The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Gods of the North, an epic poem, by Adam Œhlenschläger, translated by William Edward Frye.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: A printing error with the page numbering of the original book (present in multiple copies) has been retained: the poem goes from pages 1 to 352, but then the following section of notes begins with page 337.

THE
GODS OF THE NORTH,

AN EPIC POEM, BY

ADAM ŒHLENSCHLÆGER,

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL DANISH INTO ENGLISH VERSE

BY

WILLIAM EDWARD FRYE,

FORMERLY MAJOR OF INFANTRY IN THE BRITISH SERVICE, AND MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY DEGLI ARCADI, IN ROME.

To his Majesty Christian VIII,
King of Denmark,
&c. &c. &c.

The countenance of an enlightened Prince has ever been eagerly sought after by the most distinguished authors. It may then well be permitted to an humble admirer and translator of a poem of Denmark’s greatest Scald to desire to place himself and his work under the protection of a King of Denmark, who yields to no Sovereign of any age or country in his love of science, and in his zealous furtherance of all that can adorn or benefit the great family of mankind. In soliciting the permission of dedicating this work to your Majesty, I had nothing to plead in favour of my request, but my ardent zeal for Scandinavian literature; I knew, however, that such zeal would be my greatest recommendation in the eyes of a patriotic Monarch, and the gracious permission accorded to me by Your Majesty I consider as my highest reward.

PREFACE
BY THE TRANSLATOR.

The argument of the poem by the author is the sole document that accompanies the original work; there are neither notes nor preface to the edition from which I have made my translation, and which is the only one I have ever seen. To the people of education in Scandinavia, who are well versed in the ancient mythology of their country, notes are perhaps not strictly necessary, inasmuch as this poem is based upon the Edda, which is universally read; but since, to the generality of English readers, the Edda and the Scandinavian mythology are but little, if at all familiar, I feel myself bound to furnish them with all the information on the subject that I have been able to collect from various sources; by which they will be enabled to read this poem with additional pleasure and profit.

The Scandinavian mythology, like that of all other nations, is founded on the personification and[viii] consequent adoration of the powers of nature, which may be expressed by the word “Demonism,” used in its Greek sense; to this may be added the deification of national heroes.

The first source of Demonism (I here borrow the words of Wieland in his admirable work called Agathodemon) lies in the ignorance of mankind, in the early stages of the world, of the real causes or laws by which the powers of nature act, on the one side; and on the other, in the innate propensity of man to reflect the image of the things which he can and does see, on the things which lie beyond the contact of his senses.

This induces us to personify the causes of the effects that we behold in nature; we assign to them our manner of thinking and acting, and we endow them with a form like our own, because we can conceive no higher model. Thus we give a supposed existence to an infinite number of divinities in heaven and earth, whose operations are seen and felt, though the agents themselves are unseen or unknown. Thus the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the sea, rivers, woods, mountains, etc., all have their peculiar divinities; and as these were considered as the cause of light or of darkness, of warmth or of cold, of fertility or of barrenness, of the eternal vicissitudes of the year, month or day, as well as of the destructive effects of storms, tempests, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc., to the idea of their existence became conjoined the belief of their[ix] superhuman power. They were therefore recognised as the arbitrary rulers of nature, who had their separate principalities, circles, and districts in her empire; and as we ascribe to them our own passions, caprices, and necessities, we naturally endeavour to captivate their good will, or avert their anger, by prayers, sacrifices, presents, or penances.

On the principle of Demonism, therefore, did the earliest legislators establish the basis of their fabric of social order, civilization and religion; and it was by profiting by this innate inclination of mankind, that priests and mystagogues succeeded in consolidating their power and influence, which became necessarily augmented and enhanced by the right they arrogated to themselves of canonizing or deifying those heroes or princes, whom they were disposed to hold up as worthy of adoration, or as examples to be followed by the people.

History thus became blended with allegory and mythology; and this circumstance, combined with the total want of chronology, which seems to pervade the early records of all nations, renders it extremely difficult to give to any mythology a consistent form, proportionate in all its parts, and presenting an invariable doctrine or system of action.

Proceeding thus from a similar source, the Scandinavian polytheism has a remarkable coincidence with those of Greece, Italy, Egypt and India; and from its[x] classification of the superior powers into good and evil genii, it bears a still more striking resemblance to the religion of the ancient Persians, the doctrine of the Magi, which admits the co-existence of, and the eternal struggle between, the two opposing principles of Good and Evil, under the types of Ormuzd and Ahrimanes.

It seems generally admitted that the Gothic mythology was introduced into the north-west of Europe by the Asar or Asiatic Goths, when, under the guidance of the historical Odin, they emigrated from the borders of the Black Sea and penetrated into Scandinavia, where they founded their empire; and had they at that time been acquainted with navigation, they would most assuredly not have stopped there, but would have invaded the British Islands, which would have afforded an easy conquest, and a more alluring resting-place, from the superior fertility of their soil, and far greater mildness of the climate.

The word Asa may be derived from Asia, or both may be derived from the word As or Az,[1] which in the Zend or ancient Persian dialect (the link between the Gothic and the Sanscrit) signifies “powerful, elevated;” and may have been applied to that part of Asia bordering on Europe by its own inhabitants, as a country, par excellence, occupied by a super-excellent people; on the same principle that the word “Svensk” (Swedish) is[xi] derived from “Sven” (man), and denotes a man, par excellence; and the country itself called “Sverige” (empire of men, Sweden). The word Goth also is a synonyme for what is good, great, and illustrious; for in all the Teutonic and Scandinavian languages, the three words Goth, good, and God spring from the same root; such has ever been the self-love and vanity of nations. The term Jotun or Jette may on the other hand have been the name of some rival nation, professing a different worship, and engaged in a long and obstinate warfare with the Asar or Goths, either in Asia or in Europe; and by the suggestion of national hatred, the Asar may have given the name of their enemies (the Jetter) to the destructive powers of nature, personified by the malevolent genii or giants: hence in the Icelandic, Danish and Swedish languages, the term Jotun, Jette, or Jätte, denotes a giant and implies the idea formed of this fabulous race by all nations.

The historical Odin was deified after his death, as were his wives, his sons, and immediate relations, and either their names may have been given to the benign influences of nature, or they (Odin and his relations) may have adopted the names of the gods of their Asiatic ancestors, in order to impose on their new subjects. The names of regions, places and abodes were transferred from Asia to Scandinavia; and the said names were, either previously or subsequently to the first grand immigration of the Goths into the north-west of Europe,[xii] applied by them to the supposed residences of the gods in heaven. Among the Egyptians and Greeks, the names of the Zodiac and of the constellations afford a similar and satisfactory proof of the continual re-action of earth on heaven, and of heaven on earth.[2]

The popular belief of the continual intercourse between heaven and earth, between gods, demi-gods, and heroes in the early ages of mankind, fostered and encouraged by the many ingenious allegories framed by the priests, the sole astronomers of the time, out of the movements and influences of the celestial bodies, render either hypothesis probable, and may serve to account for the many incongruities that prevail in the Scandinavian, as well as in other mythologies; it is sufficient for the comprehension of this poem, to lay down the principle, that the Asar (gods) represent the creating, embellishing, and conservative powers of nature; and the Jetter (giants), on the contrary, represent the defacing, corrupting, destructive powers of the same. The giants existed before the gods, inasmuch as chaos, darkness and confusion preceded creation, light and order.

With respect to the superhuman size attributed by[xiii] most nations to evil spirits, it may be observed, that in darkness the terrors of mankind increase, and the shades of night magnify considerably to the visual orb every object in nature: hence to the Jetter, or evil genii, who were supposed to wander about at night doing mischief, was lent by the imagination a form gigantic in stature, and features frightful to behold. Day appears! the giants vanish! or they assume the ordinary appearance of towers, steeples, and windmills; or they become changed to wolves and bears; or they dwindle to the usual human size: but are still dangerous by their knowledge of magic, their power of effecting transformations, and by the artifices and illusions whereby they seek to mislead mankind and seduce them to the perpetration of evil. That the Jotun or Jetter, who were probably the aboriginal inhabitants of Scandinavia at the time of the Gothic invasion, should appear to the Asar to be giants in size, and as having the heads of bears, wolves, elks, or wild bulls, conjoined to human bodies, may be very easily and naturally accounted for. The Jotun race were in a very low state of civilization compared with the Asar, and were, probably, totally unacquainted with the art of tanning or weaving. They accordingly clothed themselves with the skins of beasts; and in order to increase the terrific in their exterior (an object of great importance among savage nations), they preserved the head, tail, and claws of the animals, in whose spoils they arrayed themselves; and wore its[xiv] head, horns and all, as a head-dress above their own, allowing the tail to dangle behind them, while its paws crossed their breast. This must naturally have given to them the appearance, not only of a stature far above the human size, but that also of partaking of the shape and nature both of man and beast, which idea was not a little supported by the ferocity of their manners; and such was probably the origin of giantism in every country.[3]

I shall now proceed to give an outline of the cosmogony and principal events of the Scandinavian mythology, as far as they can be collected from the only authentic source extant, viz. the fragments of the poetry contained in the elder or poetic Edda, discovered and compiled by the celebrated Sæmund Sigfusson, a native of Iceland, who was born in the year 1054, and died in 1133. He was a Christian priest of extensive talents and acquirements, who made a journey to Rome, a rare occurrence, at that time, among the clergy of the north. He it was who discovered these fragments, and at once perceived their value. He compiled them, and gave them to light, with a Latin translation of his own,[xv] under the name of the Edda, which, in the Icelandic or ancient Scandinavian tongue, means “Ancestress.”

It was fortunate that this discovery was made by a man so enlightened and liberal as Sæmunder, who was free from all the prejudices which prevailed among the clergy of his time. Any poem or writing connected with the ancient polytheistic religion of the country, was at that time considered as the work of devils, and severely proscribed. The poems of the Edda, therefore, had they fallen into the hands of an ignorant or bigotted priest, would have been burnt, and lost to posterity for ever. The fragments thus collected together under the name of the Edda are, indeed, but the disjectorum membra poetarum; but they form the only document extant, which throws on the Scandinavian mythology a light at all to be depended on.[4]

Of importance far inferior, but still of considerable[xvi] relative utility, is the younger or prosaic Edda, composed, rather than compiled, by Snorro Storleson, a learned Icelander, who was born in 1178, and was killed at Reykiaholt in 1241. This work, written in prose, may be considered as a commentary on the elder or poetic Edda, with several additions and legends, collected probably from oral tradition. It is written in a homely, story-telling style, and but for the elder Edda, would stand a chance of being considered as unimportant as a black letter romaunt or fairy tale. In the preface to it, there is a strange jumble of history, sacred and profane; a very fantastic geography; and an attempt to derive the genealogy of all the nations in Europe from the Trojans: there reigns, moreover, throughout the whole work, a total want of chronology.[5]

The most interesting part of the work, from the light it throws on the elder Edda, is the Gyllfaginning, or Conversations of King Gyllfe, who reigned over a part of Sweden at the time of Odin’s invasion. A curious appendage to the work is the “Skalde sprâket” (the language of the Skalds), which forms a sort of Gradus ad Parnassum of the Icelandic poetry, in which the synonymes and epithets of all persons and things occurring in the works of the Skalds, are given with extreme accuracy. But, as I have before stated, the whole[xvii] importance of Snorro Sturleson’s work is derived from the elder or poetic Edda. In the Gyllfaginning occurs the following remarkable passage:

“King Gyllfe was a prudent and very wise man; it caused him much surprize that the Asar possessed so much knowledge, that every thing yielded to their will; and he reflected whether this could proceed from their own power, or whether they derived it from the Gods, to whom they sacrificed.”

It is from the Gyllfaginning that I borrow the following account of the cosmogony, according to the Scandinavian mythology.

In the beginning when nothing existed, when there was neither earth, nor sea, nor heaven, all was Ginnungagap,[6] a vast unfathomable abyss. Towards the north of this abyss lay a world of cold and darkness called Niffelheim, in the midst of which was the source or fountain Hvergelmer. On the south of Ginnungagap lay Muspelheim, a world of heat, light and fire. From the source Hvergelmer flowed twelve rivers, called collectively Elivagor. These flowed into Ginnungagap, so far from their source, that the poisonous matter they contained congealed at length, and formed a mass of ice. On the other hand, the sparks and flames proceeding from Muspelheim, came into contact with this[xviii] congealed mass; and the heat, operating on the cold, produced the giant Ymer, the grand progenitor of the race of giants. He was wicked, and so were all his race, who were called Hrimthusser. Shortly after the apparition of Ymer, arose the cow Audumbla; she nourished herself by licking the frost from the pillars of salt in Ginnungagap; and this operation produced, on the first day, a man’s hair; on the second, his whole head; on the third the entire man; this man was called Bure. Bure had a son called Bor; and this Bor, by an union with a beautiful giantess of the name of Betsla, became the father of three sons, Odin, Vil and Ve, the progenitors of the Asar race. These three brothers slew the giant Ymer, from whose body flowed so much blood, that all the giants were drowned therein, except Bergelmer and his wife, who escaped from the deluge on the top of a mountain. Bergelmer and his wife had a numerous progeny, and by them were perpetuated the giant race. Odin, Vil and Ve, having slain Ymer, proceeded to the creation of the world, as it now exists. From the limbs of Ymer, they created the earth, the mountains from his bones, the sea from his blood, the heavens from his scull; and from his eye-brows they built Midgard, name of the abode to be inhabited by the human race, and so called, because it lies in the middle region. They then from two trees, which they found on the sea-shore, created a man, called Askur, and a woman called Embla; and placed[xix] them to dwell in Midgard. From this pair descend all mankind.

On the confines of Midgard towards the north, and separated from it by mountains of ice and snow, and dreary wastes eternally agitated by storms, lies Utgard, the domain of the giants, whose sovereign is Lok, commonly called Utgard-Lok, to distinguish him from an Asa bearing the same name. Utgard became thus the region assigned to the giant race, as Midgard was to mankind. The Asar chose for themselves a region supposed to be in the heavens above the earth, and this region they called Asagard. There they built for themselves various palaces and tenements; and dwelling therein, pass their time in joy and felicity, in banquets, tournaments, festivals, and amusements of all sorts; or they occupy themselves in conferring happiness upon, and imagining inventions useful and beneficial to the human race. They occasionally descend from Asagard to Midgard, by passing over the bridge Bifrost, when they deem it necessary to intervene immediately in the affairs of mankind, for the purpose of relieving the oppressed, or of enforcing the practice of justice and benevolence.

The giants, on the contrary, when they sally forth from their domain in Utgard, do so for the purpose of creating storms and earthquakes, and causing, either openly or insidiously, as much mischief as possible to gods and men.

I shall not in this preface enumerate the names of the different gods and goddesses, nor of their abodes and attributes; neither shall I enumerate the names of the giants, nor those of the Dvergar, of the Alfer, or of the Vaner. All these names will be found in a catalogue, alphabetically arranged, which I shall annex to this work. Neither shall I take notice, in this preface, of the various episodes of the mythology, which are introduced in the body of the poem, and explain themselves; but I shall proceed to give an account of the death of Balder,[7] as it is related in the younger or prosaic Edda.

Frigga is the wife of Odin and queen of the gods. Their son Balder, the most benevolent among the Asar, called by the Skalds “the fillet that binds together the garland of the gods,” was troubled with unpleasant dreams, portending some dreadful calamity to himself, and pregnant with mischief and ruin to the universe. He related his dreams to the Asar, and a council was held by them, in order to devise the means of averting the threatened mischief. His mother Frigga exacted an oath from all the elements, from iron and all kinds of metals, from stones, trees, beasts, birds, fishes and[xxi] reptiles, that they would do no injury to Balder. When this oath was made, it was agreed upon by the Asar, that they should throw their lances at Balder, or cut at him with their swords, by way of amusement and experiment. Of course, enchanted as he was, he remained unscathed from all those assaults. This rejoiced the gods exceedingly; but there was one among the Asar, called Lok, originally of giant race, but admitted among the gods; a being of a treacherous and vacillating disposition, addicted to mockery and calumny, and inheriting from his ancestors, the giants, a strong innate disposition to mischief. It grieved him sore, that no injury could be done to Balder. He repaired to Fensal, the abode of Frigga, in the shape of a female, and related to her what had past between Balder and the other Asar at the tournament. Frigga replied: No weapon can do injury to Balder, for I have exacted an oath in his favour from all things likely to do him mischief. Lok answered: Have you really exacted an oath from all things? Frigga replied: Eastward to Valhalla grows a little plant, called the mistletoe; from it I exacted no oath, for it appeared to me so insignificant, as to be incapable of doing harm to anybody. Lok went away, dug up the plant, and made thereof a spear; he then went in search of Hædur, twin-brother of Balder, and born blind. Having found him, he asked him, why he did not join in the general amusement, and cast a weapon at Balder. Hædur replied:[xxii] I am blind, and have no weapon. Lok answered: You should not be the only one among the Asar, who does not do honour to Balder; here! take this lance (giving to him the spear made of the mistletoe), and run at him with it! Hædur did so, and Balder fell down dead. The gods were inconsolable at his loss, and sent Hermod, the messenger of Odin, to Hela, the queen of death and of the shades below, into whose hands Balder had fallen, in order to supplicate his release. Hermod mounted the steed of Odin, called Sleipner, and repaired to the abode of Hela, in order to demand the restitution of Balder. Hela at first refused to release him on any condition whatsoever; but at length relenting, she said: Now is the time to prove, if Balder be really so beloved by all creatures, as ye pretend. If, therefore, every thing in nature will shed tears for Balder’s death, and demand his release, I will grant it. Hermod returned to Asagard, satisfied with the success of his mission. The Asar sent messengers all over the earth, calling upon all creatures to weep for Balder’s death; and all creatures did grieve and join in the prayer for his release from the shades of Helheim, except an old witch, by name Thock, who was sitting by the entrance of a cavern. When called upon to join in the general lamentation, she answered spitefully:[xxiii]

and in consequence of this solitary refusal, Hela did retain her prey, and will do so until the end of time. It was now discovered that the witch Thock was no other than Lok himself in disguise; and the gods, enraged at his treachery, inflicted on him a summary vengeance. Changing his two sons into wolves, who devour each other, the gods make a chain from their intestines, and bind therewith Lok to a sharp rock in a subterranean abode. They then place over him two enormous serpents, who drop their venom on his limbs, and he is to remain exposed to this continual torture until the end of the world. But though Lok be thus punished, the calamity springing from Balder’s death cannot be averted; from it dates the entrance of crime and misery into the world, and a state of unceasing warfare in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth; which state is to last until the great day of Ragnarok, called the twilight of the gods. On that awful day, which is to be preceded by a severe uninterrupted winter of three years’ duration, a great battle is to be fought between the gods and giants, in which dreadful conflict giants, gods, mankind, the whole universe, in fine, are to perish in a shower of fire and blood. After the destruction of the world, a new[xxiv] creation is to take place under the auspices of Vidar, the god of silence and wisdom, the sole being who survives the general conflagration. It is he who is to resuscitate the gods and the human race, and to lead them to dwell in the palace of Gimle on the plains of Ida, an abode of eternal joy and felicity, where virtue and love are to reign triumphant, and vice and hatred be extinguished for ever. As the details of the destruction of the world and of its reconstruction are given in the last canto of this poem, I need not dwell on them here.[8] Besides the alphabetical catalogue, explicatory of all that remains to be known, concerning the events and personages which figure in this poem, I have annexed to each canto notes, which give the hidden sense and meaning of most of the mythes and allegories; on which subjects I have borrowed all my information from the celebrated Danish antiquarian Finn Magnussen, now living in Copenhagen, which information is to be found in his two admirable works, the one called[xxv] “The elder Edda, translated with copious notes and illustrations;” the other, “The Edda doctrine explained and elucidated.” These two works afford a complete key to the mythes and allegories of the Scandinavian mythology, intricate as it is; and armed thus with his (Finn Magnussen’s) magic wand, I too may fearlessly undertake the office of Hierophant.

With respect to this poem and its author,[9] it has been observed by a modern Danish writer of some eminence: “There have been various poetical works in all the northern languages based on the legends of the Edda; but no author has woven thereof a whole, nor has so happily and poetically embodied its genius, mythes and transformations, as Œhlenschläger in his celebrated poem, The Gods of the North.”

To me it seems that he has combined in an eminent degree the peculiar excellences of three distinguished poets, of three distinct ages, viz. those of Hesiod in his Theogony, of Ovid in his Metamorphoses, and of Ariosto in his Orlando Furioso. Œhlenschläger seems to possess all the inexhaustible genius, fertility of invention, playfulness, and sly, but not ill-natured, satire of the bard of Ferrara:

Of my translation, it befits not me to speak. Like my archetype, I have adopted various metres for the[xxvi] different cantos, not always the same as those of the original; for I wished to take a freer scope, and not to fetter myself by an invariable adoption of the self-same metres, which would have been attended with great difficulty, inasmuch as some of them are unsuitable to the genius of the English language, which is far less laconic than the Danish. I have likewise, in a few instances, amplified my archetype, for I was determined that nothing of his should be lost; yet I trust, that even in those parts where I have most amplified, I have never departed from the meaning and spirit of the author. I can therefore never admit, that my translation, though unshackled, should be termed “a free one,” or Bearbeitung, as the Germans express it.

With respect to my qualifications as a translator, they are as follows: from the early age of fifteen I have been engaged in the acquisition of the language and literature of Germany; for the last twelve years, I have closely studied the Danish and Swedish languages, and I have lately attempted the Icelandic.

About eight years ago, I made a summer tour in Denmark and Sweden, and when at Copenhagen, I became acquainted with Finn Magnussen, the celebrated antiquarian, and with the poet Œhlenschläger himself, most of whose works I had previously read with unbounded admiration and delight, and among which, this poem, “The Gods of the North,” had excited my peculiar attention. Thus prepared, I determined[xxvii] on undertaking a metrical version of the whole of this work, one canto of which (the 12th) I had previously translated, and published anonymously in a Parisian weekly review, in 1835.

In my translation, I was further encouraged by the idea that I was thereby contributing to spread among my countrymen a taste for the mythology and general literature of Scandinavia, which is capable of furnishing to the painter or the sculptor a series of subjects not less interesting than those derived from the classic sources of Greece or Rome. I recommend, also, to the attention of scholars, the study of the Danish and Swedish languages, as the key to an historical literature extremely rich and diversified, interesting to the readers of every European nation, but more particularly so to the English reader, who is desirous of forming an intimate acquaintance with the arcana of his own language, and with his own early history, laws, customs, manners, and legends. The history of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden is as captivating as a romance, and it presents an astonishing variety of the most singular events, which would afford admirable subjects for epic and dramatic poetry, as well as for the historical novel. The English reader will perceive, likewise, that the Scandinavian mythology is the fountain head of many of the most popular tales, legends, and ballads of his own country. It will interest him to mark the effect of the introduction of the Christian religion upon the Scandinavian[xxviii] polytheism, as therein he may trace the origin of many of our own superstitions and fabulous traditions. At the appearance of the Cross, the proud edifice of Valhalla, not seldom, alas! polluted with human gore, crumbles into dust. Asagard, with all its palaces and gardens, dissolves in air! The mighty Odin himself, the wise, the just, the beneficent Odin, degenerates into a common-place demon, liable to be exorcised by a parish priest. The Nornor, or Fates, the solemn, majestic, and impartial Nornor, though stern, yet beautiful to behold, become changed to disgusting and wrinkled witches, and figure as such in the weird sisters of Macbeth. The awful giants of Utgard sink into the ogres of a fairy tale; Thor, deprived of his belt, his hammer, his gauntlets, and his car, dwindles into Jack the Giant-killer,[10] the familiar hero of our days of childhood; and from the graa gaas (grey goose), a name given to a collection of ancient legends in the Icelandic tongue, from the circumstance of great longevity being attributed to that bird, may be traced our old nursery acquaintance and monitress, Mother Goose.[11] I have only to add, that I began the translation of this[xxix] poem towards the end of the year 1836, and finished it in the autumn of 1837; but I was compelled by circumstances to delay the publication of it until the present year.

