Adam Oehlenschläger

“ Now hail to ye, ye Disar all!
Hail to ye, gods! Valhalla’s powers!
Without the blast inclement roars,
But here ’tis snug in Ægir’s hall.
Indulging in your evening feast
Fill’d with bright ale each drains his horn:
Despised is the unbidden guest,
But your contempt he laughs to scorn.
“With haughty glances towards the ground,
To answer Lok ye all disdain.
The slave of Ægir I have slain,
His cook for science so renown’d:
To Ægir’s hall he barr’d my way,
But I chastised his insolence:
The slave must, true, his lord obey,
But expiate oft his lord’s offence.
ODIN.
How darest thou, wretch! ”

“ Again their bosom with youth’s fullness swell’d:
Odin again felt vigour in his arm,
And Thor once more aloft his hammer held.
Again the sun lent to the moon its gold,
And lit anew the radiant rings on high.
Mimer no more his brow in wrinkles roll’d:
Balder no longer, madness in his eye,
Raved incoherent strains, wild gazing at the sky.
And lo! obscures the sky a vision vast,
Awful, but not unpleasing to behold!
’Tis Thiasse! who his prey pursuing fast
Hath become dazzled by the bale-fire’s gold. ”

“ The Disar all cast looks of love on Odin’s fair-hair’d son.
His light gold tresses, parted, gleam’d over his forehead bright;
His brows resembled just the flower “the brows of Balder” hight:
His aspect’s majesty divine no language can impart;
Where’er he turn’d his eyes, their glance went deep into the heart. [207]
The guardian of a secret grave confided to his care,
For which the world no language hath, nor mortal clay an ear,
Such Balder seem’d; spite of his mild and gentle soul, I trow,
If he but cast a glance on Thor, with reverence Thor must bow. ”

“ If therefore Freya fair, as bride, Odin to me will give,
Thor in exchange his hammer bright that instant shall receive.
Did not Frey wed a Jotun nymph? If so, with equal right
May Jotun Thrymur claim as spouse his sister Freya bright.
Such my proposal is, which thou to Asagard mayst bear;
Why should we plague each other’s lives with endless hale and war,
Let friendship durable ensue upon this marriage tie!
But mark me! Miölner eight miles deep doth in the ocean lie:
Never again shall Thor, I swear, his much-prized arm behold,
Unless I clasp in my embrace Freya with hair of gold. ”

“ And Bragur’s harp divine is heard no more.
Down in Hvergelmer Elivagor roars;
On every coast by shipwreck lives are lost:
The ancient firs and oaks with branches bare
Uprooted lie: the moon is swallow’d up
By Maanegarm: the sun, like out-burnt coal,
Grows dark, while loud the giants’ laugh resounds
To mock the Asar with insulting gibe.
Deep in the bosom of the mountain now
Shall Utgard-Lok his progeny excite
With eloquence indignant to avenge
The death of their forefathers. Fialar now,
The blood-red cock, is heard to crow! the dog
Yells loud and oft before the cave of Gnypa! ”

“ Than any beast of prey can show.
What tumult fires my blood!
Oh! that I could,
While Thor is gone a-fishing far,
Fish him to shame in the same bath with her!
Thus thinks the lustful treach’rous elf,
And still behind the bush conceals himself:
For Sif her dwelling soon will seek,
Which lies midst Dovre’s rocks so bleak,
Where fir-trees undulate with many a spire:
Her robes resuming quick, the Disa veils
Each charm, while passion Loptur’s breast assails
With still increasing fire.
She claps her helm her golden locks upon,
Which, moisten’d by the wave, less brilliant shone. ”

“ HELA, or HEL, name of the queen of death and of the shades below, daughter of Asa-Lok and of the giantess Angurbod. She is frightful and appalling to behold: her body is of white or natural colour below the girdle, but all above is blue or livid, from congealed blood. The gods, terrified at her sight, exiled her from Asagard, and cast her down into Niffelheim, to rule over the dead. There, in her castle Helheim, she receives the ghosts of the worthless and cowardly, and of those who die of old age or sickness, who omit to cut runes to Odin. ”

