runes which one “writes” and “tints” (cf.
stanza 79) than with the prayers which one “asks” and the sacrifices
which one “offers” and “sends.” Its origin is wholly uncertain, but it
is clearly an interpolation here. In the manuscript the phrase
“knowest?” is abbreviated after the first line.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1441
8. Horn and Ruth: these two rivers, here used merely to symbolize all
dangerous streams, are not included in the catalogue of rivers given in
Grimnismol, 27–29, for which reason some editors have changed the names
to Hron and Hrith.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1080
The poem is found only in Regius, where it follows the Thrymskvitha.
Snorri quotes stanzas 20 and 30, the manuscripts of the Prose Edda
giving the name of the poem as Alvissmol, Alsvinnsmol or Olvismol. It
is apparently in excellent condition, without serious errors of
transmission, although interpolations or omissions in such a poem might
have been made so easily as to defy detection.
The Poetic Edda, passage 661
22. “The ring I wish not, | though burned it was
Of old with Othin’s son;
In Gymir’s home | is no lack of gold
In the wealth my father wields.”
The Poetic Edda, passage 2164
Even apart from the title, however, the Sigrdrifumol has little claim
to be regarded as a distinct poem, nor is there any indication that the
compiler did so regard it. Handicapped as we are by the loss of the
concluding section, and of the material which followed it on those
missing pages, we can yet see that the process which began with the
prose Fra Dautha Sinfjotla, and which, interrupted by the insertion of
the Gripisspo, went on through the Reginsmol and the Fafnismol,
continued through as much of the Sigrdrifumol as is left to us. In
other words, the compiler told the story of Sigurth in mixed prose and
verse, using whatever verse he could find without much questioning as
to its origin, and filling in the gaps with his own prose. Fra Dautha
Sinfjotla, Reginsmol, Fafnismol, and Sigrdrifumol are essentially a
coherent unit, but one of the compiler’s making only; they represent
neither one poem nor three distinct poems, and the divisions and titles
which have been almost universally adopted by editors are both
arbitrary and misleading.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3306
Half′-dan, father of Kara, 316, 330.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2719
27. “So distant, Atli, | from all men’s eyes,
Shalt thou be as thou | . . . . . from the gold.
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . .
The Poetic Edda, passage 235
41. Friends shall gladden each other | with arms and garments,
As each for himself can see;
Gift-givers’ friendships | are longest found,
If fair their fates may be.
The Poetic Edda, passage 1442
10. This stanza is a close parallel to Hovamol, 150, and the fifth line
may well be an interpolation from line 4 of that stanza.
The Poetic Edda, passage 3286
Grō′-a, mother of Svipdag, 234–236, 238.
The Poetic Edda, passage 552
24. Five hundred rooms | and forty there are
I ween, in Bilskirnir built;
Of all the homes | whose roofs I beheld,
My son’s the greatest meseemed.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2193
19. Beech-runes are there, | birth-runes are there,
And all the runes of ale,
And the magic runes of might;
Who knows them rightly | and reads them true,
Has them himself to help;
Ever they aid,
Till the gods are gone.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2309
13. Once alone | did Guthrun look;
His hair all clotted | with blood beheld,
The blinded eyes | that once shone bright,
The hero’s breast | that the blade had pierced.
The Poetic Edda, passage 2731
39. “Thou giver of swords, | of thy sons the hearts
All heavy with blood | in honey thou hast eaten;
Thou shalt stomach, thou hero, | the flesh of the slain,
To eat at thy feast, | and to send to thy followers.