[1] This may be the origin of the term Ace in cards.

[2] In the prosaic Edda is this remarkable passage, wherein the name of Odin is given to Alfader, the supreme god. “We suppose that he (Odin, the god) must have been so called, for so is called the man, the greatest and the most glorious that we know, and well may mankind let him bear that name.”

[3] The figure given to the devil by the imagination of the northern nations is a confirmation of this hypothesis; whereas the Orientals give to him a more seducing form; but in modern times the least cultivated minds reject the northern type, as Göthe says in his drama of Faust:

Das nordische Phantom ist jetzt nicht mehr zu schauen,

Wo siehst du jetzt die Hörner, Schweif und Klauen?

(Faust von Göthe.)

[4] The Eddas are written in the Icelandic tongue, then called the Suio-Gothic, and sometimes the Norrana tunga (or Norse tongue), which was formerly the language of all Scandinavia. After the introduction of Christianity, from the connection with the Empire and the Church, this tongue became gradually deteriorated by a mixture with the German; and it is by this mixture with the German that the modern Swedish and Danish languages are formed. Iceland having been colonised by some Norwegian families previous to the corruption of the language, has thus, from its insular position, preserved the old language pure; and it is now called Icelandic, which, though a dead language for Scandinavia, is a living one in Iceland.

[5] Snorro Storleson is likewise the author of the celebrated history called Heimkringlas, a most valuable work.

[6] For the meaning of Ginnungagap and of all the other proper names, see the alphabetical catalogue annexed to this preface.

[7] The details of the death of Balder are not given in this Poem “The Gods of the North.” It is only alluded to in the speech of the Vala, in the last canto; but Œhlenschläger has treated the “Death of Balder” separately, and made it the subject of an admirable tragic opera, with choruses and trochaics in the Greek style.

[8] Respecting the tragic opera of Balder by Œhlenschläger, which I have also translated, Sneedorf Birch says:

“The mythe of Balder is one of the most beautiful and sublime poetical compositions, whose equal is not to be found in the Greek or Roman mythology, or perhaps in that of any other people. This mythe has besides furnished the subject of one of the finest masterpieces in the Danish literature, namely, the drama of “Balder the Good,” by Œhlenschläger.”

[9] Sneedorf Birch.

[10] Thor is called by the Scalds Jotni-bane, i.e. Bane of the Giants: perhaps Odin himself may be the original Jack the Giant-killer, since one of his names is Jalc.—See the Grimnismal in the poetic Edda.

[11] The French also call these tales Les Contes de ma Mère l’Oie.

ALPHABETICAL LIST
OF THE PROPER NAMES OCCURRING IN OR CONNECTED WITH THE POEM ENTITLED “THE GODS OF THE NORTH.”

With the assistance of Finn Magnussen’s work Eddalæren (Doctrine of the Edda), I have composed the following alphabetical list of the proper names which occur in this poem, wherein the attributes of the several personages are given, and which should be consulted whenever a proper name occurs, since I have not thought it necessary to repeat in the notes annexed to each canto what is already given in this catalogue.

ÆGIR is the god of the sea, the Neptune of the Scandinavian mythology. His dwelling was supposed to be on the island of Hlesey, now called Lessoe, in the Cattegat. He is sometimes called Hler Ægir. He is of a benevolent disposition; but his consort Ran, who is of giant race, is otherwise. The etymology of the name Ægir is from the Icelandic verb Ægi, to liquify, inundate, etc.

ALFADER (Father of all) a name given to Odin, as king of gods and men. It is sometimes given to a supreme unknown God, pre-existent and superior to Odin himself.

[xxxii]

ALF, plural ALFER, are inferior elementary divinities, divided into two classes, viz. the white Alfer, or Alfs of light; and the black Alfer, or Alfs of darkness. The white Alfer are related to the Asar and Vaner, and are friendly to mankind; they dwell with Balder in his palace of Breidablik. The black Alfer are mischievously disposed: they are connected with the Dvergar (dwarfs), and like them they shun the light of day: they dwell in caverns and sally out at night only. Our word elf is derived therefrom.

ANGURBOD, name of a Jettinde (giantess), who, in consequence of an amour with Asa-Lok, brought forth three frightful offspring, viz. the wolf Fenris, the serpent Jormundgard, commonly called the serpent of Midgard, and Hela, queen of death and of the shades below. The word Angurbod denotes “messenger of sorrow.”

ARILD, Arilds-tid (time of Arild). From Arilds-time is a manner of reckoning among the Scandinavians, similar to our expression from “Noah’s time.” It means the time when mankind first learned the use of fire, and to have fixed habitations. Etym.: arne (hearth), ild (fire), and tid (time).

ASA, pl. ASAR, name given to the gods of the Scandinavian mythology; the principal Asar are Odin, Thor, Frey, Balder, Vidar, Ægir, etc. The word seems to be derived from the word As or Az, which in the Zend or ancient Persian language, which forms the link between the Gothic dialect and the Sanscrit, means elevated, powerful, sublime.

ASYNIA, pl. ASYNIOR, name given to the goddesses; the principal Asynior are Frigga, Freya, Iduna, Sif, Gefion, Nanna, etc.

[xxxiii]

ASAGARD, or ASGARD, is the region, the peculiar territory of the gods. It was supposed to be in the heavens above the earth, and to contain many rich domains and splendid buildings, inhabited by the different gods and goddesses. The most remarkable are the palace of Odin, called Valaskialf; the celebrated banqueting hall or pavilion, called Valhalla: Vingolf the peculiar palace and rendezvous of the Asynior, or goddesses: Trudvang, the domain of Thor: Fensal, the palace of Frigga: Folkvang, that of Freya: Breidablik, that of Balder, besides many others which are given in alphabetical order. Geographically, Asagard or Asgard was the name of a territory and city on the northern border of the Black Sea, from whence the Asiatic Goths originally came. The word gaard in Danish, gard in Swedish, means a walled or hedged inclosure, and is the root of the words yard, court and garden.

ASH, see the word Yggdrassil.

ASKUR is the name of the first man: he and Embla, the first woman, were fabricated from two trees by Bor and Bure; according to others, by Odin, Vil and Ve. Askur and Embla were then placed by their makers in Midgard, to dwell therein, and perpetuate their race. Askur and Embla are in fact the Adam and Eve of the Gothic mythology. Etym.: askr (ash tree).

ASTRILD is the god of love: his name is not to be found in the Edda, but it appears in several of the old Sagas. Etym.: Ast, old Danish word signifying (love) and ild (fire).

AUKTHOR, a name given to Thor: it means Thor the charioteer, from âka (to drive), Swedish verb.

[xxxiv]

AUDUMBLA, name of the mythologic cow formed by the Fiat of Alfader (the quisquis deorum), at the creation of the universe. By licking the salt rocks in Ginnungagap, she occasioned the birth of Bure, the progenitor of the Asar race. The cow Audumbla represents the organic power of nature acting upon the Chaos. The word, I think, means “development,” from the Icelandic words aud, particle signifying facility, and embla (laborious).

BALDER is the son of Odin and Frigga, the most beloved of his father and mother, the most benevolent among the Asar, the sun personified, the god of light, piety and poesy. He was slain by his twin brother Hædur, born blind, with a branch of the mistletoe. His fate and its consequences have been related at length in the preliminary discourse to this poem. Balder typifies the sun at the summer solstice, and his death the disappearance of the sun from the horizon during the winter months in the north, while Hædur, type of darkness, reigns. The word in Icelandic means brilliant, beautiful, powerful. Balder has an evident analogy with the Baal of the Assyrians, the Apollo of the Greeks, the Horus of the Egyptians, the Krïshna of the Hindoos, all of which are types of the sun in its highest splendour.

BAUGE, name of a giant, who procured for Odin entrance into the bower of Gunliod, when he sought to make himself master of the vase containing the precious liquor called Suttung’s mead, which was confided to the care of Gunliod. Bolverk was the name assumed by Odin on that occasion. Baug in Icelandic means a “ring,” and among the northern nations in the Gothic time promises were made[xxxv] by holding a ring; and this mythe may mean Odin’s seduction of Gunliod by means of a promise given on the ring.

BERGELMER, name of the giant who, with his wife, were the only ones of that race who escaped being drowned in the blood of Ymer. He and his consort escaped on a wreck, and landed on the top of a mountain. From these two descended the second generation of giants. This mythe reminds one of the deluge of Noah and that of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and the mountain, mount Ararat; for Bergelmer means the ancient of the mountain, from berg (mountain), and gamla (old).

BERSERK (bare sark), name given to a sort of combatants among the ancient Scandinavians, who affected peculiar ferocity, and fought with their fists and teeth, in the absence of other weapons, and in no other clothing but their shirt; hence their name. Berserkgang is a term used to signify a combat of life and death, and is often applied to the exploits of Thor, to denote their peculiar danger and difficulty.

BETSLA, name of a beautiful giantess, the wife of Bor, and mother of Odin, Vil and Ve.

BIFROST, name of the vast bridge which unites heaven to earth, and typifies the rainbow. Over this bridge the Asar must pass when they descend to the world below; over it must likewise pass the heroes slain in battle, when they ascend to Valhalla, escorted by the Valkyrior. Etym.: from the Icelandic words bifa (to move) and röst (stone). The bridge Bifrost was supposed to be constructed of stones of various colours.

[xxxvi]

BILSKIRNIR, name of the palace or castle of Thor, in Trudvang. It is tiled with copper shields, its halls are inlaid with gold and silver, and it has five hundred and forty gates. Etym.: Icelandic words billd (aspect, image), and skirna (make bright).

BOLVERK, name assumed by Odin when he served Bauge, disguised as a labourer. The etymology of this word may be böll (a bolt) and verk (work).

BOR, or Bör, name of the son of Bure; by his union with the beautiful giantess Betsla, he became the father of the Scandinavian triad, Odin, Vil, and Ve. Bor, in Icelandic, means son. But I suspect the word to be of Hebrew origin, meaning beginning; for böra is precisely the Hebrew word wherewith the first book of Genesis begins.

BRAGUR, or BRAGA, an Asa, the god of poetry and musical declamation. At the banquets of Valhalla, he chaunts to the sound of his harp the praises of the gods and Einherier, and celebrates in high-flown language their virtues and warlike deeds. He is the husband of Iduna. He is called by the poets of the north, Bragur hin gamle (Bragur the ancient). Etym.: Icelandic verb bragga (to adorn, to embellish). Our English word to brag comes probably from the same root.

BREIDABLIK, name of the palace of Balder, in Asagard; it is tiled with pearls! Etym.: breid (broad, extended), blik (view).

BURE, father of Bor, and progenitor of the Asar race: his production, effectuated by the cow Audumbla, has been already related in the translator’s preface. Bure in Icelandic has the same meaning as Bör, i.e. son. Both the[xxxvii] words come probably from the Hebrew or Zend, and mean the same thing, viz. origin or beginning.

DAG (day), the son of Delling.

DELLING, name of the father of Dag (day); the word means division.

DISA, pl. DISAR; name given to the Asynior, or goddesses. This word is evidently of Persian origin.

DISARSAL (hall of the Disar), name often given to the palace of Vingolf, the peculiar place of reunion for the goddesses in Asagard.

DOVRE, name of a chain of mountains in Norway, which seems to bear the same relation to Asagard as the natural mount Olympus in Greece bears to the mythological one.

DRAPA means funeral dirge, or song of the apotheosis. In it were celebrated the funeral ceremonies of a deceased hero, his glorious actions recapitulated, and his elevation to the rank of an Einherier and admission into Valhalla triumphantly announced. The English word dirge comes, perhaps, from the Icelandic and Swedish verb dyrka (to adore).

DRUPNER, name of a magic ring fabricated for Odin by the dwarfs, at the command of Asa-Lok. This ring had the faculty of dropping eight other rings on every ninth night: by this is typified the change of the moon and its phases. When Odin placed the ring Drupner on the bosom of his son Balder, when he laid his corpse upon the funeral pile, he whispered a secret in his ear. This may allude to the promise of resurrection, but none knew the secret, save Odin himself. The placing of the ring Drupner (the moon) on the bosom of Balder (the sun) may typify the eclipse of the sun by the moon intervening.[xxxviii] Etym.: from the Icelandic verb driupa (to drop, or distil).

DVERG, pl. DVERGAR (Dwarf), mythological beings, of short stature, who dwelt in caverns and were skilful in the fabrication of metallic instruments. They are unable to bear the glare of the sun, and prefer to rove about at night. From this circumstance, and from their being at times disposed to mischief, they are considered as related to the giants; but they are employed both by gods and giants to make armour and other instruments for them. They are represented as being of an exceedingly timorous disposition.

DWARFS, see DVERG.

EIKTHYRNIR, name of the mythological stag which stands on the roof of the portal of Valaskialf, and from whose antlers springs a fountain which furnishes water to all the rivers of the earth. Etym.: eikt (vigils), hyrnir (horns).

EINHERIER, name given to mortal warriors deified for their valour, and admitted among the Asar; they are constant guests at the banquets of Valhalla. Their occupations and amusements are thus described in the prosaic Edda: “Every day they dress themselves in their armour, go out on horseback to fight, and cut at one another; thus they pass their time. But when the hour of repast approaches, they ride home to the palace, and take their seats at the banquet.” In the elder or poetic Edda, in the chapter called the Vaftrudnismal, are the following words concerning them:[xxxix]

“All the Einherier

In Odin’s domain,

Fight together daily,

And choose their prey of death:

From the battle they ride afterwards

To drink beer with the Asar,

And to feast on the flesh of Sâhrimner,

In joy and amity.”

Etym.: einn (one, unique), and heria (to bear arms).

EIR, name of an Asynia, whose office it is to heal the wounds of the Einherier, when they are first admitted into Valhalla, by squeezing into their wounds the juice of the beet. She is, in fact, the goddess of medicine.

ELDIR, name of Ægir’s purveyor; he is supposed to dwell under the famous whirlpool of Malstrom, and to break in pieces with his club every bark that is engulfed therein. Etym.: eld (fire), and may allude to the subterranean fire supposed to be under Malstrom, and to cause its effervescence.

ELIVAGOR is, mythologically, the collective name of the rivers that flow from the source Hvergelmer, in Ginnungagap. Geographically, Elivagor is thought to mean the mouth of the White Sea. Etym.: elf (a stream), and vaga (to wander).

ELYERHOY, name of a hill or barrow in the island of Sealand (Denmark), so called from its being the supposed habitation of alfs or elves. In Danish, hoi means height.

EMBLA, name of the first woman, according to the Scandinavian mythology. See Askur. Embla means laborious, productive.

FENRIS, name of the mythologic wolf, begotten by Asa-Lok[xl] on the witch or giantess Angurbod. He is malignant, frightful to behold, and his nostrils vomit fire. His presence inspired the gods with such terror, that they endeavoured to bind him with chains of iron and copper; but these he easily burst asunder; they then had resource to a stratagem, and succeeded in binding him with a magic chain, which was composed as follows: of the noise of cat’s feet, of the beards of women, of the breath of birds, of the saliva of fish, of the nerves of bears, and of the roots of mountains. This chain he could not break. The Asar then cast him down into Niffelheim, and placed him at the gate of Helheim, the residence of Hela. There he is to remain chained until Ragnarok; he will then break his chain, join in the battle of the giants against the gods, and devour Odin; but he will be afterwards himself slain by Vidar. By Fenris wolf is typified the subterranean fire, which it is supposed will one day occasion the conflagration of the universe. Etym.: Fenia (giantess or sorceress), risi (to spring from).

FENSAL, name of the palace of Frigga, in Asagard. Probable etym.: fengisall (happy in acquiring riches).

FIALAR, name of the mythologic cock which is to crow at Ragnarok, to excite the gods and giants to combat. Fiallar, in Icelandic, means cock.

FINNAFENG, name of the cook of Ægir, god of the sea; he is slain by Asa-Lok for refusing him admittance to Ægir’s banquet. The etymology may be from the Icelandic words fina (a piece of flesh), fenge (a capture).

FOLKVANGUR or FOLKVANG, name of the palace of Freya in Asagard, into which are admitted, after death, faithful lovers and virtuous women.

[xli]

FORSETE, an Asa, the son of Balder, and god of justice; he dwells in his palace Glitner. He often descends to earth, to sit in judgment, and hear causes under the shade of the ash-tree Yggdrassil, near the fountain of Urda. He is the son of Balder, inasmuch as justice proceeds from light; and as Urda is the Norna or destiny of the past, it is from her fountain (i.e. consulting the records of the past) that he acquires experience. The etymology of this word is for (before), and sete (set), ergo præses, president.

FREY, or FREYR, is the god of liberty, joy and fecundity; he is the son of Niord, and brother of Freya. He is invoked for sunshine and good crops. He represents the sun at the winter solstice. The new year’s feast was instituted to do him honour; it was the day of his birth, and a season of festivity and joy. He was the owner of a magic sword, but falling in love with Gerda, a beautiful damsel of Jotun race, he gave it away to her father, in order to obtain his consent to their union. He is to be slain by Surtur at Ragnarok. Etym.: frei (free), friò (seed). It is remarkable that in Egypt the sun was called Phré. The Swedish word fröid (joy) is probably derived from the name of this god.

FREYA is the Venus of the Scandinavians, the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and fecundity; she is the sister of Frey, and daughter of Niord. She is the most beautiful of all the Asynior. She was married to Odur; but when the goddess Iduna, with her golden vase containing the fruit of immortality, was stolen from Asagard, Freya, in common with the other Asar, lost her youth and beauty; and Odur, disgusted at the change, fled from her[xlii] embraces. On the deliverance of Iduna, Freya recovered her youth and beauty, but her Odur never returned. She wandered all over the earth in search of him, but in vain. She weeps continually for his loss, and sheds tears of gold. When she travels, it is in a golden car, drawn by two black cats. Freya has two daughters, Siofna and Hnos, both remarkable for their beauty and gentleness. The Dutch word fraai (handsome), is derived probably from Freya.

FRIGGA is the wife of Odin, the queen of the gods, the Juno and Ceres of the Scandinavian mythology. She sometimes typifies the earth, as Odin does the heavens; they become thus identic with the Ουρανος and Γη of the Greeks. She is pleased with offerings of fruits and flowers, and is herself extremely generous and beneficent. The constellation “Orion’s belt,” is termed by the Scalds the “spinning-wheel of Frigga.” She is the mother of Balder, Hædur, Thor, etc. The etymology of Frigga is friò (seed), gà (to take care of).

FULLA, name of an Asynia, the handmaid and confidante of Frigga, and guardian of her jewels and wardrobe. She hands round the plates to the guests at the banquet of Valhalla. Her name typifies abundance; voll, full, in the German and English languages, and fuld, full, in the Danish and Swedish, all meaning the same thing, are probably derived therefrom.

GARDERIKE, name given by the ancient Scandinavians to a part of Russia.

GARM, name of the mythologic dog, who remains chained at the cavern of Gnypa, until Ragnarok; he will then break his chain, and fight with Tyr; both will perish.

[xliii]

GAUTHIOD (Gothland), a name of Sweden.

GEFION, an Asynia, the goddess of virginity, herself a virgin; she receives in her domain in Asagard women, who die unmarried. She is the founder of the island of Sealand (Denmark), which was supposed to have been formerly joined to the continent of Sweden, and which, at her request, was ploughed around, separated from the mainland, and dragged into the Ocean by the sons of Gyllfe, who, to please her, transformed themselves into oxen, and performed the said service.

GEIRSODD means “point of a lance.” The historical Odin, when on his death-bed, cut his veins with the point of a lance, assuring his surviving followers and companions, that those who died on the field of battle, or in this manner covered with blood, would meet him in Valhalla, and partake of all the delights of the immortals. Hence the natural death by old age or sickness, called emphatically strâ död (death on the straw), was looked upon as ignominious by the northern warriors, and as exposing them to the danger of falling into the clutches of Hela. They, in consequence, when they felt their end approaching, either by old age or sickness, opened their veins, and bled to death; this was called cutting runes to Odin, or otherwise geirsodd rita (to scratch with the point of a lance); and this, as they believed, ensured them admission into Valhalla.

GERDA, a beautiful damsel of Jotun race, daughter of the giant Gymer. She was united to Frey with the consent of all the gods, and admitted among the Asynior. She was renowned for her beauty, piety and virtue. Finn Magnussen thinks that Gerda is a type of the aurora[xliv] borealis, which replaces the light of the sun in winter, in the extreme northern regions; Frey himself typifying the sun. Others suppose that Gerda typifies the earth, and her amour with Frey the relationship between the earth and the sun.

GESTUR, name of a blind giant who proposes riddles and enigmas to Skirnir on his journey to the world below, for the purpose of visiting Gerda.

GIALLAR, name of the horn of Heimdal, which he blows, to give notice to the gods of those who arrive at, and attempt to cross the bridge Bifrost. Etym.: Icelandic verb gala (to sing, to call out). The English verb call, and the Swedish and Danish verbs kalla, kalde, come from the same root.

GIANTS, called in the Scandinavian dialects Jotun, Jetter, Jâttar, the evil genii of the Gothic mythology. At Ragnarok they are to fight with and defeat the Asar on the plains of Vigrid; but they are themselves to perish in the conflagration that ensues, and they will never be resuscitated (i.e. in a future state of existence there will be no violence or crime). The giants dwell in their peculiar territory, Jotunheim, in Utgard, and are ruled by their sovereign, Lok, commonly called Utgard-Lok, to distinguish him from an Asa of the same name. The giants were supposed to be of various forms and races, some having the heads of wild beasts joined to human bodies, and others the human form entire. They understood magic, were capable of assuming divers shapes, and of increasing or diminishing their stature ad libitum. They seem to bear a great resemblance to the Titans of the Greek, and[xlv] to the Afrites of the Mohammedan theology, and all are borrowed from the Persian system, the doctrine of the Magi.

GIMLE, the most beautiful of all buildings, in which virtuous mortals are to dwell together with the gods, after the reconstruction of the universe, in eternal joy and felicity. The grave is often termed by the Scalds, “the verdant gate of Gimle.” The German word Himmel (heaven) is derived therefrom. Etym.: from the Icelandic word gimlir (splendour).

GINNUNGAGAP, name of the vast abyss which existed before the present world, and separated Niffelheim (region of fog) from Muspelheim (region of heat). Etym.: Ginning (between), and gapi (to yawn or open). The following verbs, in different languages, all come from the Icelandic verb gapi, and have the very same meaning, viz. to gape, English; gapa, Swedish; gabe, Danish; gapen, Dutch; gaffen, German; and the Greek words χαω, χαος and χασμα (chasm) are likewise from the same root.