“ Ne’er let him hope to touch my heart, still less
The mountain damsel in his arms to press:
I hate him; is he not of Asar race?
And can we e’er forget the dire disgrace
Heap’d on us giants? by their mystic spells
Our Utgard-Lok in gloomiest caverns dwells.
Yet is his prison vast; we still can boast
A world more glorious than the one we’ve lost.
We hold more treasures in our grots profound,
Than on the surface of the earth are found.
With ether’s glitt’ring orbs let Odin toy;
In frothy billows Ægir seek his joy;
Frigga in fading flow’rets boast her choice ”

“ Fenris, when a wounded body
He perceives at midnight hour,
Makes it carrion; but this serpent
Hath a far more dang’rous power:
I will, therefore, quick destroy it;
Man shall cease to be its prey:
Thor shall Askur’s race deliver
From their fiercest enemy.
Blest with health and strength to Freya [40]
Shall they mount to realms on high!
And when they become too numerous,
Let them fight and bravely die!
They should ne’er give way to hatred,
Even where the sword decides:
Wrath becomes not gallant warriors,
Whom the voice of honour guides.
They shall move in ranks to battle. ”

“ In each nook of the palace, each god, morose, alone,
Sat looking straight before him, as motionless as stone.
No longer the Einherier, eight hundred at a time,
In the arena skirmish for Odin’s prize sublime;
They now no longer sally from Trudvang’s brazen port,
To give wounds and receive them, in Hildur’s [61] fav’rite sport.
They cease the glaive to brandish; their blood no longer flows;
They spring not up with laughter from the well-levell’d blows:
Nor roast flesh of Sâhrimner with appetite assail;
Nor drain the horn capacious, brimming with mead or ale. ”

“ Drank in the blood of Ymer slain:
The giants who this feat beheld
All with astonishment turn’d pale,
But prudently their fear conceal’d:
Yet e’en this draught did nought avail.
When Asa Thor at length perceived,
How fruitless all his efforts were
To drain the horn, he inward grieved,
And thus he spoke: “I must declare,
Ye chiefs of Jotunheim are first
In power of swallowing drink, as well
As flesh; for such unnatural thirst
We sons of Asgard never feel.
“The bowl we Asar do not drain
The feverish heat of thirst to quell;
We feel it not; ’tis strength to gain,
That we imbibe our hydromel. ”

“ Than those of Denmark, when the lays of nightingales resound?
Niord weeps with rage, while Skada fell lays waste his rich domain,
But changed his precious tears become to fecundating rain;
When rain descends, it never fails to damp the tempest’s wings;
Thus ever ’gainst his consort’s spells some antidote he brings.
From Vingolf Niord was absent, when the mead was handed round,
For while Forsete sat as judge by Urda’s wave profound,
He clear’d the air from vapours foul: where’er extends his power,
Healthy and free each peasant breathes, sickness prevails no more. ”

“ Giants and gods no longer eternal war shall wage;
The bosom melts with kindness, that once throbb’d high with rage.
The heart of Thrymur beats with love; the object of his flame
Is Freya; to the rocks and woods he sighs out Freya’s name.
And when athwart the birch-trees he views her glorious fane,
And marks her spindle sparkling with many a yellow skein,
The female, thinks the giant, who such a quantity
Of flax can spin, must truly a clever housewife be.
She’s just the dame for Thrymur’s taste; soft, delicate, and thin
Must be the fingers, that can draw the silken thread so fine. ”

“ And strong like Vidar is the man who can restrain his tongue.
Two gods, whose qualities on earth are seldom found allied,
Eternally in Odin’s hall are seated side by side:
Resistless is their power combined; all view them with respect;
Loder, the god of beauty reigns; Hænir, of intellect.
The next to Hænir on the bench the serious Var appears,
Stern awe-inspiring goddess, who the rod of conscience bears;
She hears the oaths of all mankind: whoever breaks his vow,
To Nastrond down she hurls the wretch, to endless wail and woe. ”

“ And must that bosom soft and fair against the hairy breast
Of the rough giant throb, and by his rugged hand be prest?
Shall lips, which utter tones so mild, and soul unite with soul,
Be soil’d by the disgusting kiss of such a goblin foul?
Shall eyes, whose soul-subduing rays a power resistless prove,
Be doom’d to contemplate a form impossible to love?
No! rather let Yggdrassil’s top in Nastrond’s marsh corrode,
Or Bifrost sink dissolv’d in dew to Ægir’s deep abode! ”

