Anonymous

“ And so one dies one's self;
One thing now that never dies,
The fame of a dead man's deeds.
79.⁠Certain is that which is sought from runes,
That the gods so great have made,
And the Master-Poet painted;
-lacuna-
-lacuna- of the race of gods:
Silence is safest and best.
80.⁠An unwise man, if a maiden's love
Or wealth he chances to win,
His pride will wax, but his wisdom never,
Straight forward he fares in conceit.
81.⁠Give praise to the day at evening, to a woman on her pyre,
To a weapon which is tried, to a maid at wed lock,
To ice when it is crossed, to ale that is drunk. ”

“ Each day with evil deeds;
Grief shalt thou get instead of gladness,
And sorrow to suffer with tears.
31.⁠"With three-headed giants thou shalt dwell ever,
Or never know a husband;
(Let longing grip thee, let wasting waste thee,—)
Be like to the thistle that in the loft
Was cast and there was crushed.
32.⁠"I go to the wood, and to the wet forest,
To win a magic wand;
-lacuna-
I won a magic wand.
33.⁠"Othin grows angry, angered is the best of the gods,
Freyr shall be thy foe,
Most evil maid, who the magic wrath
Of gods hast got for thyself. ”

“ Profit thou hast if thou hearest,
Great thy gain if thou learnest:
When ale thou drinkest) seek might of earth,
(For earth cures drink, and fire cures ills,
The oak cures tightness, the ear cures magic,
Rye cures rupture, the moon cures rage,
Grass cures the scab, and runes the sword-cut;)
The field absorbs the flood.
138.⁠Now are Hor's words spoken in the hall,
Kind for the kindred of men,
Cursed for the kindred of giants:
Hail to the speaker, and to him who learns!
Profit be his who has them! ”

“ And a life not stained with sin.
69.⁠All wretched is no man, though never so sick;
Some from their sons have joy,
Some win it from kinsmen, and some from their wealth,
And some from worthy works.
70.⁠It is better to live than to lie a corpse,
The live man catches the cow;
I saw flames rise for the rich man's pyre,
And before his door he lay dead.
71.⁠The lame rides a horse, the handless is herdsman,
The deaf in battle is bold;
The blind man is better than one that is burned,
No good can come of a corpse. ”

“ A hero wise; his home is at Rathsey's sound.
He bade me no robbers to steer, nor stealers of steeds,
But worthy men, and those whom well do I know.
Say now thy name, if over the sound thou wilt fare."
⁠Thor spake:
9.⁠"My name indeed shall I tell, though in danger I am,
And all my race; I am Othin's son,
Meili's brother, and Magni's father,
The strong one of the gods; with Thor now speech canst thou get. ”

“ Before its blade the old giant bends,—
Thy father is doomed to die.
26.⁠"I strike thee, maid, with my magic staff,
To tame thee to work my will;
There shalt thou go where never again
The sons of men shall see thee. ”

“ This type of poetry is marked by an extraordinary complexity of diction, with a peculiarly difficult vocabulary of its own. It was to explain some of the "kennings" which composed this special vocabulary that Snorri wrote one of the sections of the Prose Edda. As an illustration, in a single stanza of one poem in the Egilssaga, a sword is called "the halo of the helnn," "the wound-hoe," "the blood-snake" (possibly; no one is sure what the compound word means) and "the ice of the girdle," while men appear in the same stanza as "Othin's ash-trees," and battle is spoken of as "the iron game." ”

“ But no one of gods or elves will grant
That we both together should be."
⁠Skirnir spake:
8.⁠"Then give me the horse that goes through the dark
And magic flickering flames;
And the sword as well that fights of itself
Against the giants grim."
⁠Freyr spake:
9.⁠"The horse will I give thee that goes through the dark
And magic flickering flames,
And the sword as well that will fight of itself
If a worthy hero wields it."
Skirnir spake to the horse: 10.⁠"Dark is it without, and I deem it time
To fare through the wild fells,
(To fare through the giants' fastness;) ”

“ Wise were the women we had, if they kind for us were;
For ropes of sand they would seek to wind,
And the bottom to dig from the deepest dale.
Wiser than all in counsel I was,
And there I slept by the sisters seven,
And joy full great did I get from each. ”

“ It is, indeed, the most nearly formless of all the Eddic poems. The normal metre is the Malahattr (cf. Introduction, where an example is given) . The name of this verse-form means "in the manner of conversation," and the Harbarthsljoth's verse fully justifies the term. The Atli poems exemplify the conventional use of Malahattr, but in the Harbarthsljoth the form is used with extraordinary freedom, and other metrical forms are frequently employed. A few of the speeches of which the poem is composed cannot be twisted into any known Old Norse metre, and appear to be simply prose. ”

“ It seems all but meaningless to talk about "interpolations" in a poem which has developed almost solely through the process of piecing together originally unrelated odds and ends. The notes, therefore, make only such suggestions as are needed to keep the main divisions of the poem distinct.
Few gnomic collections in the world's literary history present sounder wisdom more tersely expressed than the Hovamol. Like the Book of Proverbs it occasionally rises to lofty heights of poetry. ”

“ It consists mainly of boasting and of references, often luckily obscure, to disreputable events in the life of one or the other of the disputants. Some editors have sought to read a complex symbolism into it, particularly by resenting it as a contest between the noble or warrior class (Othin) and the peasant (Thor) . But it seems a pity to take such a vigorous piece of broad farce too seriously.
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. ”

“ I have preserved the metrical confusion of the original by keeping throughout so far as possible to the metres found in the poem; if the rhythm of the translation is often hard to catch, the difficulty is no less with the original Norse.
The poem is simply a contest of abuse, such as the early Norwegian and Icelander delighted in, the opposing figures being Thor and Othin, the latter appearing in the disguise of the ferryman Harbarth. Such billingsgate lent itself readily to changes, interpolations and omissions, and it is little wonder that the poem is chaotic. ”