GLADHEIM, a general name given to the abodes of the gods in Asagard, and often used as a synonyme for Valhalla. Etym.: glad (joy, gladness), and heim (home, or abode).

GLADHEIMASAL means hall of the abode of gladness, applied as Gladheim.

GLITNER, name of the palace of Forsete, the god of justice. The word means equalisation. It represents the station of the sun between August 23 and September 23, beginning of the autumnal equinox, corresponding with the sign of the zodiac Libra (the balance).

[xlvi]

GNA, an Asynia, messenger and confidante of Frigga. When she executes the commissions of her mistress, she rides on the steed Hofvarpur.

GNYPA, name of a cavern in Niffelheim. Etym.: Icelandic word gnypr (steep).

GUDBRAND, or Guldbrand, name of a fertile valley in the province of Aggerhuys, in Norway.

GULDVEIGE, a female divinity, personifying riches. Etym.: guld (gold), veige (weigh).

GUNLIOD, name of the daughter of Suttung, to whose care her father confided the vase containing the precious beverage called Suttung’s mead. Seduced by Odin, she surrenders to him the vase.

GYLLFE, name of a king of Jotun race, who reigned over a part of Sweden at the time of the invasion of the historical Odin.

GYLLINBORSTE (golden-bristled), name of the mythological golden boar, fabricated by the dwarfs at the instance of Asa-Lok, and presented to Frey to serve him as a steed, mounted on which he travels round the world. According to Finn Magnussen, it is a type of the sun.

GYMER, name of a Jotun or giant, the father of Gerda. Etym.: gima (transmitting light).

HÆNIR, name of an Asa, the god of intellect; he accompanies Odin on his travels. By some he is considered as identic with Vil, the second person of the Scandinavian mythological triad.

HÆRFADER (father of the fight), one of the many names given to Odin.

[xlvii]

HAGBARTH, name of a Norwegian prince, celebrated for his valour and his attachment to Signe, a Danish princess. Having had the misfortune to kill Signe’s brother in single combat, he falls into the hands of the mother, who, to revenge her son’s death, causes Hagbarth to be hanged. Signe, in despair at the loss of her lover, destroys herself. The unfortunate love of Hagbarth and Signe has been the theme of many a northern ballad, and Œhlenschläger himself has made it the subject of a most interesting and pathetic tragedy.

HARBARD, in this poem, is the name of a ferryman of Jotun race, who refuses to ferry Skirnir across a river until he has answered his questions and displayed his knowledge.

HEIDRUNA, name of the mythological goat who stands on the roof of Valaskialf, and whose teats afford a constant supply of hydromel to the guests at Valhalla.

HEIMDAL, or Heimdaller, name of an Asa who stands as sentinel at the bridge of Bifrost, to give notice of the approach of strangers by blowing his horn Giallar. He is constantly on the alert to prevent surprise on the part of the giants. Of him it is said, that he was born of nine mothers; that he had a tooth of gold; that he could do without sleep; see at a distance of a hundred miles, as well by night as by day; hear wool grow on the backs of sheep, and grasses shoot. By his doing without sleep may be meant the absence of night from the northern polar regions during the summer months. At Ragnarok, he will blow his horn with all his force, to excite the gods to combat. Etym.: Heim (abode), and dallr (horn).

[xlviii]

HEIMKRINGLAS, name given to the universe in the Scandinavian mythology. Etym.: Heim (abode), kring (round about), and lâs (clasp).

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. Of Hela it is said in the prosaic Edda, that her abode is anguish; her table, famine; her attendants, delay and fruitless expectation; her threshold, precipice; her bed, lingering sickness; her bed-curtains, heart-rending care.

HELHEIM (abode of Hela), name of a strong castle situate in Niffelheim, in the midst of eternal damp, ice, snow and darkness. Herein Hela receives and detains her dead guests.

HERMOD, an Asa, the messenger of Odin; from his name and attributes he bears a strong resemblance to the Mercury of the Greeks, Hermes.

HERTHA (the Earth), a purely allegorical divinity, and sometimes used as a synonyme for Frigga. In the pagan time her image was bathed once a year by female slaves, captives of war, who were afterwards drowned by the priests in her honour, that they might not reveal to profane ears the description of the charms and mysteries they had seen and witnessed.

[xlix]

HILDUR, name of a heroine in the northern legends, afterwards deified and enrolled among the Valkyrior. The story of Hildur, as related by Samsoes, is as follows: Her lover Hedin and her father Hogni slew one another in single combat. One night, in the violence of her grief, she by her magic spells evoked the ghost of Hedin; but her spells were so powerful, that the ghost of her father Hogni also arose. The two ghosts commence fighting, and every night they renew the combat, which is destined to last until Ragnarok. Hildur is present and applauds their courage. From this circumstance, War is called by the Skalds Hildur’s game.

HLESEY, an Island in the Cattegat, supposed to be the peculiar residence of Ægir, the god of the sea. Hlesey is now called Lessoe. The word oe in Danish and ö in Swedish means Island.

HLIDSKIALF, name of an immense high tower in Odin’s palace Valaskialf, from the top of which he can see all that passes in the world below.

HLORRIDA, a name given to Thor, when he drives his car through the air, causing thunder. Etym.: Hliod (sound), and rida (to ride).

HLYN, name of an Asynia, sent by Frigga to warn mankind of sudden danger during darkness; from its etymology it evidently typifies the flash of lightning that occurs at intervals during a very dark night. The Danish word lyn signifies “lightning.”

HNOS, name of a beautiful female child, the daughter of Freya. Etym.: hnoss, an Icelandic word meaning a precious thing.

HOEDUR or HOEDER, an Asa, twin brother of Balder; he was born blind. How he slew his brother Balder with a lance made of a branch of mistletoe has been already related. Hôdur is the type of night and darkness, as Balder is that of light and day.

HOFVARPUR, name of the steed mounted by Gna the messenger of Frigga.

HRIMFAX, name of the steed which draws the chariot of Night. It means “frost bringer;” this steed is sometimes mounted by Skada.

HRIMTHUSSER, mythologically, the name of a race of giants; the word means “frost-demon”; and from the word thuss, demon or evil spirit, comes probably the English word deuce. Historically, they were probably the name of some Tartar tribe at war with the Asar, and who harassed them exceedingly on their march. From being good archers, and shutting one eye when they took aim, they obtained the reputation of being one-eyed.

HRINGHORN, name of the bark or vessel of Balder, on board of which his body was placed, and burnt after his death. It derives its name from the circumstance of its prow being decorated with rings of horn. Among the Skalds a ship was often compared to an animal, and its masts to the horns of an animal. These masts were made fast with iron rings round their circumference, and this I take to be the surest origin of the etymology of the name Hringhorn or Ringhorn.

HROSVELGER, name of a giant, who, in the shape of an eagle, causes tempests by the flapping of his wings.[l] Etym.: hrosi (corpse), and svelge (swallow), the wind being the cleanser of all impurities.

HRUGNER, name of a giant made of stone, and animated by the giants, in order to aid them in the conflict with the Asar. Within his breast, instead of a heart, he had a three-corner stone. He typifies probably a volcano, since in the Icelandic tongue Hrungnir signifies “something that makes a violent noise.” Hrugner was slain by Thor.

HUGIN and MUNIN, names given to Odin’s two ravens, who descend to earth, and bring back to him the news from the nether world; when not employed as messengers, they perch themselves on Odin’s shoulders. By Hugin is meant “thought,” and by Munin “memory.”

HVERGELMER, name of a source or fountain in Niffelheim. Etym.: Hver (urn or kettle), and gamla (old).

HYMIR, name of a giant, with whom Thor goes a-fishing in the disguise of a peasant lad. He catches the serpent Jormundgard, but Hymir files in two the anchor which served as a hook, and the serpent escapes.

IDA, IDAVALLEN, name of the plain, on which the resuscitated Asar and the human race are to be assembled by Vidar, after the reconstruction of the world.

IDUNA, name of an Asynia, wife of Bragur. She is the guardian of the golden vase, containing the apples of immortality, the juice of which gives to the gods perpetual youth, health and beauty. She was once carried off from Asagard by the giant Thiasse, aided by the treachery of Asa Lok; and the gods became at once old and feeble;[li] but when Iduna was recovered, and brought back to Valhalla with her precious vase, the gods recovered all their power and advantageous attributes. This mythe of Iduna’s apples has its parallel in the Amreeta (drink of immortality) in the Hindoo mythology.

ISSEFIORD, name of a large creek or fiord, in the island of Sealand (Denmark), lying towards the north.

JETTE, pl. JETTER, JOTUN. So were called the evil genii or giants of the Gothic mythology. Historically, they were probably the aboriginal inhabitants of Scandinavia, and were of Celtic race, with black hair. Being engaged in continual and deadly warfare with the Asar or Goths, from the time of Odin’s invasion, these last may have, from a spirit of national hatred, transferred the appellation Jotun to the evil genii of their own mythology, before that epoch termed Hrimthusser. In spite, however, of the hatred and jealousy between the Asar and Jetter, they sometimes, like the Spaniards and Moors, formed political and also matrimonial alliances.

JORMUNGARD, name of the mythologic serpent, called also the serpent of Midgard. This serpent was offspring of Asa Lok, by the giantess Angurbod. His enormous size and frightful appearance excited such terror in the breast of the gods, that they hurled him down into the ocean that surrounds Midgard. There he is to remain until Ragnarok. On that day he will join the giants in the battle against the gods, and will be slain by Thor; but Thor will perish himself immediately after, from the effect of the serpent’s venom. This serpent is represented by the poets as holding his tail in his mouth, and is[lii] no doubt an emblem of the great Ocean, which was thought in those times to encircle the earth. His venom represents the dangerous effects of humidity. In the Hindoo mythology, there is the serpent Naga, which typifies the Ocean. Etym.: jord (earth), munr (mouth), gard (inclosure).

JOTUN (giant); see Jette and Giant.

JOTUNHEIM, peculiar province of the Jotun or giants in Utgard. Geographically, it is thought to denote Siberia.

LAUFEY, or LAUFEIA, name of a giantess, the mother of Asa Lok.

LEIRE, name of the ancient capital of Denmark, situated on the Issefiord, in Sealand. Leire was the theatre of many an important event. The modern city of Roskild is very near the spot, where Leire once stood.

LIF and LIFTRASIR, names of two mythological beings, who remain concealed in the wood of Hoddmimer, at the destruction of the world, and from whom the new race of men are to spring; these beings are purely allegorical, for lif signifies “life,” and liftrasir “producer of life.”

LINDERNÆS, name of a promontory on the southern coast of Norway, in the canton of Mandal.

LODER, an Asa, who conferred beauty on mankind; by some he is confounded with Ve, the third person of the Scandinavian mythologic triad.

LOFNA, name of an Asynia, who presided over marriage. Etym.: Icelandic verb lofa (to promise, to betroth).

LOK, ASA LOK, UTGARD LOK. In the Gothic mythology,[liii] there are two important personages of the name of Lok or Loke, in the earliest times perhaps identic, but in the latter divided; namely Lok of Utgard, the supreme ruler of the giants or malevolent spirits, belonging to our world’s system, who dwells in and rules over Utgard; and Asa Lok, originally of giant race, but admitted among the Asar. According to Ling, a modern Swedish poet, in the notes to his poem, called Asarne (the Asar), the mythe of the two Loks is thus explained: Utgard Lok represents the subterranean fire and its destructive effects, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; Asa Lok represents the deleterious qualities of the air, such as tempests and unwholesome exhalations. In my opinion, the most simple explanation of this mythe would be as follows: Utgard Lok typifies physical evils and calamities, and in this respect he resembles the Siva of the Hindoos; as possessor of subterranean riches, he resembles the Plutus of the Greeks, who, as we are told, was related to Pluto. Asa Lok is the type of moral evil, or the propensity to vice in human nature, which has been personified by the Orientals, under the various names of Satan, Ahrimanes, Belial and Eblis. The punishment inflicted on Asa Lok for his treachery has been already related. At Ragnarok, he will break his chain, and join in combat with the giants against the gods. He and Heimdal will destroy each other.

LOPTUR, a name given to Asa Lok; it means one who runs through the air.

MALSTROM, name of the famous whirlpool on the coast of Norway, near Lofoden. Malstrom signifies “millstream.” It is called by the Skalds the mill of Ægir.

MAANEGARM, name of the mythologic winged goblin,[liv] who constantly pursues the moon (maane), and will swallow her up at Ragnarok.

MANHEIM (abode of man), a name often given to Midgard, or the earth.

MEGINGARD (girdle of strength), name of Thor’s belt, which had the faculty of doubling his force when he girded himself with it.

MIDGARD, name given to the earth, as being in the middle region between Asagard and Utgard.

MIMER, an Asa, the god of eloquence and of wisdom; he sits by the wave of Urda, called the fountain of wisdom, of which he is the guardian, and which springs near the ash-tree Yggdrassil. Urda is the destiny of the past, so that the allegory is clear; by consulting the records of the past, we gain wisdom and experience.

MIÖLNER (breaker in pieces), name of Thor’s hammer, type of the thunderbolt.

MOKKURKALF, name of a gigantic figure made of clay, and animated by the giants, that he might aid them against Thor. They gave to him the heart of a horse. This may allude to the custom among many heathen nations of consecrating an idol of clay, wood or stone, by putting therein the heart of a man, or of some animal. Mokkurkalf was slain by Tialf.

MUSPEL, MUSPELHEIM, name given to the region of fire and heat which lies to the south of Ginnungagap, and from whence at Ragnarok, Surtur will collect flames, and set fire to the universe. Flames are often termed by the Scalds[lv] “the children of Muspel.”

NAGLEFARE (ship of nails), name of a bark or vessel built by the giants. As its name imports, it was built of men’s nails. On board of this vessel, the giants will embark at Ragnarok, to give battle to the gods. The giants are continually at work to increase its size; hence, those who neglect to cut off the nails from the hands and feet of dead men, contribute to the building of this vessel, and to the mischief that will ensue from it. The popular belief of the continuation of the growth of the hair and nails after death, has probably contributed to this mythe.

NANNA, an Asynia, the wife of Balder, renowned for her piety and constancy. At his death she threw herself on his funeral pile, and was burned with him.

NARF, name of a giant, the father of Night, and also the name of one of Asa-Lok’s sons by Sigyn.

NASTROND, name of a frightful and noisome marsh in the subterranean world, filled with venomous serpents, and destined as a place of punishment in the future life for those who are absolutely incorrigible.

NIDAROS, a city in Norway of great historical celebrity, the ancient capital of the kingdom, and now called Trondhjem, and by the Germans Drontheim.

NIDDING means “scoundrel,” “worthless fellow;” it was the greatest insult to a Scandinavian to call him a Nidding, and the offence could only be expiated by the blood of the offender.

NIDHÖG, name of a frightful dragon that dwells in the marsh of Nastrond, and who continually gnaws the root of the Ash-tree Yggdrassil. Etym.: nid (reproach, abuse), högg (blow), in Icel.

[lvi]

NIFFELHEIM, department of Utgard, region of eternal cold, fog, darkness and horror, lying to the north of Ginnungagap. It is sometimes used as a synonyme for Utgard, or for Helheim. Niffel means “fog.”

NIORD, or NIORDUR, is the Æolus of the Scandinavians, the god of the winds. He is of Vaner race, and is father of Frey and Freya. He was admitted among the Asar to preside over the winds and is the type of the north wind in particular. He is invoked by fishermen and travellers. He was afterwards married to Skada, daughter of the giant Thiasse.—Niord is of a very friendly and benevolent disposition. See the articles Skada and Vaner.

NORNA, pl. NORNOR, name of the Parcæ, or Fates of the Scandinavians; they were three in number, viz. Urda, Norna, or destiny of the past; Verdandis, of the present; Skulda, of the future. They sit near the Ash Yggdrassil, the tree of time, where they weave the woof of human destiny.

ODIN is the Chief Asa, the king of gods and men, the Jupiter and Mars of the Scandinavian mythology, and the grand progenitor of the Scandinavian kings. Some think that this was the name given to the supreme God of nature by the Asar, previous to the invasion of the north-west of Europe by the historical Odin, whose real name is said to be Sigge (conqueror); and that the name of Odin was assumed by Sigge during his life, or given to him by his followers after his death. Others think that the real name of the great conqueror was Odin, and that his name was given to the supreme unknown God. At all events, the historical Odin was deified after his death, and being confounded with the mythologic one, was from that period[lvii] worshipped as the supreme ruler of the universe. Odin has an immense number of appellations, the most remarkable of which are Alfader, Hœrfader and Valfader. As god of war he is accompanied by two favourite wolves, one called Gere (rapacity), and the other Freke (audacity), to whom he gives his share of food at the banquet of Valhalla; for according to the Edda, Odin lives on wine alone. Odin has also two favourite ravens, one called Hugin (thought), the other Munin (memory), who sit perched on his shoulders, and whom he sometimes dispatches to bring him news from the nether world. At Ragnarok, Odin is to be swallowed up by the wolf Fenris. Odin bears a lance called Gugner.

ODUR, name of the husband of Freya, whom he abandoned on the loss of her youth and beauty. He was changed into a statue by Odin, as a punishment for his desertion. He was the inventor of the art of making wine.

OLUF, a king of Denmark, slain by Starkodder, whom he afterwards meets in Valhalla.

QVASER, name of a chief of Vaner race by his mother; his father, name unknown, was an Asa. He taught mankind arts and sciences, but particularly poetry. He was killed by two dwarfs, who mixed his blood with honey, and poured it into a golden vase. This drink had the faculty of inspiring poetical talent. Suttung, the brother of Qvaser, revenged his death on the two dwarfs, by binding them to a rock in the mid-ocean, where they suffer perpetual hunger. He then took the vessel containing the sacred liquor, and gave it in charge to his daughter Gunliod. This liquor is called by the Scalds[lviii] “Suttung’s mead,” and is used as a synonyme for poetical inspiration. Etym.: Qvasir, Icelandic word meaning “breath” or “inspiration.”

RAGNAROK, called also “the twilight of the gods,” is the last day, according to the Scandinavian mythology, the day, on which the whole creation, gods, giants, and mankind are to perish in a shower of fire and blood. Ragnarok will be preceded by a dreadfully severe winter of three years duration, called the Fimbul-vetr. At Ragnarok the wolf Fenris will break his chain, and so will Lok. A grand battle will be fought between the gods and giants on the plains of Vigrid, wherein the latter will be victorious; but it will be a fruitless victory, for Surtur, with flames from Muspelheim, will set fire to the universe, and involve victors and vanquished in general destruction. Vidar alone will survive the general conflagration and reconstruct the universe. The etymology of the word Ragnarok, I conceive to be the two Icelandic words: ragna (to imprecate, implore vengeance), and rok (violent tempest). Some derive it from regin (dynasts or gods), and röckur (twilight).

RAN or RANA, name of a giantess, wife of Ægir the god of the sea. She is of an extremely malevolent disposition, and takes pleasure in causing shipwrecks and drowning sailors. In the pagan time, when seamen found their ship about to sink, it was their custom to hold a piece of money in their hand, to propitiate Ran. In fact, Ran personifies the dangers and destructive properties of the sea; Ægir the salubrious and beneficial ones. The word Ran in Icelandic means “rapacity,” and from it comes the Danish verb rane (to rob).

[lix]

RATATOSK, name of the mythologic squirrel that resides on the branches of the Ash Yggdrassil, and employs himself in running up and down the tree, in order to sow discord between the Eagle Hrosvelger, who sits on the top, and the dragon Nidhög, who lies at its root. This will remind the reader of the fable of Æsop of the eagle, the cat and the sow.

RINDA, name of a princess of Garderike, seduced by Odin.

ROSKA, name of a peasant’s daughter who, with her brother Tialfe, was adopted by Thor and accompanied him on his travels. She was elevated to the rank of an Asynia, and placed in Folkvang, to dwell with Freya.

RUNES, mean “letters of the alphabet” or writings.

SAGA, an Asynia, the goddess of history; she is represented with a graver and shield, on which she engraves events worthy of commemoration.

SÆHRIMNER, name of the mythologic hog, whose flesh furnishes food for the banquets of Valhalla. It is killed every morning and resuscitated every night.

SIF, or SIFIA, an Asynia, the wife of Thor, renowned for the beauty of her hair. Asa-Lok, to revenge himself on Sif for spurning his addresses, cut off her hair while she was asleep; but he was compelled by Thor to procure for her a new head of hair, made of gold by the dwarfs. Hence gold is often termed by the Scalds Sifs hair.

SIGNE, name of a Danish princess.—See Hagbarth.

SIGYN, the wife of Asa-Lok; she alone does not abandon him in his adversity; and when he is chained in the subterranean cavern, with the enormous serpents hanging over him,[lx] she holds out a vase to catch the venom they let drop. When the vase is filled, she goes out to empty it; the venom of the serpents then falling on Lok, causes him to writhe with pain, and this movement causes earthquakes.

SIOFNA, an Asynia, daughter of Freya; she presides over sleep and sends pleasing dreams. Etym.: Icelandic verb sofna (to sleep).

SKADA, daughter of the giant Thiasse; she comes to Valhalla in a fury, to revenge her father’s death, becomes pacified at the sight of Balder, and having caught Niord at a game of blindman’s-buff, obtains him for a husband; but their tempers being very different, she being capricious and violent, and he placid and benevolent, they soon quarrel. They cannot agree about their place of residence; she wishing to dwell in the mountains inland, and he preferring to dwell on the sea-shore. Niord says:

“I was tired of the mountains,

Though I was not long there;

Only nine nights:

The howling of the wolf

Was disagreeable to me

Accustomed to the chaunt of the swan.”

Skada says:

“I could not sleep

On the banks of the sea,

On account of the screaming of birds;

And the sea-gulls by their cries,

Disturb my repose every morning.”

As Skada means “mischief” in all the Teutonic and[lxi] Scandinavian dialects, (to scathe, in English), the allegory is clear: by her union with Niord she represents the mischievous qualities of the wind, he the salubrious and beneficent ones.

SKALDS, or SCALDS; so the poets were called in Scandinavia.

SKIDBLADNER or SKYBLADNER, name of a ship given to the gods by Gerda, on her marriage with Frey. When not required for navigation, it could be folded up like a scarf. It seems to resemble the Sverga, or ship of heaven, of the Hindoos; and they are both probably types of the clouds, for sky is “cloud,” and blad a leaf, in the Icelandic tongue.

SKINFAX, name of the steed who draws the chariot of day. Its meaning is “light-bearer,” the φωσφορος of the Greeks.

SKIRNIR, name of an Asa, messenger of Frey; he is sent by Frey to negotiate his union with Gerda, and by Odin to procure a cord to bind the wolf Fenris, both which commissions he executes successfully. Etym.: Icelandic verb skirna (to clear up).

SKRYMER, name of a giant who meets Thor on his journey to Utgard and leads him astray. He mystifies him also by giving to him a wallet filled with provisions, but which Thor could not untie. Etym.: Icelandic word skrum (boasting), from which comes the Swedish verb skrymma (to look big).