“ And scars on warriors’ limbs now bled afresh at th’ wild commotion:
Fell Jormundgardur shook himself; for miles and miles around
Men, fields,and dwellings were submerged in ocean’s waves profound.
Each Nidding starting from his couch by stings of conscience vex’d
Arose; a cold sweat on his brow announced a soul perplex’d:
Fenris loud howling through the sky the vast creation scared;
Lok’s laughter and the wolfish howl the long long night were heard.
“Giants and gods alike I hate,” said Lok: “soon shall they prove,
How terrible that power can be, which but itself doth love. ”

“ Ah! woe is me! from Valaskialf’s abode
Thus exiled, what is Loptur now? a giant, or a god?
Am I thus amongst monsters condemn’d my time to pass?”
Where’s now my fav’rite pastime, the zest of life? alas!
Must I ’midst stupid giants dwell in the realms of night,
Who dose like sleepy dragons o’er gold and silver bright?
For them no sunshine blazes, no spring brings with it joy,
The art the blockheads know not existence to enjoy: [314]
They know not love’s soft blandishment, they prize not music’s tone,
Their only pastime is to hear the cascade rushing down. ”

“ Between the gods and giants form
The bound’ry ever more.
“In warlike games and banquets gay
The Asar pass their time,
Warm’d by the sun’s eternal ray
In Asagard sublime:
A royal life of bliss and power
The Nornor them have given;
And mortals fervent still adore
The denizens of heaven.
“But for the swarthy giant brood
Far different is the lot:
They wax in strength and hardihood
I’ th’ mountain’s deepest grot.
Earth’s sons to us no honour pay;
They venture not to tread
Those dreary wastes, where we hold sway;
They fly from us with dread. ”

“ Heimdaller then Lok’s plan explained, and spoke: “Ye Asar high!
His hammer Thor will ne’er regain, unless we mystify
The amorous giant: as ye know, he seeks a bride more fair
Than those he’s been accustomed to, in his dark mountain lair.
Unused to females, who possess grace, beauty, symmetry.
To dupe the giant’s senses coarse no arduous task would be.
If Thor will but consent to dress in feminine attire,
There is a bride at once most fit to cool the giant’s fire!
Let Thor like Freya be array’d: to further the deceit
She’ll not refuse, I trow, to lend the robes and jewels meet. ”

“ To the serpent
Could I once approach as nigh,
So that I could thrust my Miölner
Into his ferocious eye,
This would give me greater pleasure,
Than to hear the clash of arms,
Or to gaze in proud Valhalla
On the bright Valkyrior’s charms. [111]
All the world’s distress and mis’ry [39]
From that serpent fell proceeds:
Couch’d in ambush, on the vitals
Of th’ affrighted earth he feeds:
From his fangs all dire diseases
He to plague mankind distils;
And his venom in vast globules
Sea and land with havock fills.
When a man by ling’ring sickness
Tortured, feels th’ approach of death ”

“ SKIRNIR.
’Tis the long-neck’d swan with its colour white,
Who loves to sail on the lake so bright:
No hands hath she, but her yellow feet
Can give to her eggs the figure meet.
GESTUR.
A corpse sat riding a corpse upon,
And though without life the steed moved on;
Across the river it speeded fast,
And stopp’d on the opposite bank at last.
SKIRNIR.
On the ice lay a horse deprived of breath,
And on it an eagle frozen to death:
On the drifting ice the courser sped
Across the stream, although it was dead.
GESTUR.
Who is it in ashes sleeps like a slave,
And seems neither life nor vigour to have? ”

“ Coward, he lets himself be slain:
Lok ne’er before his foes will deign,
Lamb-like, in piteous strains to bleat.
Vain, Balder, is that rule of thine,
Patience and piety to use;
He only bows at virtue’s shrine,
Whose arm is weak and wit obtuse.
Vidar spoke not, but earnest stared
Full in the face of Asa-Lok;
The caitiff instant felt the shock,
With quiv’ring lip and visage scared.
The water-spout with gloomy frown,
Thus column-like from heaven doth come,
With thick shoes stamps old Ocean down,
And scatters far the billow’s scum. [310]
Now black the vault of heaven became ”