“ The poem is wholly in dialogue form except for a single narrative stanza (stanza 5) . After a brief introductory discussion between Othin and his wife, Frigg, concerning the reputed wisdom of the giant Vafthruthnir, Othin, always in quest of wisdom, seeks out the giant, calling himself Gagnrath. The giant immediately insists that they shall demonstrate which is the wiser of the two, and propounds four questions (stanzas 11, 13, 15, and 17) , each of which Othin answers. ”

“ The Lokasenna is found only in Regius, where it follows the Hymiskvitha; Snorri quotes four lines of it, grouped together as a single stanza.
The poem is one of the most vigorous of the entire collection, and seems to have been preserved in exceptionally good condition. The exchange or contest of insults was dear to the Norse heart, and the Lokasenna consists chiefly of Loki's taunts to the assembled gods and goddesses, and their largely ineffectual attempts to talk back to him. ”

“ Bugge's guess that the Skirnismol was the work of the author of the Lokasenna is also possible, though it has less to support it.
Critics have generally agreed in dating the poem as we now have it as early as the first half of the tenth century; Finnur Jonsson puts it as early as 900, and claims it, as usual, for Norway. Doubtless it was current in Norway, in one form or another, before the first Icelandic settlements, but his argument that the thistle (stanza 31) is not an Icelandic plant has little weight, for such curse-formulas must have traveled freely from place to place. ”

“ For what touches many a man;
Wise men oft into witless fools
Are made by mighty love.
95.⁠The head alone knows what dwells near the heart,
A man knows his mind alone;
No sickness is worse to one who is wise
Than to lack the longed-for joy.
96.⁠This found I myself, when I sat in the reeds,
And long my love awaited;
As my life the maiden wise I loved,
Yet her I never had.
97.⁠Billing's daughter I found on her bed,
In slumber bright as the sun;
Empty appeared an earl's estate
Without that form so fair.
98.⁠"Othin, again at evening come,
If a woman thou wouldst win ”

“ 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) . ”

“ Loki spake:
52."More lightly thou spakest with Laufey's son,
When thou badst me come to thy bed;
Such things must be known if now we two
Shall seek our sins to tell."
Then Sif came forward and poured mead for Loki in a crystal cup, and said:
53. "Hail too thee, Loki, and take thou here
The crystal cup of old mead;
For me at least, alone of the gods,
Blameless thou knowest to be."
He took the horn, and drank therefrom:
54. "Alone thou wert if truly thou wouldst
All men so shyly shun ”

“ At the witless man the wise shall wink
⁠When among such men he sits.
6.⁠A man shall not boast of his keenness of mind,
⁠But keep it close in his breast;
To the silent and wise does ill come seldom
⁠When he goes as guest to a house ”

“ He was bound with the bowels of his son Vali, but his son Narfi was changed to a wolf. Skathi took a poison-snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the poison dropped thereon. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a shell under the poison, but when the shell was full she bore away the poison, and meanwhile the poison dropped on Loki. Then he struggled so hard that the whole earth shook therewith; and now that is called an earthquake.
↑ The flames: the fire that consumes the world on the last day ”

“ Will chattering ever work ill."
⁠Vafthruthnir spake:
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?"
⁠Othin spake:
12.⁠"Skinfaxi is he, the steed who for men
The glittering day doth draw;
The best of horses to heroes he seems,
And brightly his mane doth burn."
⁠Vafthruthnir spake:
13.⁠"Speak forth now, Gagnrath, if there from the floor
Thou wouldst thy wisdom make known:
What name has the steed that from East anew
Brings night for the noble gods?" ”

“ There is also a brief passage (stanzas 139-146) telling how Othin won the runes, this passage being a natural introduction to the Ljothatal, and doubtless brought into the poem for that reason.
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. ”

“ Cuts from the sword, from the maiden kisses.
83.⁠By the fire drink ale, over ice go on skates;
Buy a steed that is lean, and a sword when tarnished,
The horse at home fatten, the hound in thy dwelling.
84.⁠A man shall trust not the oath of a maid,
Nor the word a woman speaks ”

“ The compiler of the poems either was confused or thought the incident was useful as Indicating what finally happened to Loki. Possibly he did not mean to imply that Loki's fate was brought upon him by his abuse of the gods, but simply tried to round out the story. Franang: "Gleaming Water." Vali and Narfi: cf. stanza 49 and note. Sigyn: cf. Voluspo, 35, the only other place where she is mentioned in the poems. Snorri omits the naive note about earth- quakes, his narrative ending with the words, "And there he lies till the destruction of the gods." ”

“ There has been much discussion as to the probable date of the Vafthruthnismol, but it appears to belong to about the same period as the Voluspo: in other words, the middle of the tenth century. While there may be a few interpolated passages in the poem as we now have it, it is clearly a united whole, and evidently in relatively good condition. ”

“ Loki spake:
44."What little creature goes crawling there,
Snuffling and snapping about?
At Freyr's ears ever wilt thou be found,
Or muttering hard at the mill."
Byggvir spake:
45."Byggvir my name, and nimble am I,
As gods and men do grant;
And here am I proud that the children of Hropt
Together all drink ale."
Loki spake:
46."Be silent, Byggvir! thou never couldst set
Their shares of the meat for men ”

“ In the stern the kinsman of Othin sat,
And Veur with cunning his cast prepared.
23.⁠The warder of men, the worm's destroyer,
Fixed on his hook the head of the ox;
There gaped at the bait the foe of the gods,
The girdler of all the earth beneath.
24.⁠The venomous serpent swiftly up
To the boat did Thor, the bold one, pull ”