SKULDA, name of the Norna, or destiny of the future. Etym.: skulu (shall), in Icelandic.

SLEIPNER, name of Odin’s charger. He has eight feet; he typifies the wind with its eight principal points.

[lxii]

SNOTRA, an Asynia extremely graceful, who inspires mankind with elegance of gesture and diction. Etym.: Icelandic verb snotra (to teach manners).

STARKODDER, name of a celebrated Scandinavian warrior. He slew king Oluf in a perfidious manner, but having afterwards greatly distinguished himself by a series of brilliant actions, he seems to have obliterated his crime, for he was deified after his death. He may be considered in some measure as the Hercules of the Goths.

SURTUR, name of a formidable giant, who, with flames collected from Muspelheim, is to set fire to the universe at Ragnarok. Etym.: surtr (swarthy in colour).

SUTTUNG; Suttung’s mead; see Qvaser.

SVEA, SVITHIOD, names of Sweden.

SYN, name of an Asynia who in this poem figures as the porteress of Valhalla, but in the Edda she is porteress of the palace of Freya.

THIASSE, name of a giant, father of Skada. In the shape of an eagle he carries off Asa-Lok, and compels him to join in a plot to steal away Iduna from Asagard. When Iduna is delivered, Thiasse pursues her in the shape of a griffin, but is burnt to death by falling into the bale fire at Breidablik.

THOR, an Asa, son of Odin and Frigga, the god of war, strength, and thunder. He plays a most prominent part in the Gothic mythology. He is the arch enemy of the giants, and is constantly employed in punishing crime and oppression and protecting the weak and virtuous. His various actions are described in this poem, of which he is[lxiii] the principal hero. He is the owner of a famous hammer called Miölner, and of a no less famous belt called Megingard; he wears steel gauntlets and brazen armour. He travels usually in a golden car, drawn by two white goats, Tanngniostr and Tanngrisner; when that car rolls along the heavens, it causes thunder and lightning. The worship of Thor seems to be of very remote antiquity; he typifies probably the occult force of nature, which checks the blind fury of the elements and brings them back to their proper limits. There is no mention of Thor as an historical personage. Odin is thought to have introduced the worship of Thor into Scandinavia; hence, by mythologic filiation, he is said to be Thor’s father; or this relationship may typify supreme force proceeding from supreme wisdom. Thor defeats and puts to flight the giants; thus does thunder disperse noxious exhalations and purify the atmosphere. Thor seems to resemble the Indra of the Hindoo mythology.

THRYMUR, name of a giant who falls in love with Freya. Having obtained possession of Thor’s hammer, Miölner, he offers to restore it on condition of obtaining the hand of Freya. The gods are unwilling to part with Freya, but hit on the expedient of sending Thor disguised as Freya, and Asa-Lok as female attendant, down to Thrymur’s abode in Jotunheim. As soon as Thor obtains his hammer, he throws off his female attire, and slays Thrymur and all his followers.

TIALFE, or Tialf, name of a young peasant adopted by Thor and admitted among the Asar; he accompanies Thor as his shield-bearer in all his expeditions. He is brother of Roska.

[lxiv]

TING, or THING; a council is so called in the Scandinavian peninsula. This word has the exact meaning of the English word “thing,” “business,” etc., and of the Latin “negotium.” Storting means “grand council,” for stor signifies “great” in all the Scandinavian dialects.

TRUDVANG, or TRUDVANGUR, name of the domain of Thor, in Asagard.

TROLD, in Swedish Troll, means an evil demon or goblin in the Scandinavian mythology; they were very fantastic and grotesque in their appearance. The French word drôle (anglicè droll) is probably derived therefrom, and was introduced by the Norsemen when they conquered Neustria.

TROLDKÆMPELAND; the giants’ territory was often so called. Etym.: trold (goblin), kæmpe (warrior), land (land).

TYR, an Asa, renowned for his valour, and younger brother to Thor. His celebrated adventure with the wolf Fenris, who bites off his hand, is related in the 26th canto of this poem. Etym.: tyr (brilliant renown).

ULLER, name of an Asa who presides over archery and duels.

URDA, name of the Norna or destiny of the past. Etym.: Icelandic word urdu (was).

UTGARD is the name of the territory of the giants. It was supposed to be to the north of Midgard, and that mountains of ice formed the barrier between the two regions. It also signifies the world below, and includes Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Niffelheim, and Nastrond. Etym.: ut[lxv] signifies exclusion, anglicè out, and the etymology of gard has been already given as meaning enclosure. Utgard-Lok is the ruler of Utgard.

UTGARD-LOK, see LOK.

VAFTRUDNER, name of a giant celebrated for his wisdom, who is consulted by Odin under the name of Gangrôd (weary wanderer.) Vaftrudner does not, it is true, figure in this poem, but I introduce him into my catalogue because I am obliged to quote some passages in a chapter of the Edda bearing his name, in order to elucidate a passage of Œhlenschläger. Etym.: vafi (eminent), drutna (to be proud).

VALA, name of the sibyl or prophetess of the Gothic mythology, who foretells the destruction of the world.

VALASKIALF, name of the palace of Odin, in Asagard, in which he holds his court.

VALFADER (father of the choice), name given to Odin when he presides at the banquets in Valhalla.

VALHALLA (hall of the choice), name of the celebrated banqueting hall of Odin, in Valaskialf, and theatre of the convivial festivities of the gods and Einherier.

VALKYRIE, pl. Valkyrior, name of the celestial virgins who attend the fields of battle in order to carry off to Valhalla the souls of the heroes who fall. They are mounted on white horses, with fiery manes and tails. At the banquets of Valhalla they hand round to the guests the mead and ale. The word Valkyrie means chooser of the slain, because they choose from the heaps of slain those who have shown most courage. Owing to this belief, the word[lxvi] val, which originally meant “choice,” was applied to a field of battle; hence the Danish word valplads and the German wahlplatz, both signifying “field of battle.” Kyrie comes from the old Teutonic verb küren (to choose); there is therefore, properly speaking, tautology in the word Valkyrie, both the words of which it is composed signifying choice. By the Valkyrior are thought to be typified those meteoric appearances in the heavens, which were supposed to forebode wars and tumults.

VANER, VANAHEIM; mythologically the Vaner were elementary divinities, and Vanaheim was supposed to be situated in the heavens, above the earth, immediately above Midgard. Geographically, Vanaheim, according to Snorro Sturleson, was a country lying immediately eastward of the Tanais or Don river; but the historical Vaner are represented as a highly civilized people, from whom the Asar learnt the arts and sciences and all that embellishes life. Now I am yet to learn that the inhabitants of the banks of the Don were ever remarkable for refined culture; I therefore reject the hypothesis of Snorro Sturleson, and adopt that of Finn Magnussen, who thinks that by the historical Vaner are meant the Asiatic Greeks or the Persians, from whom the Asar or Goths might well learn the arts of civilization. Niord was a chief of Vaner race; Niord became father of Frey and Freya by his sister. Such a matrimonial connection was perfectly lawful among the ancient Persians, and is so among their descendants, the Parsis or Guebres, to this day. A learned friend of mine, a Portuguese by birth, by name Dr. Constancio, much given to the study of philology and the Eastern languages, thinks that by the Vaner and the[lxvii] country inhabited by them, Vanaheim, may be meant the country bordering on the lake Van or Erivan, in Armenia; and this seems extremely probable, as the Armenians were a Persian peuplade, highly civilized, and professing in days of old the same religion as the Guebres. Mythologically, Niord and his son and daughter may have been divinities worshipped in Armenia, Persia, and Asiatic Greece, and the Asar may have adopted and incorporated that worship into their own mythology, just as the Romans and Greeks adopted many of the divinities and religious ceremonies of the Egyptians. I think I can perceive a strong resemblance between Frey and Horus, between Freya and Astarte, and between Niord and Nereus.

VANDHOSE (water-spout), brother of Skada. Etym.: vand (water) and hose (trowser) in Danish.

VAR, an Asynia, the goddess of truth; she registers the vows of mankind and punishes perjury.

VARDOE, an island of East Finnmark on the north-eastern extremity of Norway, in latitude 75° north.

VAULUNDER is the Vulcan of the Gothic mythology. Historically he was a smith, celebrated for the beauty and excellence of his workmanship in metals. He forges weapons and armour for the gods.

VE, name of the third person in the triad of the Scandinavian mythology, and son of Bor.

VERDANDIS, or Verandis, name of the Norna or destiny of the present. Etym.: verandi, participle present of the Icelandic verb vera (to be).

VIDAR, an Asa, god of wisdom and of silence; he wears thick shoes, hence he is often called by the Scalds,[lxviii] “the god with the thick shoes.” He never breaks silence, but his look is so penetrating that he discovers the most secret thoughts of men. He is to play a most important part at Ragnarok, and will slay the wolf Fenris. Vidar alone will survive the general conflagration and reconstruct the universe on an imperishable basis. Etym.: Icelandic word vitra (wisdom).

VIL, one of the sons of Bor, and second person of the Scandinavian triad, Odin, Vil, and Ve. Of this triad Sneedorf Birch thinks that Odin typifies air or breath; Vil, light; and Ve, warmth. The death of Ymer, therefore, by Odin, Vil, and Ve, typifies the annihilation of ice and snow, and elicitation of the products of the earth by air, light, and warmth.

VINGOLF, name of a palace in Asgard, considered as the peculiar place of rendezvous of the Asynior or goddesses.

YGGDRASSIL, name of the mythologic Ash-tree, called “The tree of the world.” Of this tree it is thus written in the prosaic Edda: “This ash is the first and greatest of all trees, which spreads its branches over the whole earth. It springs from three roots. Near one of these roots, which pushes the trunk and branches towards Asagard, flows the fountain of Urda, which contains the water of wisdom, and of which Mimer is the guardian. The gods often descend to this spot, to sit in judgment on the actions of mankind and of one another. They interrogate Urda. The second root of Yggdrassil stretches towards the region of the Hrimthusser frost-giants of Utgard. The third root extends below, as far as Niffelheim, and is continually gnawed by the dragon Nidhög.” By this, according to Finn Magnussen, is meant the gradual deterioration of the[lxix] world, which will end in its destruction; for the Ash Yggdrassil is no other than the symbol of our world. May I be permitted to add my conjecture towards the interpretation of this mythe: By the first root, which pushes stem and branches towards Asagard, may be meant the elevation of our thoughts towards heaven. By the second root, extending towards the region of the ferocious Hrimthusser, may be meant the tendency of our minds to fraud, rapine and violence; and by the third root, gnawed by Nidhög, the writhings of conscience and of envy: the etymology of the word Nidhög seems at least to give some weight to my conjecture.

Of this tree it is further written in the prosaic Edda: “On the branches of this Ash dwells an Eagle: he knoweth much, and between his eyes sits a Hawk, called Väderfalner. A squirrel, called Ratatosk, runs up and down the trunk of the Ash-tree, and endeavours to excite discord between the Eagle and the Dragon Nidhög, who dwells at its root. Four stags spring round the Ash-tree, and bite its branches: their names are Dainn, Dvalen, Dunneyr, and Durathror.” Among the various interpretations given of this mythe, the following, given by Grundtvig, seems to me the most happy.

[lxx]

“Yggdrassil is the genealogical tree of the human race; its triple root denotes the three sorts of men who are to be found on earth, viz. Those who cooperate powerfully for a noble and eternal object (children of the gods); Those who work powerfully, but for an ignoble and temporal object (children of giants); and lastly, the idle, useless and powerless, relations of Hela. The Eagle denotes the human mind in its greatest elevation; the Squirrel denotes the tempter or type of temptation, who is in compact with the Dragon. The Hawk denotes the spirit of divination or presentiment of the future, which agitates the human brain; and the four Stags denote the four passions or desires of power, of honour, of wealth, and of sensual pleasure.”

YMER, name of the giant, the great progenitor of the giant race. He was slain by Bor and his sons, as has been already related; and from his body the world was constructed, according to the following lines in the poetic Edda in the chapter called Vaftrudnismal:

From Ymer’s body

The world was created;

The mountains from his bones;

The heavens from the ice-cold giant’s head.

Ymer is evidently the type of the chaos.

As the reader may be curious to know how Ymer propagated his race, I quote the following question and answer from the Vaftrudnismal. Odin in disguise interrogates, and Vaftrudner answers:

Tell me, Vaftrudner!

How did the giant of old (Ymer)

Beget children without a giantess?

Answer:

From the arm of the giant,

According to the tradition,

A boy and girl sprung together;

According to others a six-headed son

Was produced from the feet of the giant.

Additional remarks respecting Valhalla.—The origin of its conception and meaning.

Finn Magnussen says in his notes to the Vaftrudnismal, speaking of the Einherier and their amusements: “This account of the amusements of the heroes in Valhalla seems, with respect to the ideas of our forefathers about the games suited to warriors, to correspond perfectly with Xenophon’s relation of the warlike diversions of the Thracians, at a great banquet in his time. These are his words: ‘A large round table was prepared; the guests sat round it on benches strewed with leaves, and drank out of large drinking-horns. After they had drank in honour of the gods, and sung to them hymns of praise, the most distinguished Thracians rose up, and began to dance and put on their armour, leaped up and down, and fought with naked swords. One cut at another, who immediately fell in such a manner, that we all thought he was slain; but it was merely a feigned death in a mimicked fight. Then the Paphlagonians gave a great shout. The conquerors stripped the conquered of their armour, and chaunted a hymn in honour of Sitalka; but the other Thracians bore out the fallen, and stretched them out, as if they were dead, although no mischief had happened.’”

“After that, other warlike spectacles and dances took place, in which women, who were real Amazons, took part. As such games were the delight of the Thracians on the borders of the Black Sea, who were either closely related to the Goths or the same people, so were they also among the customs of our forefathers; at least their ideas of the glories and delights of Valhalla seem to confirm it.”

Opinion of the Swedish poet Ling respecting Valhalla.

Valhalla is the type of heroic renown. In all ages and among all people, cowards have been held in abhorrence; for without courage, strength of soul and firm will, nothing noble can be effectuated. He who exposes his own life to save another’s, he who year after year endures captivity with fortitude in order to enforce the truth of his principles, or meets death with courage, in order to save another from that fate, acquires now as formerly our admiration and esteem. He was called by our forefathers Valhalla’s guest; and on that account Ragnar Lodbrook and Gunnar entertained the hope, while expiring under the fangs of serpents, to be received in Valhalla, because they bore their sufferings with resignation, equally with those heroes who had fallen in battle. But at Ragnarok Valhalla itself will disappear; i.e. heroic renown appertains merely to this earthly life, and with it must finally pass away. Goodness alone lives eternally on the peaceable ever-green island which rises from the sea, and on which stands the palace of Gimle.

I here annex a translation I made of a chorus in the tragedy of Sigurd Ring, by the Swedish poet Stagnelius, as it gives a lively picture of the Valkyrior and of their occupations on the field of battle and in Valhalla.

With respect to the proper names, it may be asked why there is sometimes a variation in the manner of spelling them; why, for instance, Frey should sometimes be called Freyr; Niord, Niordur; Heimdal, Heimdaller; Jormundgard, Jormundgardur. The explanation thereof must be traced to the Icelandic language itself. In one of the declensions many of the masculine nouns, and almost all the proper names masculine, take er, ur and r as terminations of the nominative case which are omitted in the other cases; and the Danish, Swedish and German translators of the Edda have adopted the names indifferently without assigning any reason.

THE GODS OF THE NORTH.
ARGUMENT OF THE POEM.

The Asar (Gods), and the Jetter (Giants), represent the two conflicting powers of nature; the former represent the creative embellishing power; the latter the defacing destructive one. Lok [12] vacillates between both, as the variable spirit of time. He proposes to Thor to travel to Jotunheim (abode of the giants), without the knowledge of Odin, in order to punish the arrogance of the giants. Thor is mystified in the subterranean world, and obliged to return unsuccessful; but he makes two young people happy, and elevates them to the rank of gods, because they left their home and parents, and confided themselves implicitly to him. He again forms the resolution of revenging himself on the giants for their presumption, and endeavours to catch the serpent of Midgard. He travels this time with the consent of Odin, and without Lok. Now he shows himself in the plenitude of his power, and is on the point of catching the Serpent, when it is saved by the giant Hymir. In his disappointment, Thor loses his hammer Miölner.

In the mean while Lok pays court to Sif, the wife of Thor, but meets with a contemptuous repulse; to revenge himself, he cuts off her hair while she is asleep. Compelled by Thor and Frey, he procures from the Dvergar (dwarfs), new hair for Sif spun from gold, a new hammer for Thor, the steed Gyllinbörste for Frey, and the ring Drupner for Odin.

Now it happens shortly after, that Lok sets out on an adventure with Odin and Hœnir; but he is caught by the giant Thiasse, who compels him to carry off Iduna from Valhalla, which he willingly undertakes, in order to mortify the gods. With Iduna vanish health, strength, beauty and youth from Valhalla; the gods lose their power. The Nornor (fates), being consulted, announce to them, that “bravery with the help of love shall compel time to fidelity, and blooming life again return to Valhalla.” Now Thor compels Lok to bring back Iduna, and Freya lends to him her falcon’s wings for that purpose. During Iduna’s absence, Freya has lost her husband Odur, who deserted her, because her youth and beauty had vanished. Skada forces her way into Valhalla, and obtains Niord for a husband. Frey, having nothing to do, ascends to Hlidskialf, which is now no longer brilliant, and where hitherto none but Odin dared to repair. He finds himself punished for his temerity by beholding a beautiful mountain-damsel (a rare exception), of whom he becomes violently enamoured. Now Iduna returns to Valhalla, and with her return health, youth and beauty to[lxxix] the gods. The gods are described; the joys of Valhalla; the palaces of heaven; the Einherier. Starkodder arrives in Valhalla, and is raised to the rank of a god. Bragur sings a song in honour of Gefion. The love of Frey for Gerda brings to pass a reconciliation between the gods and giants. Skirnir, Frey’s messenger, consoles his master, by reminding him of Odin’s own amours. He travels on his master’s account to the abode of the beloved damsel, overcomes all difficulties, solves the riddles of the giants, shows to Gerda the portrait of Frey, and softens her heart. Her father gives his consent, on condition that Frey shall cede to him his sword. During his travels, Skirnir has likewise procured for Odin a chain, wherewith to bind the wolf Fenris. On the marriage day of Gerda, the wolf is bound, but Tyr loses his hand. In this manner the operative influence of the giants on the gods is made manifest. The rash Tyr defies the brave Thor; Thor becomes angry, revenges himself on the innocent human race, and repents his anger. The marriage of Gerda is celebrated a second time at the palace of Ægir, god of the sea. There Lok, enraged at the captivity of Fenris, and his own expulsion from the banquet, endeavours to spoil the joy of the meeting, insults the gods, and is compelled to fly. Banished, and weary of wandering about, he again earnestly desires to visit Valhalla, and promises, in order to atone for his effrontery, to procure for Thor the true hammer Miölner from the giant-king Thrymur. Thrymur consents to restore the hammer, but only on condition of Freya becoming his bride. Lok brings this message to Valhalla, after the Alfer had procured for him his pardon from the Asar. Vexed at the contempt of Thor, and seeing the possibility of doing a treacherous action, he gives way to the temptation, and through the means of Heimdal persuades the Asar to a stratagem; so that Thor, dressed as Freya, goes down into Utgard. When Thor is in Utgard, and the hammer Miölner is placed in his lap, he revenges himself by slaying all the giants, except the old ones and the children, who remain concealed in the deepest recesses of the mountain with Utgard-Lok. Then arises from the vapour of the blood a remarkably tall female figure, sent by Alfader. She prophecies the fall of Valhalla, the death of Balder, the torments of Lok, the approaching destruction of the universe, and the punishment of the gods for their deceit; which is, that their existence shall for a time pass away, and the whole creation perish by fire. After this, she consoles them with the assurance of a future life, where innocence and bliss are to reign eternally.

THE GODS OF THE NORTH.

For all proper names, the reader is requested to consult the Alphabetical List preceding this poem. The notes to which the figures refer, are to be found at the end of the poem.

CANTO I.
THOR SETS OUT ON AN ADVENTURE WITH LOK.

CANTO II.
SPELLS UPON THE HEATH.

CANTO III.
THOR IN HELHEIM.

CANTO IV.
THOR ARRIVES AT UTGARD.

CANTO V.
MAGIC SPELLS IN UTGARD.

Now at the festive board sat down

The chiefs in social converse. Lok

Arose, and thus in jesting tone

The ever sprightly Asa spoke:

“To pass the time, while here we sit,

Let us some mirthful game devise,

Some trial of our strength or wit,

And prove who best deserves the prize.”

“To this proposal I agree,”

To him thus Utgard-Lok replied;

“And what the game or sport shall be,

Let thy ingenious brain decide!”

Then catching up some roasted meat,

The Asa laughing cries: “’Tis well;

Be this my first triumphant feat!

In eating none can Lok excel.

[58]

“I find my appetite increase

By what I have endured of late;

By plenteous cheer ’twere not amiss,

Methinks, my strength to renovate:

Good trencher-men in troth we are,

Of limbs robust and stomachs able:

Go, therefore! bid the cook prepare,

And set the viands on the table!”

“To what best suits thee I accede,”

Still jesting, Utgard-Lok replies;

“There can be nothing worse, indeed,

Than hungry from the board to rise:

Yet, my good friend! thou’lt soon perceive,

However strong thy stomach be,

In eating thou canst naught achieve

’Gainst one of my good company.”

This speech annoy’d Laufeia’s son;

He jump’d up hastily, and said:

“Thou whoreson fiend! thou evil one!

Think’st thou my purpose to dissuade?”

The swarthy chief made no reply,

But call’d to one amidst his crew:

“Come forth!” and lo! with fearful cry

Starts forth a goblin [29] fell to view!

[59]

Obedient to his master’s call,

Who now his zeal and service claims,

He stalks across the spacious hall,

In armour cover’d o’er with flames:

The most were yellow; some were red;

Some blue; anon with scornful look

Towering above his rival’s head,

He cast his eyes on Asa-Lok.

His widely gaping mouth reveals

A double row of grinders long;

At every finger, ’stead of nails,

Were likewise teeth both sharp and strong:

And strange to tell, each tooth displays

On mouth or hand a pow’rful light.

Young Roska view’d them with amaze,

And shrunk back trembling with affright.

The shadows that obscured the rock

All vanish’d at the goblin’s sight.

“I do perceive,” said Asa-Lok,

“Each of thy limbs hath power to bite:

Yet trust me! though thou hast the power

Each finger to employ as tooth,

Thou’lt not be able to devour

More food than Loptur with his mouth.”

[60]

Into the hall by Lok’s command

A dish was brought of purest ore;

’Twas vast in size, and it contain’d

Of joints of meat an ample store.

The ugly fiend and Asa-Lok

Set to and crunched with all their might;

They eat, as though they both would choke:

This caused much wonder and delight.

Each sat at one end of the dish,

But in the middle soon they meet:

Lok from the bones had clear’d the flesh;

At length he could no longer eat.

Not so the goblin; he devour’d

The hard bones, golden dish, and all:

He roll’d his eyes around the board,

And for more viands fain would call.

Now loudly laugh’d the giant crew;

E’en Thor the serious laugh’d outright:

Young Tialfe grinn’d, and Roska too

Was much diverted at the sight.

The guests now sitting round the board,

As arbiters pronounce the doom;

They loud proclaim with one accord,

That Asa-Lok was overcome.

[61]

Then Utgard-Lok in jesting mood

Call’d out to Tialfe by his name:

“Since we are cloy’d with drink and food,

Let us arrange some other game!

We practise here, the time to kill,

Jokes and diversions not a few:

Go thou, brave youth! and try thy skill!

I fain would see what thou canst do.”

“What callst thou trying? do not boast

Too much!” the ardent Tialf replied:

“Though Asa-Lok the prize have lost,

That cannot, sure, our worth decide.

He gave me armour; and ye’ll find,

Though ye can bones and dish devour

Like dogs, that with undaunted mind

I brave, and hope to quell your power.”

Then Utgard’s Chief with knitted brow

Rejoin’d: “Twere bootless to contend

On what is past and gone: do thou

Propose some game, my youthful friend!”

“Good!” answer’d Tialfe: “Be it so!”

And strait his corslet ’gan t’ unlace.

“An ye consent, I’m ready now

With any of your train to race.”

[62]

Then thus the swarthy chief: “’Tis well;

And such a sport, methinks, is meet:

For when our arms in vigour fail,

We find our safety in our feet.

Come then! begin! trace out the course!

Yet I suspect, thou’lt soon succumb,

However great in speed thy force,

When racing with my little Thumb.”[30]

Now Tialfe’s limbs with anger shook,

He threw around a scornful glance;

And view’d forth crawling from a nook

A strange and dwarfish elf advance!

Though little strength he seem’d to boast,

Yet supple as a bow was he:

A veil enveloping his bust

His features none allow’d to see.

“I see his body swells or shrinks,”

Quoth Tialf, “at pleasure ’fore the wind;

In elasticity, methinks,

He leaves all creatures far behind.

Come, little hero! come along,

And let us strait begin our course!

Much need we, when the race is long,

Not merely suppleness, but force.”

[63]

The signal given, off they set!

The rocks re-echo with the sound!

The dwarf first reach’d the goal, and met

Full butt his rival, turning round.

Tialf bit his lips, and scarce suppress’d

His anger; panting thus he spake:

“’Tis not enough our speed to test;

Let us another trial make!”

Now off they start again: and though

With all his might young Tialfe raced,

Swifter than dart from archer’s bow

The supple dwarf the goal embraced.

He halted, while his rival still

Distant a half bow-shot was seen;

Thus easy baffling Tialfe’s skill,

He chuckled in his sleeve, I ween.

One trial more the chiefs ordain’d;

The dwarf the gage rejected not;

He flew, and quick the goal attain’d,

And strait returning, reach’d the spot

From which they started, long before

Tialfe himself could reach the goal.

The youth sank breathless on the floor,

With jaded limbs and anguish’d soul.

[64]

That Tialf was vanquish’d all agreed:

Like wind the dwarf now vanish’d fleet.

Then Utgard’s chief to Aukthor said:

“Now try thyself some dextrous feat!

Thy champions hitherto have shown

But little skill and little power;

But thou perhaps, and thou alone,

Mayst all our efforts overpower.”

Thor drily then: “It may be so;

I seek not our defeat to skreen:

In eating, certes, I allow,

That Asa-Lok hath vanquish’d been.

But that which most is thought in me

Surprising, is my power of drink:

Bring me a drinking horn! ye’ll see,

From no competitor I shrink.”

The chief gives signal; quick as thought

Into the spacious hall is borne,

Of curious yellow metal wrought,

And carved with runes, a drinking horn.

Its point extreme, so vast its length,

Afar without the cavern lies:

E’en Thor, though conscious of his strength,

Was stagger’d at its awful size.

[65]

With anxious eye and strict attention

See Thor this vessel contemplate!

It seems in truth of vast dimension,

Yet for his stomach not too great.

Then Utgard’s chief. “Well mayst thou doubt,

If thou hast power that horn to drain:

He who can see its measure out,

Certes, will not of thirst complain.

“But when through guile or negligence

A giant hath our laws profaned,

To empty that whole horn’s contents

Is oft the punishment ordain’d.

One draught the horn can seldom drain,

In two the feat we sometimes see;

But there is none among my train

Who cannot empty it in three.”

To him thus Asa-Lok replied:

“’Mongst all the chiefs in Odin’s realm,

If my experience may decide,

In drinking Thor bears off the palm.

Whene’er he calls aloud for drink,

And graps the horn with nervous arm,

The Asar back with terror shrink,

And Valhall trembles with alarm.

[66]

“For him Iduna’s tender care

Provides the luscious apple-wine;

And scarcely more delicious are

The kisses from her lips divine:

In drinking, as in fighting great,

One single draught doth Thor suffice

The largest horn to empty strait;

And none with him dispute the prize.

“A well known fact I now declare;

As’-Odin every morning hies

To Mimer’s sacred fountain, where

He courteous for a drink applies:

Then Mimer from those bounteous rills

A beaker, of dimensions vast

In depth and breath, with water fills;

That water boasts of wine the taste.

“Odin once Valaskialf forsook;

To travel far it seem’d him fit:

While absent, Thor that beaker took,

And at one draught he emptied it:

Since then, the mighty warrior’s fame

Resounds from every Asa’s mouth,

And Asgard’s chronicles proclaim

The feat. I tell ye naught but truth.

[67]

When Odin learn’d this act of Thor,

Thus burst he forth in angry tone:

“Ha! what presumption! thou art far

Too daring and too rash, my son!

That fountain fresh with wisdom glows;

Thor drank and straight did wit obtain:

How canst thou, then, our chief suppose

Incompetent thy horn to drain?”

Then answer’d Utgard’s prince: “Who knows?

In Odin’s hall perhaps they feel

Less thirst than here.” Then Thor arose,

And with that arm, whose nerves are steel,

The horn he lifted from the ground;

Nor difficult this effort seem’d:

This movement caused an echoing sound,

And was alone a marvel deem’d.

“Of drinkers we will hail thee first,

If in that horn thou naught dost leave;

And certainly thy tongue with thirst

Unto thy palate will not cleave.”

Thus sneering said the fiend: awhile

The Asa stood immers’d in thought:

Then grasp’d the horn with sudden smile,

And took one long and pow’rful draught.

[68]

E’en as the sandy wilderness

Drinks in th’ impetuous floods of rain,

That pour down from the heavenly space,

Thus Aukthor drank, and drank amain:

He stopp’d, and with complacent look

Began the vessel to explore;

Yet spite of the long draught he took,

It seem’d as full as ’twas before.

But Thor’s high courage never fails;

He leans upon his hammer bright:

Again the beaker he assails,

And quaffs with all his soul and might.

In furrows deep his forehead rolls;

His veins swell at the effort rude:

He drank, as do the clefts and holes

Of the ravine drink in the flood.

Once more the chief review’d the horn;

Full, as before, the horn remains:

How deep did then our hero mourn

His baffled strength and bootless pains!

Well might this horn with wonder fill

Those, who knew not its mystery;

For, spite of all he swallow’d, still

The smallest space was not left dry.

[69]

Again the god his mouth applies

Th’ unfathomable horn to drain:

He drank, e’en as the deep abyss

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.

How joyous at the board we meet!

What lovely maids our drink prepare!

’Tis far less water’d, and more sweet

Than your insipid beverage here.”

[70]

Then to the god these words address’d

The chief of Utgard’s gloomy state.

“When with broad shoulders we are bless’d,

The stomach also should be great;

But since ’tis only sport, I fain

Some other proof of skill would see;

Some cheerful game do thou ordain!

The choice, O chief! I leave to thee.

“Our custom in this vast saloon

Is to divert ourselves with play;

Tis thus with my companions boon

Fast glide the tedious hours away;

Then let us now at once proceed

To try some sport, the time to pass

I have it: Who can best succeed

In lifting up a ponderous mass?”

Quoth Thor: “I do consent to that.”

Lo! from a hole came running out

A big and curious broad-tail’d cat,

And twirl’d itself the hall about.

It look’d at Thor, and seem’d to quake

With terror; then it shrunk, and bent

Itself in folds, like wily snake,

To spring upon its prey intent.

[71]

With its red eyes so small it peep’d,

Hunger and malice in its frown;

Then on its belly forward crept,

And gently by the god lay down.

No furs enwrapp’d this creature’s skin,

But rings of horn its limbs encased;

When first call’d forth the sport to join,

It seem’d with terror sore oppress’d.

It play’d and frisk’d the guests among

With tail so scaly long and thick;

Its mouth protrudes a forked tongue,

With which ’twas wont its lips to lick.

Then Lok: “Canst thou lift up that cat,

O Thor! thy strength is great indeed.”

“Nay!” answered Asa Lok, “a weight

Far greater he can lift at need.

“The hammer that our chief doth bear,

Alone outweighs one hundred pound;

But mark my words, while I declare

A feat, for which he’s much renown’d:

Once into lovely Freya’s hall

He enter’d, while she sleeping lay;

He seiz’d the goddess, couch and all,

And bore them in his arms away.

[72]

With freshest rose-leaves fill’d, the bed

Was wrought of massive golden ore;

But though so heavily it weigh’d,

With ease he raised it from the floor;

Then to his castle, Trudvang hight,

Triumphant bore it through the air;

So noiseless was the Asa’s flight,

He naught disturb’d the sleeping fair.

The goddess bright with roses crown’d

Awoke at midnight’s solemn hour,

And much did it the fair astound,

To find herself in Aukthor’s bower:

Himself was kneeling by her side;

Till roused from her surprize at length

She rose in all her beauty’s pride,

And trembled at the hero’s strength.[31]

Since charged with load of such vast weight,

He bird-like cleaved the liquid air,

Dost thou suppose thy frightful cat

Too heavy for his arm to bear?

Two sable cats [32] draw Freya’s car,

And what they draw, he raised alone:

Than both his strength was greater far;

Think ye, he cannot lift up one?”

[73]

The prince of Utgard smiled: “Take care!”

Quoth he: “be not too sure of that!

For I suspect, that Freya’s car

Is far less heavy than my cat.”

Now Thor prepared in Utgard’s hall

His strength to prove with eager zest;

But silence he implored from all,

And all complied with his request.

Fixing the cat with watchful eye,

Thor ’neath its belly threw his arm;

It claw’d and spat most frightfully,

And whined with fury and alarm.

’Twas vain with this vile beast to cope,

And Thor soon found his efforts weak;

The more he strove to lift it up,

The higher still became its back.

On high, as far as arm could reach,

He raised the creature towards the roof;

But higher still the cat could stretch

Its strange elastic form at proof:

So hard the struggle, e’en the soul

Of mighty Thor felt some dismay:

Now through the roof he breaks a hole,

And fain towards heaven would lift his prey.

[74]

But spite of all his efforts, he

Could raise but one leg from the hearth;

Tenacious clung the other three,

As if fast rooted, to the earth.

At length exhausted he became,

And down he let the creature fall;

And though he strove to hide his shame,

’Twas clearly visible to all.

The cat was then removed. The fiend

With look demure and wily sneer

Then said to Tialfe’s lord: “My friend!

Thus goes it with our pastimes here.

Like all things else in our domain,

That cat can wond’rous strength deploy;

E’en Thor, great Odin’s son, ’tis plain,

Cannot in strength with giants vie.”

To him thus sharp the god of war,

For much those words his spirit grate:

“Now by my hammer and my car,

Talking and boasting much I hate;

But since with sneer and bantering

The force of Thor thou seemst to doubt,

Come forth thyself, O swarthy king!

And try with me a wrestling bout!”

[75]

With soften’d voice the chief rejoin’d,

For now fear made him lower his crest:

“Nay! why so hasty? bear in mind,

That all things here are done in jest!

No malice here disturbs our sport;

But since a wrestling match you chuse,

I’ve an old woman in my court,

To cope with Thor she’ll not refuse.”

To him Laufeia’s crafty son:

“She comes not for our chief too late;

She’ll rue the sport; his grasp alone

Has power her limbs to dislocate:

In ancient runes hath she not read,

How on the giant’s isle of rock,

’Midst a vast female troop he sped,

And made them feel his hammer’s shock?

“’Twas sport to see him deal such blows

On those fierce virgins; none unscathed

Escaped; though numberless his foes,

’Midst flames his look defiance breathed:

To drown him one the thought conceived,

And urged him to the ocean’s brink;

But such a blow her scull received,

She ne’er again had power to think.[33]”

[76]

Angry and deeply blushing, Thor

Struck on the forehead Asa Lok:

Down to the earth he sank before

His feet, while thus the thund’rer spoke.

“Thus I chastise thy sland’rous tongue,

On calumny and lies intent:

Doubtless the Asar’s choir among

Thou art the most impertinent!

“Wretched buffoon! base weather-cock!

Vile mimic of the giant race!

How darest thou Asa Thor provoke,

And falsehoods thus insidious trace?

Thyself an Asa, thou do’st e’er

Delight thy peers to vilify:

As sure as Fenris howls, I swear

Thy punishment shall dreadful be.”

Now rising slow with blushing cheek,

And forehead bleeding, Loptur spoke:

“Why, cruel! on thy comrade wreak

Thy vengeance for a harmless joke?

’Twas but in jest; since ’twas agreed

That all we do should be in sport,

Why not in word as well as deed

With temper bear a sly retort?

[77]

“Are then thy strength and bravery

At once become so weak, O Thor,

That a mere joke, a raillery,

To damp their energy hath power?

No signs of fear or weakness show’d

Those virgins: clad in steel and brass,

With clubs they to the battle strode;

In strength no males could them surpass.

“Yes! female goblins fell were they,

Who sank beneath thy shaft divine;

And this old woman here, I say,

Reminds me of that act of thine:

Meagre, decrepit, toothless, old,

Can such a witch with Thor contend?”

Then quickly answer’d Thor the bold:

“Enough! here let our quarrel end!”

Now tottering in the hall appears,

Leaning a knotty staff upon,

A woman deep advanced in years;

Her eyes were sunk, her cheek was wan;

Her coarse white locks, her shrivell’d skin

Announced extreme decrepitude:

To pity much did Thor incline,

When such a fragile form he view’d.

[78]

“It is not fit,” the Asa said,

“That thou shouldst cope with me before

Thou hast a cup of juice essay’d,

Whose fruit grows in Valhalla’s bower.”

Now from a hole within his shield

He took a fruit of luscious taste:[34]

With courteous look and accent mild

To taste it much the dame he prest.

“Eat this! my venerable dame!

Thy days of youth ’twill straight restore;

This fruit from Bragur’s garden came;

Iduna guards the sacred store:

’Twill make thy veins beat high with youth;

’Twill fill with eloquence thy tongue.”

Then thus the dame: “I’m old, in truth,

Yet I remain for ever young.

“All things do I devour, yet naught

Consume; as for thy fruit divine,

Keep it thyself! I need it not!

But come! let us the sport begin!”

Thus said, her arms around her foe

She cast with wondrous force and glee;

Thor, struggling hard the crone to throw,

At length fell breathless on his knee.

[79]

His comrades trembled, sore afraid

To view their chieftain’s sad mischance:

Now Thor to them a signal made

To succour him with sword and lance.

Then turning round in wrath extreme,

To Utgard-Lok he fiercely cries:

“Let me this instant quit thy realm,

Where frantic witchcraft gains the prize!

“I cannot bear such magic spells,

Such visions strange: Odin alone,

My sire, who in Valhalla dwells,

Can from such mischief shield his son:

Unknown to him I’ve travell’d here;

Ah me! I do repent me now!

Deceit, misfortune, checks severe

Are all that I have proved below.

“But when we next renew the fight,

Naught shall thy spells thy person shield:

Odin can magic runes indite,

As Thor knows how his mace to wield:

Allied we shall one day descend

From thy vile yoke the world to free,

And Utgard-Lok, arch-traitrous fiend,

In his own realm shall vanquish’d be.”

[80]

Indignant then he faced about,

While shame and anger tinged his cheek;

The chief of Utgard led him out,

With mind perplex’d and gesture meek:

The mountain deeply sigh’d and mourn’d;

Down rush’d its silv’ry blood amain;

The gate slow on its hinges turn’d,

And Thor once more bestrode the plain.

CANTO VI.
THE SPELLS UNRAVELLED.

CANTO VII.
THE RETURN HOME.

CANTO VIII.
THOR VISITS THE GIANT HYMIR.

CANTO IX.
THOR’S FISHING ADVENTURE.

CANTO X.
LOK BECOMES ENAMOURED OF SIF.

CANTO XI.
CONVERSATION BETWEEN LOK AND SIF.

CANTO XI.
LOK’S CONVERSATION WITH SIF.

An attempt to translate the 11th canto in the alliterative metre of the Icelandic or ancient Scandinavian poetry, something in the style of the original.

CANTO XII.
LOK PROCURES THINGS OF VALUE FROM THE DWARFS.

CANTO XIII.
THE RAPE OF IDUNA.

Odin, with Hænir and with Asa-Lok,

Assuming human forms, once on a time

To view the earth a journey undertook.

Odin felt weary of his throne sublime

On Hlidskialf, and he fain would rove

Throughout the world, mankind himself to prove:

While through the forest dark he bends his way,

He gasps for breath, and feels himself but clay.

O’er mountains cover’d with eternal snow

They wander now, and now through Orkner’s vale;

Before them stood, perch’d on the dizzy brow

Of a projecting rock, huge as a whale,

An ice-bear fierce! naught did the sight

The travellers alarm; the monster fled,

’Midst heaps of snow to hide himself with dread,

For inwardly he felt the Asar’s presence bright.

[148]

Thus they advance to where the snow gives way,

And grass luxuriant grows, and flowers, and corn;

The rocks, which now before them lay,

Birch, pine, and larch, and various shrubs adorn.

Ice-clumps upon the roof no more they view’d,

Where sleeps the dwarfish Lapp in gloom and smoke;

But in the vales strong houses built of wood

More polish’d life and milder clime bespoke.

No longer rolling in his sledge they view

The dark-hair’d Finn by nimble rein-deer drawn;

The horses’ hoofs here boast the iron shoe;

The [48] Jarl’s proud mansion on the well-trimm’d lawn

Tow’ring arose, where lay in nuptial dress

His youthful bride, all grace and loveliness:

The lark with blithesome carol fills his throat,

And silences at once the dark owl’s screeching note.

Down falling o’er the grass, the dew of heaven

With pearls besprinkles every flower and stem;

Home crawl the peasant’s geese by urchin driven;

Oxen stand drinking at the limpid stream;

He yokes them to the plough; then whistling, light

Of heart, with many a furrow scars the field;

While the three Asar on earth’s bastion sit,

Like warlike champions arm’d with spear and shield.

[149]

Then smil’d the father of the fight,

And said to Lok, who by his side was placed:

“Methinks, if I have read thy soul aright,

The peasant’s provender thou fain wouldst taste.

Of hunger too myself I feel the power;

By the long march fatigued, my spirits fail:

From Vardoe we are come, in one short hour,

To the dark birchen grove in Guldbrand’s dale.”

Then laughing, Lok replied: “Be sure,

Since each ingredient’s here at hand,

A good repast Lok’s genius will procure;

Fat oxen in the meadow lowing stand;

Like the red fox, give but the word,

I’ll hie me to the peasant’s pantry board;

To baste our meat his butter will I steal,

At his expense we’ll make a glorious meal.

“In the meanwhile an ox must Hœnir slay,

And with its tepid blood refresh the earth;

Then with his dagger’s point the carcase flay,

While I steal bread from the good peasant’s hearth.

Some humble charge thou wilt perhaps consent

To exercise, and think thereof no shame;

To strike out sparks, for instance, from the flint,

And with dry reeds and faggots feed the flame.”

[150]

Then Odin answered, sighing: “Ah! too plain

I feel, I’m clothed in human clay and dust:

Men live by rapine; ’tis their trade accurst;

And what one loses doth another gain.

Go, then, employ thy nimble heel!

Follow thy fav’rite trade and steal!

That we are gods did the good peasant know,

He’d slaughter all his herd, methinks, his zeal to show.”

Now Hœnir kill’d an ox, and Loptur ran

To th’ pantry, where his store the peasant kept;

Slily on tiptoe through each room he crept,

And with fresh butter fill’d his can.

He then took bread made of the finest rye,

In a white napkin wrapp’d; and as he pass’d

The hen-roost, all the eggs that met his eye

He snatch’d up quick and in his basket placed.

Meanwhile did Hœnir not remain

Inactive long; with much dexterity

He bound in cords and truss’d the cattle slain,

And fix’d it ’gainst a trunk of osier nigh.

He took the bowels out and stripp’d the skin

From off the flesh; then wash’d away the blood

From the fat-cover’d thighs and ample chine,

And with his prize content, exclaim’d that all was good.

[151]

But Odin, he who through the world’s expanse

Hath launch’d the sun in sempiternal course,

And lighting with his torch her golden lance

Instructs her how to guide her matchless force;

Who, from that sun borrowing her fainter rays,

Hath to the moon a milder radiance given,

And bade small sparks innumerable blaze

Athwart the pole, when night envelops heaven:

Now humbler functions Odin’s labours claim;

With flint and steel he now proceeds

To elicit many a spark, and feed the flame

With faggots, wither’d branches, and dry reeds;

And soon the smoke’s white column rose

In spiral motion from the burning straw.

With conscious pride now Odin’s bosom glows

To mark the strict observance of his law.

His glorious eye moisten’d with many a tear,

Thus he exclaims, with pride and joy elate:

“O wonderful in small things as in great,

In what is distant as in what is near!

In one small rain-drop equally divine,

Ægir! as in thy ocean: Odin too

In one small flint-drawn spark doth equal shine,

As when the sun’s vast orb he launch’d in ether blue!

[152]

“And Thor! when thou dost hurl thy lightning down,

What dost thou more than I do now, my son?”

Now Lok return’d with butter, salt, and eggs,

Proud of his robbery and nimble legs;

The weazles, foxes, rats, as he pass’d by,

Jump’d from their holes and thus began to squeal:

“Lo! there he goes, our god, so trippingly!

Well doth he teach his subjects how to steal.”

Then Odin laugh’d: “This loss will I repair,

Lok’s theft the honest swain shall not regret,

For harvests thousandfold his fields shall bear;

This for the stolen bread will compensate.

His flocks and herds with wondrous increase fill’d

Shall for the butter make amends, I trow:

And for the salt, on every child

Of his will I prudence and wit bestow.

While Hœnir to divide the carcase toil’d,

To a sharp spit a pine-branch Loptur filed;

Then felling two small trees, firm in the ground

One end he fix’d; the other end he clove

Of each, and on them turn’d the spit around:

Nor did he long delay his skill to prove;

He skewer’d each joint, then fed the flame, and plied

The labours of the cook with joy and pride.

[153]

While thus he stood watching each bubbling joint,

To some short distance were his comrades gone;

When he surmised the roast enough was done,

He prick’d it often with his dagger’s point:

Yet still dropp’d from the flesh the tepid gore,

As if it from a living creature came;

And though the fire he nourish’d more and more,

Heavier and duller burn’d the flame.

Thwarted by such delay, he stands aghast,

And ever and anon consults the sky;

When lo! an eagle of dimensions vast [49]

With threat’ning aspect fix’d his eye,

With outspread wings, as midnight vapours dark,

Perch’d on the branches of an elm-tree lithe;

Forth jutting from the leaves, its beak so stark

Shone crook’d and polish’d as a reaper’s scythe.

As th’ ignis fatuus over marsh and mire

At midnight a malignant radiance flings;

Thus glared the giant bird with eyes of fire,

And gazed upon the roast, and clapp’d its wings.

Behold a dire mischance the cook befell!

Down fell the cloven trees! and with them fell

The ox! the eagle still with frightful leer

Gazed on the flame, which now went out from fear.

[154]

“Why sitst thou there? by what accurst device

Thus jugglest thou,” said Lok, “to spoil the meat?”

“Of thy good cheer I fain would taste a slice,”

Answer’d the eagle, “for my hunger’s great:

If then thou’lt treat me as thy guest,

Thy roast shall expeditiously be drest.”

Thus said, the bird his swarthy pinions shakes,

And hops down from the tree, and gnaws the steaks.

With bitter gall now swell’d the breast of Lok;

He grasp’d in both his hands a pond’rous spear;

But vain his efforts all, as if he struck

In the dark night the vacant air.

The eagle’s beak caught one end of the lance,

While Loptur’s hands fast to the other clung;

High soar’d the eagle through the heaven’s expanse,

While dangling to the lance his foe with terror hung.

Borne by the goblin through the airy space,

O’er forest, hill and dale flies Asa Lok;

Now dip his legs into the deep morass;

Now strike against each sharp projecting rock:

The frogs all grin, the eagle laughs aloud;

Who feels compassion for a Nidding base?

The marsh bespatters all his limbs with mud,

And brambles, brakes, and thorns his features fair deface.

[155]

Bruised by the rocks, now drip with blood his feet;

He weeps; but cold the cliff beholds his pain:

Against his bosom mercilessly beat

The howling tempest, hail, and snow, and rain.

Now in the ocean deep immersed he lies,

A hedgehog like with mackerel bedight:

Now borne aloft athwart the sunny skies,

A swarm of bees upon his forehead light.

Much did he pray and promise, but in vain;

Now Thor invoked, now loud to Odin screech’d:

The goblin still pursued his course amain,

Until a mountain’s snow-clad top he reach’d:

He there with iron fetters strong and tight

Bound fast the caitiff to a rugged rock;

Then jeering cried: “Sit there, thou treach’rous wight!

Sit there, and groan in chains till Ragnarok!”

Then Lok with humble mien and piteous face:

“Thou viewst me, I perceive, O chief! with hate,

And I deserve it; how could I forget,

That I too sprung from the brave mountain race?

But if my arguments thou’lt deign to hear,

And give me back my liberty so dear,

My cunning shall the Asar’s strength enthral,

And in one common ruin plunge them all.”

[156]

“Well then!” the goblin drily thus replied,

“If I release thee from these realms of night,

And give thee back to liberty and light,

Wilt thou by my conditions strict abide?

Then ponder well, and swear to my demand!

Thou shalt procure, and place at my command

That which is held in greatest estimation,

The gods’ best gift, since first the world’s creation.

“Behold where Bragur’s wife, Iduna hight,

Dwells in her bower employ’d in household care!

Like shell of snail,[50] around her forehead bright,

Is wreath’d in many a fold her radiant hair;

Straight as the poplar is her shape; her mien,

Her varied grace, no words have power to tell;

While bounding ’neath the silken veil so green

The plump luxuriant snowy hillocks swell.

“A vessel rare of burnish’d gold

That Disa in her hands is wont to hold;

From Asagard ’twas brought, where on the ground

By Odin, Vil, and Ve ’twas found;

Not easy ’tis the images portray’d

Thereon to guess; one reaps, another sows;

The sun, emerging from dark vapour, glows,

Charm’d by the magic murmurs of a maid.

[157]

“An apple in that vessel claims her care,

Red as a rose, yellow as wax to view;

A power divine reigns in that fruit so rare,

The power, health, youth and beauty to renew.

The influence of time is never seen,

Or felt by those, who on that apple feast;

And every Disa, who its juice doth taste,

Maintains the bloom and freshness of eighteen.

“Without this fruit so precious, where, Oh! where

Would be their godlike strength, and beauty rare?

Each goddess would resemble Hela grim,

Did not this juice invigorate each limb.

E’en as each furrow on the sandy waste

Is levell’d by the wind, and disappears,

Thus full and white becomes the flabby breast,

As when the funeral mound its snowy vestment wears.

“Just as the spark ignites the branches dry,

That juice gives lustre to the old man’s eye:

But for that drink, youth’s fervid glow

In Odin’s veins long since had ceased to flow:

Did not Iduna mingle every morn

That apple’s juice i’ th’ liquor brew’d for Thor,

The world his boasted strength would laugh to scorn,

Spite of his belt, his gauntlets, and his car.

[158]

“No raven’s scream in Idun’s grove is heard;

Nor ever jars the ear the cricket’s cry:

For Asa-Bragur the celestial bard

All nature animates with harpings high.

Now towards the east he turns his fond regard;

And when the sun, fresh bursting from the sky,

Spreads o’er the ravish’d earth its magic shine,

He strikes the golden harp, and chaunts a lay divine.

“Cheer’d by the glorious sound all creatures smile,

From every flower and plant bright tear-drops flow;

Then feels the earth a soft and holy thrill,

And the spring blushes with a deeper glow;

Then beats with love the maiden’s heart still more;

Then dreams of bliss the dying old man soothe;

Immortal strains console his parting hour,

And to bright Gimle’s realm the awful passage smooth.

“If in my power thou’lt place the beauteous wife

Of Bragur, with her vessel rare of gold,

I’ll give thee liberty again and life,

And loose thee from this mountain-prison cold.”

“Well then,” quick answer’d Lok, “I swear, I swear.”

“Nay!” Thiasse grim replied with bitter mock,

“Thy ape-like oaths and vows thou well mayst spare;

No one, be sure, will trust the oath of Lok.

[159]

“To all an object of contempt and scorn

Thee gods and giants equally despise;

Mere froth and scum each oath by thee that’s sworn,

A cloud that into vapour melts and flies:

No! vacillating traitor! fraudful swain!

For thy good faith I must have surer ground:

The peasant’s dog is fasten’d with a chain;

With his own mouth shall Lok be bound.

“The venom-swelter’d serpent brood

Their poison in their hollow teeth collect,

And only then the venom takes effect,

When, pierced the skin, it mingles with the blood:

If from its gums each tooth be torn,

Harmless becomes the snake and innocent;

Around the neck, or arm, or waist ’tis worn,

A strange, but still innocuous ornament.

“But far more mischief, traitor! than the snake,

Thou causest with thy sland’rous tongue alone:

Well, then! this trial I’m disposed to make:

Deprived of speech, thou shalt thy crimes atone.”

No sooner said than done, the giant took

A diamond pin, steel thread; and now with glee

Together fast he sew’d the lips of Lok:

Ye gods! in truth, ’twas droll to see.

[160]

“Hold! hold! I faint—I die,” said Lok

With frightful howl—“one word—I feel such pain—

For mercy’s sake—I cannot breathe—I choke—”

“Breathe with thy nostrils! thou hast twain;”—

Answer’d the giant: and with double seam

Continued fast his captive’s lips to sow,

Naught caring for his piteous scream:

This done, some magic runes he murmur’d low.

“Now, then, I have thee safe: now, caitiff! hie

To the green bower, where fair Iduna dwells!

To my own hall i’ th’ hard-wood grove I fly,

Where Cape North’s granite front the surge repels.

There bring to me forthwith my wish’d for prey!

Once in my arms the fruit and goddess lay!

Then will I straight thy mouth unbind,

And all our mountain race shall hail thee friend.”

Then of his own contrivance proud,

And loudly laughing, Thiasse let him go.

And now behold the once loquacious god,

Dumb, spiritless, the lowest of the low!

Like partridge, when by hawk pursued across

The sky it flies, glad to escape within

Its straw-built nest, though with the loss

Of half its plumage, and with bleeding skin.

[161]

But now, when near to Asa-gard arrived,

Tortured in mind and raging with his smart:

“Unheard of (thus he thought), of speech deprived,

How shall I now seduce a female heart?

By cunning, not by force, must this be done;

But how can I my cunning bring to pass?

Who both as weak and dumb to all is known,

Must ever for a hopeless blockhead pass.”

Much musing on his errand night and day,

His brain a thought conceiv’d that pleased him well:

Could not a rune, carv’d on a staff, convey,

As well as word of mouth, a fraudful tale?

Warm, unsuspecting is Iduna’s heart;

As genuine spouse of Bragur well she loves

To listen to a strain that pity moves;

And Lok is no small master of his art.

He drew his knife, delighted with the plan,

And cut a long stick from a neighb’ring wood;

His theme of lies he then forthwith began,

And lied, as far, as the stick’s length allow’d.

These were the runes he carv’d. “There is a tree

I’ th’ giants’ orchard, on whose branches grow

Apples of wondrous flavour, three by three,

With tint, like the sun’s purple blush on snow.

[162]

“These apples a more powerful juice contain,

Than those thou keepest in thy golden cup.

This liquor rare could once the Asar drain,

All Jotunheim before their arms must stoop.

To hide that precious fruit from the world’s eye

Has been the giants’ constant industry:

Thus have they, to avert the menaced doom,

Enwrapp’d that grove in sempiternal gloom.

“But a young giantess (O power of love!)

Th’ important secret hath to me reveal’d,

And shown the road to the mysterious grove,

Where flourishes that glorious tree conceal’d.

But lo! while on our route, a goblin lay

In wait for us behind the brazen wall,

And, fearful we the secret might betray,

Hath let on Lok peculiar vengeance fall.

“To close my mouth the giant has thought fit

With diamond needle, and with thread of steel;

Yet naught his ruthless act, nor murmur’d spell

Hath power to damp my mother wit:

That, thanks to Mimer, in the hour of need

To Lok will never fail; that still is free:

And thus upon this staff with speed

The giants’ secret have I traced for thee.

[163]

“If with thy apple of eternal youth

Thou wouldst attend me to the giants’ grove,

Then would the threads burst from my bleeding mouth,

Without thy aid the task would idle prove.

So sure and simple is the stratagem,

I need not pluck those apples from their stem,

Thou needst but touch them with thy fingers white,

They’ll instant fall into thy vessel bright.”

These runes he carv’d, and with the staff he flew

To th’ arbour in the grove across the sea,

Where sat Iduna with her eyes of blue,

Under the shade of her own apple-tree.

Mindful of wondrous scenes, she fix’d her look

Stedfast on every beast that wander’d by;

But most the graceful stag engaged her eye,

Ogling his own proud form in the pellucid brook.

A fountain bubbling near with eddying flow

Fills the transparent stream: with motion fleet

A cygnet scuds across, and at the feet

Of his fair mistress makes obeisance low:

There with her vessel sat the goddess meek,

And fed her fav’rite swan with crumbs of bread

While ever and anon he plunged his beak

Within the circles by the bread-crumbs made.

[164]

Absent was Bragur; he Alfader’s might

Was chaunting in shield-cover’d Valaskialf:

With rapture listen’d every Asa bright,

And every Disa fair, and radiant Alf.

Mimer had also left his fav’rite care;

Thus like an artless child Iduna lay,

And unsuspecting fell an easy prey

Into the treach’rous Lok’s malignant snare.

His bleeding mouth with pity she beheld;

And when to reinforce his runes of guile

His eyes shed tears like those of crocodile,

With grief oppress’d her gentle bosom swell’d:

She reach’d to him her hand so lily white,

And spreading wide her feather’d garment light,

Wafted herself and Loptur far away

Towards the dark hard-wood grove, where Thiass expectant lay.

Soaring athwart the azure plains on high,

Radiant was she and glorious to behold,

As in the groves of Ind or Araby

The bird of paradise with train of gold:

When lo! a griffin black rush’d from his lair,

Pounced with his talons on th’ affrighted fair,

And bore her far away! the giants’ scream of joy

Re-echoed from the rocks to welcome their decoy!

[165]

The Disa then too late her error found,

And wept: the winds with zeal and love intense

Waft down her tears to Ocean’s caves profound,

And there to pearls those precious drops condense.

And when her last farewell Iduna sigh’d,

A mournful plaint re-echoed from the vale:

The stagnant air blasts all the lily’s pride;

No more the roses’ perfume scents the gale.

A dew lethargic, noisome, humid, cold

Around the heavens its veil malignant spread!

And lo! the sun shorn of its rays of gold

In midst of vapour stood with disk blood-red!

And cold became the whilom jocund breast

Of ev’ry hero and of ev’ry maid;

Far towards the south the feather’d songsters prest,

And with them too all joy and gladness fled!

CANTO XIV.
THE DELIVERANCE OF IDUNA.

As vanish ’fore the wind the vapours light,

Thus sinks each action of the human race

Into th’ abyss of sempiternal night;

One billow sinks; another mounts apace:

Alternate peace coquetting plays with war;

Now in the sheath the glaive inglorious lies,

And now with glitt’ring menace flouts the air:

’Tis all a juggle—a butterfly, that hies

Careless from flower to flower—pairs with its kind—and dies.

Why boast in fight thy prowess, warrior wild?

What was it? scum—mere froth upon the sea

Of time—self-love impell’d thee—fortune smiled—

Thy docile troop must needs their Chief obey.

But come, lay bare thy heart! and at the shrine

Of truth confess! (concealment now were shame)

Where is the merit of that act of thine,

That made thee rival of thy father’s fame?

That thou didst death defy? Doth not a beast the same?

[167]

Where Timour pulverized in days of yore

Whole hecatombs of foes at Samarcand,

The loose sand whirls in eddies as before.

Nor of that triumph doth one record stand:

The meadows still display their emerald sheen,

Forgetful of the day, when frantic war

With streams of blood incarnadined the green;

No longer now the traveller’s vision scare

Huge piles of human sculls, long since dispersed in air.

And who art thou whose quenchless thirst of fame

Thus furiously lays waste th’ affrighted earth?

Not near so puissant as the nightly flame,

Which the volcano’s entrails vomit forth.

The harden’d lava-streams its force attest,

And though a thousand long long years have fled,

Give to the swelling grape its poignant zest:

Thy deed, like ashes, moulders with the dead;

The ravens on thy fame, as on thy limbs, have fed.

Yet do not thou crow neither, little gnome

Who sittest in thy workshop snug, and filest;

Who safe intrench’d within thy rocky dome,

Lookst down securely on the fight, and smilest,

As looks the lamb upon the wolf below:

Who thinkst the awl a better instrument

Than Aukthor’s hammer: thou requirest too

Iduna’s apple, if thou beest intent

To reach thy labour’s goal, and shine pre-eminent.

[168]

Whoever, dwarf or giant, seeks to rise [51]

From his low cave to genius’ source divine,

Let him towards thee, Iduna! lift his eyes,

And view, where burning incense at thy shrine

Bragur with Mimer, Balder, chaunt all hail,

And in thy praise their lofty strains unite:

No real hero will thy blessing fail,

And future Scalds his actions shall recite,

And o’er his tomb describe an endless halo bright.

How flat unprofitable life would flow.

Unquicken’d, Idun, by thy apple’s zest!

Deprived of Mimer’s fount, how mean and low

Were man’s existence, by vile cares opprest!

Dark Surtur chaunts the song of triumph loud,

To see the lov’d Iduna captive borne:

While Lok, of his successful mischief proud,

Joys in his heart to see the Asar mourn,

And Valhall’s glories fled, and Valaskialf forlorn.

Now when the sun arose, by vapours foul

Obscured, it fill’d no bosom with delight:

When the dull moon slow climb’d from pole to pole,

It heard no amorous plaint disturb the night.

No longer travels with his car and goats

The once aspiring Thor; now deaf to praise

He throws aside his club; he raves; he dotes;

While Hlidskialf, Odin’s dome, shorn of its rays,

No longer warms the earth with heart-consoling blaze.

[169]

And Freya’s bosom, once so proud to view,

Now sinks like snow before the solar beam:

Her golden hair assumes a silver hue;

Her once blue eyes two gelid rain-drops seem.

Heimdal, who on his rainbow stood betimes

Shining amidst his seven colours bright,

Discover’d frightful witches mutt’ring rhimes

Of direst import, with black caps bedight,

And wings, like those of bat, loud flapping in the night.

With a lethargic mist they veil the sky,

And summon Skada from her grot profound:

While Niord, before whose lance all vapours fly,

Rests in his cell, in magic slumbers bound.

Now Skada, mounted on her glander’d horse,

Whose nostrils, frightful snorting, taint the gale,

Each night uncheck’d pursues her baneful course:

Athwart the clouds her murky sisters sail,

And with loud shrieks of woe th’ affrighted earth assail.

Each star now veils its front, which once in guise

Of lamp illumed the heavens: the seaman bold,

Who, sailing in the Kattegat,[52] defies

The foaming billow and the tempest cold,

Hath lost his rudder; and when in despair

He to his anchor needs recourse must have,

Behold! the cable stiff with frozen air

Cannot be bent: death rides upon the wave,

And stares with beamless eye, and shakes his icy glaive!

[170]

When summer came, no sunbeam cheer’d the vale;

Like slave, the wretched swain must groan and sweat:

His house, his tools, his clothing he must sell;

His only thoughts were rye, and oats, and wheat:

He had forgotten quite to bend the knee

In humble duty fore Alfader’s throne:

His horse was far more dignified than he;

He felt with inward pang, and needs must own

His watch-dog’s heart more warm, more faithful than his own.

No longer now the warriors, as before,

Sit at the board of their crown’d chieftain high,

Gentle yet awful, worthy sons of Thor,

Soft temper’d by the radiance mild of Frey:

In scurrilous abuse and words of shame

To jealousy and hate they now give vent;

To slur and vilify his comrade’s fame,

More than to raise his own, each chief is bent;

Ignoble quarrels mark their envious discontent.

When the Scald sung, ’twas raving coarse and wild,

No longer Gimle’s inspiration sure;

No longer from thy breast, O nature mild!

He drew the milk so bountiful, so pure;

His only nurses now were prejudice

And discord, each a foul-mouth’d envious quean:

His aim is now, deep grovelling in vice,

To please the multitude with jest obscene,

To flatter or to mock, calumniate and feign.

[171]

Once Saga sat, and on her shield engraved

Each act of virtue generous, good, and great:

Of graver and of buckler now bereaved,

She pines, unconscious of the world’s debate:

The fond devotion to the public weal,

The scenes of Nidaros and Leir in vain

Crowd fore her eyes, and to her sense appeal:

The heron of oblivion clouds her brain;

Self-interest views the oak and laurel with disdain.

Sage Mimer griev’d the world’s mischance to know,

And Balder mark’d it in his bright abode:

With bitter tears see Mimer’s fountain flow!

The sap no longer gives the kernel food.

And Balder, gentle-hearted as a maid,

Visited Mimer in his cavern cold:

At once the rueful change they both survey’d:

’Twas night, and Balder sat with locks of gold,

His once unruffled brow in gloomy wrinkles roll’d.

’Twas easy to perceive all joy was fled;

Each goddess had her youth and beauty lost.

What wonder Mimer bow’d his laurell’d head,

At such discovery sad, dishearten’d, crost?

What wonder Balder, once serene and meek,

To omens dire should yield himself a prey?

Hear him with quiv’ring lip and hectic cheek,

Grief in his heart, and madness in his eye,

Rave incoherent strains, wild gazing at the sky!

[172]

Now at the ash Yggdrassil [53] they alight,

Whose branches o’er the earth their shade extend;

The holy tree, to which the Asar bright

Down from the bridge of Bifrost all descend.

There, as a shepherd watches o’er his flock,

Odin, enthroned as judge supreme, appears;

Examines every cause with piercing look;

Enacts new laws; pronounces doom; and hears

What from the nether world his courier Hermod bears.

In this immortal ash an eagle lives;

All things it sees, and straight imparts the same

To Odin’s ravens:[54] but no longer thrives,

Vigilant as before, its look of flame.

Thick murky vapours an unwholesome veil

Spread o’er the tree, and glide with motion fleet

O’er rock, and marsh, o’er forest, hill, and dale:

The squirrel crouching at the eagle’s feet

Hath naught but rotten fruit and hollow nuts to eat.

Balder and Mimer now direct their course,

Passing that tree, to Urda’s mystic stream:

The forest path conducts them to the source,

Which from the rock bursts forth with silv’ry gleam:

Fragments of stone with ivy overspread

Choke up the passage to the silent dell,

To all impervious, but the Asar dread:

Berries and flowers the sacred fount conceal;

Pine forests thick around each eye profane repel.

[173]

But every growth was blighted! and behold

On the stream’s brink the Norna Skulda sat,

With finger on her lips, and aspect cold,

The awful guardian of the book of fate:

Omniscient queen, whose mind can fathom all

That to Alfader’s self remains unknown.

Enormous wings adown her shoulders fall:

A fillet broad upon her forehead shone,

With many a mystic rune and strange device thereon.

Green was her garment; towards the fountain now,

Now towards the days to come she turns her eye.

Wrapp’d in a sable shroud with tranquil brow,

But with averted face, sits Urda nigh.

Here with her sisters twain Verdandis too,

Mistress of time, resides: her garment bright

Was interwov’n with scales of various hue.

These females all are of gigantic height;

None dare dispute their will; resistless is their might.

Sleep never ventures here: the Nornor’s eyes

Do never close, whether the mid-day sun

Or radiant stars illuminate the skies:

Awake they sit, though motionless like stone.

Urda the actions of the past unveils;

Skulda the future cons with prudence meet:

Meanwhile Verdandis weighs in golden scales

The present gifts, the gods to send think fit,

A sceptre or a grave; a triumph or defeat.

[174]

Immovable they sit, mute as the grave,

Like sphinx of marble on the Theban plain;

While shine reflected in the limpid wave

The figures of the awful virgin train.

Impatient the decrees of fate to learn

Oft to this grove the proud Valkyrior come;

With questions sharp assail the Nornor stern,

Then soar aloft, through the wide world to roam,

And fill the troubled air with strange prophetic doom.

Thus Mimer to the lofty Skulda spoke:

“O thou! who feelest neither joy nor woe,

Hostile to none, friendly to none; whose look,

Like that of falcon ardent, can pierce through

The blackest night, whether the dove doth coo,

Or the sword clash, alike unmoved; my prayer

Do not reject! and O resolve me true

The great enigma! shall Iduna fair

Again, freed from her chains, respire her natal air?”

The virgin breast of Skulda swell’d awhile:

What marble seem’d, now moved with high pulsation;

She gazed on Mimer; and he thought, a smile

Play’d on her mouth; it gave him consolation.

Urda’s fount ceased to rustle through the dell;

From Skulda’s lips resounds this solemn strain:

“When bravery shall fickle time compel

To constancy, and fast the recreant chain,

Upon the wings of love health shall fly home again.”

[175]

She spoke. In sable clouds Night veils her brow;

And sooth’d with hope, Earth’s bosom gently heaves:

The fount calls to its water: “Swell and flow!”

The blast loud whistles through the arid leaves.

Homeward with joy now hie the Asar twain,

For well the Nornor’s speech they comprehend:

They oft repeat the heart-consoling strain,

While floating in the air they swift ascend,

And eager still their course towards bright Valhalla bend.

“When bravery shall fickle time compel

To constancy, shall health fly home again

Upon the wings of love.” Thus through the dell

Re-echoed wide the solemn Nornor’s strain.

“What other god but Thor can solve this spell?

Juggler of time is Lok, we all agree;

And Thor alone can Lok subdue—tis well—

The Queen of Love preserves the prison key,

’Tis said, that Queen alone can set Iduna free.

These words were ponder’d oft the gods among;

Thor seized their import; red as blood his cheek

With anger, from his bench he quickly sprung,

And grasp’d the pallid Loptur by the neck:

And lo! as round the spindle turns the wheel,

When busy housewife spins her flax with glee,

Thus Thor twirl’d Lok around from head to heel;

And now he touch’d the moon, and now the sea,

While at the caitiff’s screams the gods laugh’d heartily.

[176]

“Thy being is a composition strange

Of Asagard and Helheim (thus said Thor):

Force must compel thee to repent and change;

Thou must be shook like oil and vinegar,

When in a vessel mix’d: but, traitor! say!

Ere from thy worthless trunk thy head be torn,

Wilt thou amend? wilt thou my voice obey?

Wilt thou, on the light wings of Freya borne,

Bring back Iduna straight to Valaskialf forlorn?

A coward and a traitor both is Lok,

And want of firmness all his acts reveal:

Fearful to be whirl’d round again and shook,

Lowly at Aukthor’s feet behold him kneel!

“If the bright Queen, the fairest of the fair,

The lily, which adorns Folkvangur’s plain,

Freya, will lend her wings, I solemn swear,

Spite of all spells, to loose Iduna’s chain,

And bring the goddess back to Asagard again.

“My soul’s resolv’d; naught shall my purpose bend,

The beauteous captive’s suff’rings deep I feel:

Foul Thiasse was to blame; by him constrain’d

Was I the goddess and her vase to steal.

But o’er the forest’s pines and ocean’s wave,

Cloth’d like a bird with gentle Freya’s wing.

I’ll hie me swiftly to the giant’s cave.

And back in triumph fair Iduna bring:

Health, youth, and strength again in Valaskialf shall spring.”

[177]

To fetch her pinions Freya was not slow;

Her hands to fix them on Lok’s shoulders deign.

Aye, and much more would she have giv’n, I trow,

Her own lost youth and beauty to regain.

Now Lok for his past conduct feeling shame,

And mindful too of Thiasse’s bitter mock,

O’er hill and dale, and marsh, and forest, came

To where, deep in the bowels of the rock,

The fair Iduna sigh’d, conceal’d in gloom and smoke.

But in the dark Lok finds his way most sure:

Naught was he daunted by the giant’s spell;

On Freya’s wings relies the god secure,

Which time defy, and brave the power of steel.

His course he steers, thorns, brakes, and briars among;

Now like an owl he has recourse to flight;

Now like a cat he needs must creep along.

At length the secret cave appears in sight,

Where rocks piled upon rocks conceal the treasure bright.

Immers’d in grief the fair Iduna sat

Like marble statue on a monument;

Upon the sea of time so desolate,

Which never ebbs, her look despairing bent.

But spite of every hindrance, Asa-Lok

Into the gloomy cavern forced his way,

Where pined the Disa fetter’d to the rock:

Some words of comfort scarce he stopp’d to say,

But caught her in his arms, and bore her far away.

[178]

While they together flew o’er land and sea,

Behold! a bale fire vast illumes the north!

’Twas Asa-gard whence Odin, Vil, and Ve

Sent messages to Lok o’er all the earth.

But now blest tidings all Valhalla cheer:

Iduna, borne by Lok, arrives in view!

Scarce did the nymph in Odin’s dome appear,

Away all care and pain and sorrow flew;

Each flow’ret oped again its chalice to the dew.

The lark now sang; each goddess felt the charm;

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.

He flutters round it long with sable wings;

E’en as the moth, attracted by the fire,

Into the flame abrupt its body flings;

Th’ enormous Jotun-fly doth thus expire,

By his own impulse hurl’d against the blazing pyre.

[179]

E’en so doth every frightful vision dire,

Which terrifies mankind i’ th’ hour of night,

Dissolve, when blazes forth the gorgeous pyre,

Which from the east dispenses warmth and light.

And thus the genial dew, which falls in spring,

Sheds tears of gladness on each plant around:

And every lively bird doth tuneful sing,

Inspired with joy, like Bragur, when he found

His darling wife once more in his embraces bound.

CANTO XV.
THE VANER.[55]

CANTO XVI.
THE NUPTIALS OF SKADA.

CANTO XVII.
THE AMOUR OF FREY.

CANTO XVIII.
JOY IN VALHALLA.

CANTO XIX.
THE EINHERIER.

CANTO XX.
BRAGUR’S SONG IN HONOUR OF GEFION.

CANTO XXI.
CONVERSATION BETWEEN SKIRNIR AND FREY.

But when the moon had fled the rock behind,

Follow’d by Maanegarm the winged fiend,

Who, constant in pursuit, to human eyes

Mostly invisible, but in the skies

Sometimes in form of wolf, when rain pours down,

Protrudes his head amidst the vapours brown:

From ocean’s bed the sun majestic rose,

Like blushing Freya with her cheeks of rose,

When from the bath outstepping, she displays

(Alone, naught fearing indiscretion’s gaze)

Her charms voluptuous to the morning chill,

While on the trees the birds are slumb’ring still.

Skirnir the gallant courier mounts his steed;

Fulla had fill’d his flask with Suttung’s mead;

While fair Iduna, mindful of the brave,

To guard his life and health, an apple gave.

Lo! thus prepared, he cleaves the liquid sky

Charged with a mission from Alfader high

[228]

For on that very night was Hermod flown

(Odin’s own courier) to a distant zone;

There to avenge by punishment sublime,

O Freya! thy perfidious consort’s crime.

Charged with his errand now must Skirnir ride

To Dovre’s caverns, where the dwarfs reside;

Those smiths ingenious, who with wondrous art

Can to all metals various forms impart:

By Odin’s order they were strict enjoin’d

To forge a fetter, Fenris wolf to bind,

Subtle and slight, but strong his force to quell,

And proved and charm’d with many a mystic spell.

For iron nought avail’d, nor copper chain

The dangerous monster’s fury to restrain;

For such, like singed threads, he burst in twain.

But as o’er Bifrost bridge he pass’d along,

Thus Skirnir mused: “Methinks, it were not wrong,

Before I leave the regions of the sky,

To ascertain, if my own master Frey

Hath not some mandate for his trusty swain;

For though to Odin, king of gods and men,

We all must bow, and own his sovereign might,

Yet our own master claims an equal right.”

Thus said, he spurr’d his courser toward the grove

Of birch-trees, where the Asa loved to rove.

There Frey, with chin reclining on his hand,

Was wont to sit, and muse, while o’er the land

[229]

The seed is sown, and with fond hopes elate,

The husbandmen th’ approach of autumn wait.

But when this time Skirnir his master found

With pallid hue, immers’d in grief profound,

He wonder’d much, and thus exclaim’d aloud:

“How now? my sovereign! thus with sorrow bow’d,

When all creation, deck’d in radiant vest,

Indulges brightest hopes, which thy behest

Alone can gratify; for in thy hand

The Fates have placed the fecundating wand,

Which spreads abundant harvests o’er the land.

But little would the sower’s pains avail,

Didst thou not send unseen through mead and vale

A swarm of Alfs, the labourer’s way to clear,

The thieving sparrows with their darts to scare,

And root out all the noxious insect race,

Which lie in ambush in each furrow’s trace.

But ’tis in autumn that we most admire

Thy power, O Asa, when with looks of fire

Thou gildest bright each waving field of corn:

For when the reaper’s scythe at dawn of morn

Blithesome resounds, thy greatest triumph then

Is hail’d with rapture by the sons of men.

’Tis far more cheering to their hearts to hear

The scythe’s shrill sound, than clang of shield and spear,

To do Thor homage in his proud career.”

“Ah! what avails my boasted power and pride,

If it can naught effect (thus Frey replied)

[230]

Than causing trees to shoot and corn to grow?

What boots my form divine and radiant brow,

If I be not beloved? my power how vain!”

“And art thou not beloved?” rejoin’d the swain:

“Doth not all nature at thy altar bend?

Doth not the mighty Odin call thee friend?

For thee each Disa feels an ardent flame,

And all the gods thy love fraternal claim.”

Now Frey began each circumstance to tell

That him on Hlidskialf’s lofty tower befel:

How in the mountain cavern he beheld

A form, which every other form excell’d,

An image of the fairest and the best,

That stamp’d itself for ever in his breast.

Then Skirnir: “Now doth my loved master prove,

I well perceive, the mighty power of love:

Whoe’er of love’s keen arrows feels the smart,

Freya with doubts and fears distracts his heart.

With hand upon his breast, in wayward fits,

Despairing of success, the lover sits:

Yet could he once his soul to action strain,

An easy triumph he, perhaps, might gain.

Why thus despair? Is Gerda thy beloved?

Cannot she, thinkst thou, by thy prayers be moved?

Is she not young, and handsome, soft and mild,

In the first spring of life a flow’ret wild?

Thinkst thou a goblin bridegroom doom’d to prove

The exquisite reward of Gerda’s love?

[231]

Shame were it for a ruler of the skies,

Should Horse-leg, the rough clown, bear off the prize;

Or should a damsel of such wondrous charms

Languish and pine in Goat-beard’s shaggy arms.”[77]

Then Frey: “Could I the maid’s consent obtain,

Yet fear I Odin, king of gods and men;

He would refuse his sanction.” “Why suppose

Said Skirnir, “Odin would thy views oppose?

To bind the marriage knot consent he gave

Whilom ’twixt Ægir, monarch of the wave,

And the perfidious harsh ill-favour’d Ran,

Who spreads her net to drown the race of man.

And did he not his sanction too accord

To bind fierce Skada with benignant Niord?

How then could his impartial spirit blame

A better suited match, a worthier flame

’Twixt thee and Gerda, loveliest mountain dame?

“Not always so austere and so sedate

Trust me, is Odin, as when high in state

He thrones amidst Valhalla’s champions grave:

He too hath sometimes been love’s humblest slave;

The lively Freya, with her cheeks of rose,

Hath oft disturbed that prudent god’s repose:

Then weary of the banquet, and the sight

Of arm’d Einherier in the mimick’d fight,

Disguised to earth he oft descends, and there

Clasps in his fond embrace some mortal fair.

[232]

“Hast thou forgot the time, when Odin, fired

With love for Princess Rinda’s charms, attired

As a laborious smith, once found his way

To Garderike, where her sire held sway?

First prudently he strove to gain the fair

By gifts of iron, gold, and silver rare:

But she rejected all; and with disdain

She smote the cheek of the presumptuous swain.

But nought rebuff’d, again he took the field,

Like chieftain arm’d with brazen helm and shield;

He urged his suit, and met with no success;

A second blow chastised his eagerness.

But since a blow from silken hand of dame

With no dishonour soils a warrior’s name,

Like oil it served to increase the Asa’s flame.

“Once more he to the charge return’d, array’d

This time in guise of lowly waiting-maid:

He sold his liberty, with fondest care

And earnest zeal to serve his mistress fair:

He wash’d her feet on each revolving night,

And in the humblest duties felt delight:

This moved her tender heart: and that relief,

Which to the hardy smith and plume-clad chief

She had refused, she voluntary gave

To the profound devotion of a slave.

“Still more of Odin’s various loves, in spite

Of Saga’s prudence, can I bring to light,

[233]

Although she graves them on her sable shield

In mystic runes, from vulgar ken conceal’d.

When first was ratified the bond of peace

Between the Asar and the Vaner race,

Loud through the mountains of the eastern chain

Was heard of love and bliss the jocund strain.

The Vaner damsels with long streaming hair,

Their forms voluptuous to the girdle bare,

Join’d in the mazy dance and rais’d the song

To crash of cymbals and the sound of gong.

The vine’s rich juice their cheeks had colour’d high

And gave fresh lustre to each flashing eye;

Such thrilling accents from their pouting lips.

Such melting tones were heard, as might eclipse

The strain of nightingale, when to the grove

He lures his mate with blandishments of love.

“Now to the deepest glen the nymphs withdrew;

The Asar close th’ alluring prey pursue.

Heimdal soon vanish’d; Vidar, too, the grave,

Most taciturn of all the Asar brave,

Who ne’er his prowess boasts; then Hermod flew

Into the copse, and, some say, Odin too.

Well, well! the transports of that blissful night

The genial bard engender’d, Qvaser [78] hight;

His mother was a damsel of sixteen,

Fair-hair’d, blue-eyed, of loveliest shape and mien;

She brought him forth amidst the myrtle grove,

And gave him to the gods, a pledge of love.

[234]

“He grew to manhood fast, was wise and strong,

And from his mother learn’d the art of song.

With various talents blest and generous mind,

He travell’d o’er the earth to serve mankind,

And much he joy’d to place within their reach

All that his wisdom or his skill could teach.

But malice slumbers not; at close of day

It lies in ambush to destroy its prey.

Qvaser oft wander’d o’er the mountain steep;

Two scowling dwarfs there kill’d him while asleep;

Into a golden vase they pour’d his blood,

From which, with honey mix’d, a drink they brew’d

This drink the Scalds’ bright science could inspire,

And fill man’s bosom with poetic fire.

The vengeance of Valhalla to prevent

And screen their guilt, the dwarfs a tale invent;

They spread abroad that Qvaser they had found

In the deep flood of his own wisdom drown’d.

But to conceal their crime they strove in vain;

And ample vengeance for his brother slain

On those malignant dwarfs brave Suttung took;

He seized them both and bound them to a rock;

That rock, by stormy billows lash’d, doth stand

In the mid ocean, distant far from land.

As a still further punishment, he left

The traitors life, of all its joys bereft:

There haunts them still the ghost of Qvaser slain,

And hunger gnaws them with eternal pain.”

Frey sigh’d, young Skirnir smiled, and still his tale

Continued sprightly: “Suttung did not fail

[235]

To seize the vase fill’d with the precious juice,

For well he knew its value and its use;

The vase he trusted to no dragon’s care,

But to his prudent daughter, Gunliod fair.

Then Odin first conceived the project bold

Of gaining mast’ry of that vase of gold:

He mounted on his courser, Sleipner hight,

And swift descending from Valhalla’s height,

Soon reach’d a field, where arm’d with scythes he view’d

Nine savage goblins of the Jotun brood,

Intent, by the broad streaming northern light,

To cut down all a peasant’s corn that night;

And Odin knew their master, Bauge, dwell’d

In a huge cave close bord’ring on the field.

No deference pay to justice or to right

The thievish giants; their sole law is might:

They rove the world around and laugh to scorn

The Asar’s golden rules; the peasant’s corn

They carry off, while he lies fast asleep,

And, what he sows, those ruthless robbers reap.

Night of their force and fraud conceals each trace,

For Night herself is of the giant race:

Her sire, the giant Narf; an Asa bright,

Delling, became her husband; then did Night

Give birth to honest Day: thus oft arise

Virtue and grace from ugliness and vice.

But Night when she o’er earth her ride extends,

Mounted on Hrimfax, whom she often lends

To Skada, acts in concert with the brood

Of giants, and conceals their deeds of blood.

[236]

But Moon, the graceful child with golden hair

About her temples, boasts a courage rare,

And far beyond her sex and age; ’tis she

Exposes oft the giants’ villany;

And when from a dark cloud with radiant head

Fair Moon emerges, to the rocks they speed

To hide themselves; but soon commence again,

And to their mountain lair bear off amain

The fruits and treasures of the luckless swain.

Then when the husbandman walks o’er the field

At dawn of day, and views his harvest fell’d

And all laid waste, he thinks the nightly frost

Hath caused the mischief and his labours cross’d.

Then he complains to Frey, but vain his prayer;”

Frey sigh’d, and gaz’d around with vacant stare.

Skirnir continued; still he hoped, forsooth,

With tales and jests his master’s mind to sooth.

“But not alone the giants mischief cause,

The cunning dwarfs too oft infringe the laws;

They, when the summer breeze embalms the air,

In shape of ants and cockchafers repair

To th’ field, and there devour the ears of corn,

Laughing the wretched peasant’s plaint to scorn.

When Odin now the thievish giants view’d,

Pity and indignation fired his blood;

He took out from his pouch a polished stone,[79]

Than which for sharp’ning scythes a better one

Could not be found; then call’d out loud and blythe:

’Which of ye needs a stone to wet his scythe?’

[237]

He threw it high in air, but as it fell,

The greedy giants had with rancour fell,

Disputing for the stone, each other slain,

And streams of blood incarnadined the plain.

“Then Odin towards the mountain hied him strait

And knock’d, with Bolverk’s name, at Bauge’s gate;

He there took service, and with nine men’s power

For the nine reapers household labours bore;

But this condition fix’d, Bauge a road

Should find him to fair Gunliod’s abode.

Now Bauge bored the rock, and Odin blew

Into the hole, but the dust backward flew

Into his eyes. The giant’s trick was plain;

The hole was not made straight; but when again

Bauge his borer used, the god applied

Quickly his mouth and blew. To th’ other side

Now flew the dust; the aperture was free;

And Odin, in a serpent’s form, with glee

Glides through the rock; the giant with his steel

Strikes after, but in vain he strives the snake to kill.

And Odin, when he reach’d the other side,

Resumed his proper form with conscious pride.

With snow-white arm beneath her cheek of rose,

There Gunliod slumb’ring lay in deep repose;

While the lamp spread a flick’ring ray around,

Odin beheld the vase with garlands crown’d.

Odin presents himself, not fiercely now

Like a wild man, but with majestic brow

[238]

He stands; then with a lover’s ardour kneels

Before the maid, and all his soul reveals.

His eloquence, his manly beauty gain’d

Her heart; three nights with Gunliod he remain’d.

And oft, while on his mistress’ form he gaz’d,

She to her lover’s lips the mystic vessel rais’d.

Right lustily he drank; then with his prize

Triumphant he regain’d his native skies.”

Now Skirnir ceas’d his story, and awhile

Gazed on his master with an artful smile;

Then Frey his silence broke: “So! thus doth love

An Asa! sensual joys alone their passion move!

The sweeter fruit of sentiment, I trow,

The race of Bor and Bure do not know.

O Skirnir! did the Fates to Frey accord

To dwell on Hlidskialf’s tower, like Valhall’s lord,

How fortunate! then every morn the sight

Of Gerda would my ravish’d soul delight.

This would repay me amply for my sighs

And for my nightly tears: alas! there lies

A barrier insurmountable between

My love and me: all I dare hope to glean

Is her dear image, which can ne’er depart;

Here, here, it lies, deep buried in my heart.

Of her bright charms the deep imprinted trace

Nor time nor circumstance can e’er efface.

What greater pleasure, Skirnir! can we prove,

Than to behold the darling maid we love?

[239]

Oh yes! there is a pleasure far more sweet;

When looks reciprocal our glances meet,

And earnest give of future sympathy:

Oh! ’tis the most enchanting melody,

When the sweet voice of the beloved fair

Whispers “I love thee” in her lover’s ear.

Yet e’en the tongue can ne’er its happiness,

With half the ardour, half the force express,

As doth an eye, whose silent eloquence

Reveals each thought, and beams with love intense.

“Now hie thee swift to the dark giant’s land,

And execute Valfader’s stern command!

Procure a fetter forged with mystic spell

Fenris the wolf to chain, that monster fell!

Not difficult the task will prove, methinks,

For the dwarf’s science from no labour shrinks.

But neither mystic spell nor magic chain

Can to Valhalla bind my heart again:

To Gerda solely it belongs; it flies

With wings impetuous through the azure skies

Over Ginnungagap, abyss profound,

And hovers with delight the mountain fair around.

But shouldst thou find the dear enchanting maid,

Tell her what thou hast seen, what Frey hath said!

Doubtless already me with scorn she views;

The giant’s hate the Asar still pursues.

As for the rest she is too wondrous fair,

Too graceful in her manners, shape and air,

[240]

Not to expect with sighs and homage meet

A host of lovers kneeling at her feet.

And if the swain, to whom she plights her vow,

Is less esteem’d by the whole world below,

Than is the god—should Gerda preference give

To him—what then avails my proud prerogative?

“Farewell! Now hie thee hence, my Skirnir brave!

To execute the order Odin gave.

But on thy master’s woes be silent still!

E’en could I hope to bend her father’s will,

Could he, though giant-like to softness steel’d,

From interested views be taught to yield,

What then? but little comfort this would prove;

The father’s power I court not, but the love

Of his fair daughter. O thou Gerda dear!

Couldst thou but view thy ardent lover here

Immersed in grief profound, thy generous heart

Some words of comfort would, perhaps, impart:

Would give asylum to affection’s sighs,

And learn a suitor thus sincere to prize.

Thus doth the mountain’s summit wrapt in snow

Melt by degrees before the summer’s glow,

And to a plant gives birth, which scents the gale,

More fragrant than the lily of the vale.”

Thus spoke the god, and sat him down beside

The brook to weep; the waters onward glide,

And, as they flow, receive the lover’s tears,

While mirror-like the stream his beauteous image bears.

[241]

But Skirnir, who in missions from the god

So oft had visited the dwarfs’ abode,

Had learnt their various arts; and now while Frey

Sat gazing on the stream with mournful eye,

Skirnir, I say, with sudden impulse took

A handful of the water from the brook,

Which the reflection of Frey’s image gave;

Into his horn he quickly pour’d the wave,

And stopp’d it with a cork; then to his side

Made fast the horn, and gallop’d off with pride.

This artifice by Frey was noticed not;

Gerda alone absorb’d his ev’ry thought.

CANTO XXII.
FREY’S PLAINT AT THE FOUNTAIN.

CANTO XXIII.
THE JOURNEY OF SKIRNIR.

CANTO XXIV.
GERDA’S LOVE.

CANTO XXV.
SKIRNIR FULFILS HIS ERRAND.

CANTO XXVI.
THE WOLF FENRIS AND TYR.

CANTO XXVII.
THE BANQUET OF ÆGIR.

Hlesey’s an island of renown;

But now ’tis small, for time and tide,

Batt’ring its base on every side,

Into the sea have plough’d it down;

But great in times of old its worth;

Then Hlesey could the rage abate

Of the fierce Dragon of the north,

Yclept by nations Kattegat.

There, built of finest muscle-shell,

Amidst vast beds of sea-weed bright,

The vaulted hall appears in sight,

Where Ægir ever lov’d to dwell.

While raging Ran o’er ocean flew,

By his pearl-jug was Ægir seen;

And now he drank, and now he blew

For pastime in his conque marine.

[290]

Cruel was Ran; frightful her frown;

Like the fell goddess Hela, she

Delighting to destroy, with glee

Spreads out her nets mankind to drown:

But, like th’ unruffled sea, the smile

Of Ægir all creation charms;

And oft doth he the hours beguile,

Soft dallying in a mermaid’s arms.

While Ran afar is storming, he

Basks in the sun at home; his soul

It joys with diamond-pointed pole

To trace runes on the placid sea.

The surf each time reveal’d his joy,

When he behind the rushes prest

(Far from his scolding wife’s annoy)

A billow to his ardent breast.

On Frey and Gerda oft he smiled:

Much did his heart the vision charm

Of the fair couple arm in arm

Indulging in love’s transports wild.

For much the Gods did Ægir prize,

And by the Gods was lov’d full well.

Heaven thus to bathe in Ocean joys,

Who loves its genial ray to feel.

[291]

And now he bade them to his feast:

When Rana wander’d far from home,

To banquet in his friendly dome

His friends with eagerness he prest.

In vats of flint and ice profound

His ale and beer the monarch stow’d;

Fish, lobsters, crabs in store were found,

And cook’d in many a diff’rent mode.

No help he needs to deck his board,

For every time he guests invites,

The active Finnafeng delights

To serve as cook his much-lov’d lord.

But little fuel he requires;

The rivers for their monarch toil:

And, warm’d by subterranean fires,

Lo! of itself each spring doth boil.

Where Malstrom whirls with frightful sound

Into its gulf the eddying wave,

That gulf, from which ’tis vain to save,

Whiten’d with foam for leagues around:

There Eldir’s club to atoms breaks

Whatever falls to Ocean’s share;

There Ægir’s mill for ever clacks;

He grinds his wheat and barley there.

[292]

To Gerda’s father Asa-Frey

As present gave, we know full well,

The best among the blades of steel,

With which no other arm could vie:

He granted, not to die forlorn

Of love himself, the giant’s prayer;

Gave him his sword, and in return

Receiv’d a nymph of beauty rare.

Much Gerda lov’d her consort Frey;

Apart they never more could dwell:

His portrait Frey did far excel;

He won the greatest victory:

And Gerda then, her love to mark,

Enraptur’d with his graceful mien,

Gave to her friend a wondrous bark,[92]

The like of which was never seen.

Well might the Scald in times of yore

Of Hringhorn,[93] Balder’s vessel, say,

It flew unscathed o’er marsh and sea,

Nor quicksand fear’d, nor rocky shore.

There safely could the Disar fair

Sit by the gods in pomp array’d;

But not the battle’s shock to bear

Was pious Balder’s vessel made.

[293]

In time of peace this bark behold

Glide swiftly from its haven gay,

And towards the mart pursue its way

With a rich cargo in its hold!

Of horn is built its lofty prow

With sable shining crooked rings;

And when it flies, each swelling bow

Aside in foam the billow flings.

There is another bark of fame,

’Tis by the giants own’d, we know;

’Tis built of dead-men’s nails, and so

Of Naglefar it boasts the name.[94]

In the morass this vessel lies,

As yet a huge unfinish’d hulk;

Year after year its builder tries

Unwearied to increase its bulk.

All those who from the dead neglect

To cut the nails off foot and hand,

Bring ill-luck to the Asar band,

And mischief cause to rule uncheck’d.

From this the giants an immense

Advantage o’er the gods derive:

By idlesse and improvidence

Thus mischief never fails to thrive.

[294]

But for the bark, which Gerda kind

As present to the Asar gave,

It can the wildest storm enslave,

And stiffly sail against the wind:

In armour all the gods can stand

Upon its deck with sword and helm,

And sail from bright Valhalla’s land

To plough the waves in Ægir’s realm.

And when the gods to brave the gale

No longer chuse for pleasure’s sake,

Then Gerda can this vessel take

And fold it up like silken veil.

Then lies it, free from tempest’s shocks,

In Gerda’s bosom (blissful coast!)

And gently ’tween two surges rocks,

Such as the Ocean cannot boast.

The Asar’s voyage to Ægir’s isle

Think now how glorious ’twas to view!

The morning sun rejoicing too

Deign’d warmly on their course to smile.

See silent Vidar by the mast!

And Odin by the rudder stand!

And see, like flowers in vase incased,

In all their charms th’ Asynior bland!

[295]

How gently sail’d the bark along,

As on a river; ne’er it lurch’d

Nor plunged: upon the boom was perch’d

Heimdaller; Bragur tuned his song;

Niord waves the standard high in air;

Like subtlest dust ascends the spray:

An awning, framed by Frigga’s care

Of oak leaves, veil’d the solar ray.

Their temples wreaths of flowers adorn;

Nor did there lack amusement good,

For by the gangway naked stood

Young Tyr, as when he first was born:

In his left hand he grasp’d his sword;

A shark enormous hove in sight!

The hero brave jump’d overboard,

With the fell shark to prove his might.

Now must each Disa shake with fear;

The monster bravely fought, in truth;

It open’d wide its frightful mouth,

And snapp’d with fury after Tyr.

But soon doth cease the Disar’s pain,

And gaily now they laugh aloud;

The hero sprung on board again;

Down sank the dying shark in blood.

[296]

Ye all do know, the spiteful Ran

Delights with monsters fierce to live:

She to that shark did mandate give

To execute her envious plan:

By her ’twas sent to plague with fear

The guests who sped to Ægir’s hall;

But when the shark was slain by Tyr,

She then dispatch’d a monstrous whale.

Foaming it roll’d impetuous by,

So vast, it seem’d an isle broke loose!

It snorted loud, while from its nose

A wat’ry column spouted high.

But Heimdal lo! for sport in haste

Athwart the wat’ry column flew;

Then brilliant shone, as through he past,

A band of seven-colour’d hue!

Now Vidar standing at the poop

Fix’d with his fearful eye the whale:

At once its powers of mischief fail;

To Vidar’s eye all creatures stoop.

Aloud read Odin many a rune;

The whale must to the bottom go;

For Vidar’s look, like a harpoon,

Had pierced the monster through and through.

[297]

’Twas eve: the land begins to loom;

Now Hlesey full in sight appears:

And much it joys Valhalla’s peers

To greet Hler Ægir’s friendly dome.

Like clouds which shooting through the sky

Rush eager towards the wave’s embrace,

Thus lightly did Skidbladner fly,

Its name well suits its worth to trace.

The anchor’s tooth now bit the ground:

The sun its parting radiance shed.

A troop of Mermaids towards them sped,

And sportive swam the bark around:

There three by three those nymphs were seen,

Their arms around each other’s neck,

With flowing hair as rushes green,

And limbs like snow without a speck.

Each with a silver-tissued veil,

And brows with garlands white attired,

Sporting and dancing, never tired,

With songs of joy their guests they hail.

And now the Alfer they invite

To join their train with accents bland:

The bark the thoughtless Alfer quit,

And with their partners haste to land.[95]

[298]

They sat by pairs upon the rock:

Each Alf a gallant warrior proved;

The Mermaids like true females loved,

Unshrinking from the amorous shock:

There was no lack of pinching, flouncing,

Of kisses, and embraces warm:

The sound was that of sea-birds pouncing

Amidst a silv’ry herring-swarm.

Hler Ægir sits upon his throne,

With sceptre emblem of his might:

His silver helmet, gleaming bright

With crest in form of Dragon shone.

Yet from this helm so fair to view

Oft came a soul-appalling sound;

’Twas like the tempest howling through

The hollow of a rock profound.

I’ th’ middle of the festive hall,

For night had now obscured the earth,

A lump of gold placed on the hearth

Gave ample light and warmth to all.

The monarch here his friends regales

With what his realm produces best;

And every guest exulting hails

The generous founder of the feast.

[299]

But while the gods enjoy’d their feast,

As far as Finnmark’s farthest dale,

Midst fogs, and snow, and sleet, and hail

Flew Asa-Lok like one possest.

Wildly his cheek of corpse-like hue

Contrasted with each ebon lock

Wide streaming through the ether blue,

Like vapours dark at Ragnarok.

Vexation great the caitiff feels,

That Fenris wolf in chains should pine:

But forming quick a bold design,

Bats’ wings he fastened to his heels:

Then to his shoulders wings of owl

With art ingenious making fast,

He seem’d a huge ill-omen’d fowl,

As o’er the rocks and plains he past.

“So! I have not invited been,

Among the rest, to Ægir’s isle:

And, though a god, am held too vile

To figure in that brilliant scene;

But Thor is absent, so ’tis said;

He wanders warring in the east:

Now I’ll mix gravel in their bread,

And spoil the glories of their feast.

[300]

“Since I cannot their pleasures share,

Others’ enjoyment I’ll prevent:

While Lok ’s a prey to discontent,

No guest the smiles of joy shall wear.

Ha! they shall soon be made to feel,

No rose is pluck’d without a thorn;

And drops of wormwood I’ll distil

Into each Asa’s drinking-horn.

“Great powers I have not; yet in need

The weakest worm hath force to wound:

My tongue the Disar shall confound,

And floods of tears I’ll make them shed.

Since they’re averse to Asa-Lok,

To make them fear him be my aim:

My gibes obscene their ears shall shock;

My calumnies destroy their fame.

“Who on the power of truth relies

’Gainst slander, will repent full soon;

Since there is but one truth alone

Against a hundred thousand lies.

How easy is it to deceive

Mankind, if we but have the will!

The mass all, that they hear, believe,

And Lok in fraud is master still.”

[301]

Such was the restless caitiff’s song,

As sharp he grazed the mountain’s side:

On his best weapon he relied,

His merciless, unwearied tongue.

But, passing by some dwarfs, he paused,

And in his service press’d them all;

Chusing sharp adder’s stings, he caused

His tongue to be belay’d withal.

With garland strange he deck’d his head,

His hair he twisted into horns;

Thereto he added sharpest thorns,

With dark-blue hemlock flowers bespread.

To Hlesey now his course he bent,

And there bold Finnafeng he slew,

Who strove his entrance to prevent

Among the jovial Ægir’s crew.

Sprinkled with Finnafenger’s blood,

He sat him down by Ægir’s gate,

Preparing for the stern debate

With shameless front and accent rude.

Spite of his visage blood-besmear’d,

He rose and enter’d the saloon;

Around him insolent he stared,

And thus he spoke in jeering tone.

[302]

“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! without a blush

Invade the Asar’s brilliant sphere?

Thou ne’er shalt be invited here!

Thou screeching owl behind the bush!

Avaunt! thou kill-joy! quick retreat,

Nor here thy odious form intrude!

My lance, I swear, when next we meet,

Shall pierce thy heart, and drink thy blood.

[303]

LOK.

More kind and decent was thy tone,

When, dress’d as lowly waiting-maid,

Thou turn’dst the silly Rinda’s head,

Heiress of Garderike’s throne:

Clothed in the garment of a slave,

Was conduct that for Odin fit?

Ha! though thou art more wise than brave,

Thy prudence far exceeds thy wit.

BRAGUR.

How darest thou thus presume to vent

On Valhall’s king thy envious spite,

With hair like hedgehog’s quills upright,

And sland’rous tongue on mischief bent?

Valhalla’s rays thy eye-balls sear;

Down then! to realms of darkness hie!

And since the sun thou canst not bear,

For ever from its splendour fly!

LOK.

’Tis not thy menace makes me shrink;

Thy sword rests ever in the sheath;

Useless! except to waste thy breath

In empty boasts, to doze and drink!

Cautious of shedding blood art thou,

To bite less proper than to bay:

When call’d upon to wield the bow,

The valiant Bragur slinks away.

[304]

IDUNA.

How dares thy spiteful tongue assail

The god, whose lyre enchants the earth,

Whose lofty song throughout the north

Cheers, like the moon, life’s gloomy vale?

Who raises merit to the skies,

Who points the genuine road to fame;

From evil causes good to rise,

And stamps the Nidding’s act with shame.

LOK.

Why prudish now ’gainst vice protest?

Slow wert thou ’gainst the mountain fiend

Thy precious virtue to defend,

When he thy juicy apples prest:

Fear taught thee to be soft and tame,

Thiasse could tell us how and when;[96]

Of Bragur’s honour, dainty dame!

Thou wert not quite so mindful then.

GEFION.

A dame, more pure and innocent

Than Ydun, nowhere can be found:

’Tis time thy sland’rous tongue were bound,

Yet ’tis to me indifferent.

Foul sower of all calumny!

What wretched harvests must thou reap!

Pursue thy trade! add lie to lie!

I hold thy utmost malice cheap.

[305]

LOK.

To men thou’rt scornful, cold, and glum,

But that is while the day shines bright:

’Tis well no power of speech hath night,

And that each forest tree is dumb.

Whene’er behind the bush, proud maid!

Thy limbs thou bathest in the flood;

Thou dost not then disdain, ’tis said,

To cool the water-demon’s blood.

ODIN.

This is too much. I’d have thee know,

The moon’s bright disk thou canst not stain;

That lily fair ’tis labour vain

To soil; ’tis casting coals on snow.

Fly, caitiff, to thy rocks remote!

Cease to disturb the social hour!

Bark, an it give thee joy, without,

Like mastiff chain’d at Ægir’s door!

LOK.

Hold thy tongue, Odin! blind, in troth,

Are thy awards i’ th’ tented field.

The bold must oft to witchcraft yield,

When Odin boils the magic broth.

’Tis thy delight the brave to lower,

And crown with palms the base and mean;

Oft dost thou borrow Mimer’s power,

But seldom his discernment keen.

[306]

FRIGGA.

Ha, Lok! dost thou presume to call

The chief, whom all the gods revere,

Alfader’s self, unjust, severe,

And partial, in this sacred hall?

He will not now disturb the peace

Of Ægir’s hospitable board,

But grief he’ll force thee to express

To-morrow for each sland’rous word.

LOK.

Hold thy tongue, Frigga! Asgard’s queen!

From scratching, pain oft follows strait;

Like the queen bee, with many a mate,

But with no king is Frigga seen.

Not sparing of thy charms art thou,

By zephyrs pleas’d to be carest;

In Spring thy looks too plainly show

The longing that pervades thy breast.

FREYA.

O Lok! since wrath hath no effect

The venom of thy tongue to tame,

Let females some exception claim:

Treat them at least with some respect.

Behold, the tears of Freya flow!

Would they could melt thy stubborn hate!

Ah me! what pleasure feelest thou

The gods’ fair fame to lacerate?

[307]

LOK.

What causes Freya’s grief? I pray:

Is it from longing I behold

Her cheek bedew’d with tears of gold?

What dost thou long for? Freya, say!

Thy husband fair has fled, ’tis true,

But ’tis not, sure, a hopeless case;

Thou canst find lovers not a few,

Eager and fit to take his place.

But why did Odur break his chain?

Ha, Freya! did he find thy kiss

Too warm, too prodigal of bliss?

Or was it that he felt disdain

For charms which had so oft been bared

And closely scann’d in Valaskialf,

And felt no zest in favours shared

With every Ase and every Alf?

FREY.

Be silent with thy hissing, snake!

With fire-red eye, where malice glows,

Why thus delight to prick the rose,

When thistles grow on every brake?

Why thus calumniate the good?

Why cause a gracious female pain?

Go! hie thee hence to Angurbod,

With locks as coarse as horse’s mane!

[308]

LOK.

With cynic lust thine eye still shines;

Tis thou hast Valaskialf betray’d,

O Frey! since with thy sword hath fled

All vigour from thy jaded loins.

Fair Gerda with her luscious kiss

Sucks out, like leech, thy warmest blood;

Each time thou tastest Freya’s bliss,

Much joy it gives to Angurbod.

HEIMDAL.

With the dark wizard ’neath yon rock,

Upon my life, thou must have drank,

And here thou com’st, with liquor rank,

Our ears with ribald taunts to shock.

Thy sparks of wit proceed, I trow,

But from the fumes of mead and ale;

Its emptiness we all do know:

Thy sarcasms here must ever fail.

LOK.

Ha! Lok must now succumb, ’tis plain,

Since pompous Heimdal threatens too;

Think’st thou I fear thy famous bow,

Made of mere vapour, sleet, and rain?

And what is Heimdal’s self, I ask,

When of his gaudy colours shorn?

What is he then behind his mask?

A simple watchman with his horn!

[309]

BALDER.

Behind thy ribaldry so coarse,

I can discern a vein of wit,

And genius too for all things fit,

Did virtue lend her sterling force.

Like Will o’ Wisp with spurious light,

Thou friskest the deep marsh about;

While others thou wouldst fain benight,

Thy own fantastic flame goes out.

LOK.

The lamb doth scarce compassion meet;

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;

Athwart the vapours thick and close,

While Loptur’s blood with terror froze,

Glitter’d afar a lurid flame!

Of thunder now tremendous peals

Shake earth and make the billows roar,

And every one instinctive feels

With awe th’ approach of Asa-Thor!

Lok sigh’d and sweated now with fear,

Yet still his terror he conceal’d;

At length the lightning’s glare reveal’d

The white-hair’d goats and golden car.

But when Thor full in view appear’d,

Lok’s colour fled, his spirits fail’d;

At sight of the majestic beard

Of ebon hue, the traitor quail’d.

THOR.

Be silent, thou of sland’rers worst,

Who striv’st the Asar’s fame to soil!

Ne’er doth thy Nidding’s brain recoil

From hatching some vile scheme accurst.

But come, I’ll put an end full soon

To all thy schemes of treach’ry fell;

To Utgard’s shades I’ll cast thee down,

And bind thee fast with chains of Hel.

[311]

LOK.

I tremble not; I turn not pale;

Thou hast not got thy Miölner now;

Thy genuine hammer lies, we know,

Buried beneath the serpent’s scale.

Aye! spite of all thy godlike vigour,

Oft didst thou, Thor, my pity move;

I laugh’d to see the silly figure

Thou mad’st in Skrymur’s sweaty glove.[97]

THOR.

Be silent, thou pestiferous cloud,

That striv’st to damp celestial fire!

Thou’lt find, no hammer I require

To punish thee and all thy brood.

Behold that pine on yon high rock!

Thereon I’ll hang thy odious form;

All creatures shall thy suff’rings mock,

Traitor! when dangling in the storm.

LOK.

Methinks it is no longer fit

That Lok should throw away his jests;

My songs were meant for jovial guests,

For those who value mirth and wit.

The other gods with temper hear

My gibes, and like my humour well;

But Thor a joke could never bear:

’Tis time I bid ye all farewell.

[312]

Thus said, he plunges in the sea;

Swift as an eel he scuds along:

But after him, by anger stung,

Thor hurl’d a lightning’s forked ray.

But Lok intent his limbs to save,

Deep under water bow’d his head;

Innocuous ’midst the boiling wave

The thund’rer’s flaming arrow sped.

Thus as, when vanish clouds and rain,

The air breathes more serene and mild,

Each lovely Disa gracious smil’d;

Joy colour’d high their cheeks again.

Freed from the wretch, their torment dire,

They pass the night in dance and song;

And strains from Ægir’s golden lyre

Re-echo loud the rocks among.

CANTO XXVIII.
LOK’S TREACHERY.

In serpent’s form Lok fled away into the ocean blue;

All the fell monsters of the deep now met him full in view.

In order to avoid them, how dexterously he toils!

Now in a line deploys him, now rolls himself in coils!

The peasant standing on a cliff followed with curious eye

The course of Lok, as like the wind he swiftly glided by:

Fearing pursuers, up he swam as far as Lindernæs,

On Norway’s coast; and hid him there ’midst sea-weed, sand, and grass.

At length his shape resuming, upon a reef of rock

He seats himself, like goatherd who watches o’er his flock.

“What have I done? 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.

Heavily slumbering like bears in gelid caverns drear,

What doth avail heroic strength, if th’ hero be a bear?

Shall I ne’er listen to again the sound of Bragur’s harp?

At times on the good bard, I own, I used my wit too sharp.

In Fensal shall my eyes no more the fair Asynior woo?

My impudence no longer tinge with red their skin of snow?

No longer now shall Odin sage be overreach’d by me?

’Twas my chief sport to disconcert his stiff formality.

Shall my sarcasms no longer put to blush Asa-Thor?

Thor is indeed a hero, and had he half the store

Of wit, that falls to Loptur’s share, to all Valhalla’s power

He could defiance bid, and force each god his crest to lower.

He suits me well; with patience my raillery he bears;

With him I love to travel; and when his car he steers

Athwart the spacious regions of heav’n with pond’rous wheels,

And thunders shake Heimkringlas with soul-appalling peals,

I share Hlorrida’s glory: each time earth trembling shook,

I thought myself his equal, and frown’d with swagg’ring look.

Each Disa smiled enchanting, when courteous I address’d her;

With blushes Fulla trembled, when in my arms I press’d her.

She is in love with Lok, I know, poor little innocent thing!

And many other Disar in my net I hoped to bring.

My impudence doth in their cheek the blush of shame recall,

But soon, becoming used to it, they’ll cease to blush at all.

Sweet to my taste Sâhrimner was, and sweeter still the mead;

And when the proud Einherier pranced about the flow’ry mead

With shield and lance, I was content: all things to hear and see,

And mock at all the gods by turns, was charming sport to me.

[315]

I was the clev’rest of them all, and with the gods I play’d,

Just as a cat does with a mouse, which he has just waylaid.

First doth he his poor captive with feign’d caresses quail;

His eyes with malice sparkle; he frisks about his tail:

At length when weary of the sport his food Grimalkin needs,

His teeth inflict the mortal crunch, and then poor mousie bleeds!

But now Puss on the house-roof sits, nor deems himself secure

E’en there; he licks his beard and paws; his master from the door

Hath chased him in his anger, because i’ th’ cupboard he

With his dame’s hams and bacon had chosen to make free.

But if their loss I feel, will not they feel my loss much more?

Odin, I’m sure, when no one laughs, will feel vexation sore.

Long days of constant seriousness the Asar soon will rue;

They’ll find that to the zest of life mirth must contribute too.

Heavy and dull are they become already; there they sit,

And yawn, and in their mead-horn gaze, when they have emptied it.

Let but the Disar once the bread without the leaven taste,

Insipid will it prove, I trow, without friend Loptur’s yeast:

Without the poignancy of change pleasure itself must pall,

And light, unchequer’d e’er by shade, be insupportable.

No diff’rence of opinion now excites ye; true, ye breathe,

But spiritless and dull your life; ’tis the repose of death.”

In such reflections Loptur from sorrow sought relief,

And often gazed he wistful upon Yggdrassil’s leaf.

“Could I,” thought he, “of Asa-Thor the pardon once obtain,

The favour of the other gods ’twere easy to regain.”

Thus Lok amidst the grove of pines pensive and restless stray’d;

His silence deep at length he broke: “I have it now,” he said;

[316]

For Thor his hammer I’ll procure; I think, upon my life,

To get his hammer back again he’d give away his wife.”

Now over hill and dale he flew, quite joyous at the thought,

And passing through the hard-wood grove, soon reach’d the mountain grot:

There at the entrance of a cave sat Thrymur, giant-king,

Around a bunch of arrows sharp twining a golden string:

Red ribbands in his courser’s mane then did he interlace,

While the full moon pour’d streams of light adown his dusky face.

Into the field the giant look’d, and seeing Lok, cried out:

“Ha! welcome here! thou smallest toe in mighty Odin’s foot!

To visit us poor folks below doth Loptur condescend?

What pleasure can an Asa find in our dark goblin-land?

Have the gods turn’d thee out of doors? hast thou been indiscreet?

Shame were it such a chief of worth so scornfully to treat;

To start them game the gods, perhaps, thee falcon-like have sent:

Speak out then, thou accomplish’d rogue! say! what is thy intent?”

Now sitting down by Thrymur’s side with mien composed he said:

“With insults deep and injury the gods have Lok repaid;

Did I not hope one day your cause to aid, ye giants good!

I ne’er would set my foot again in Valhall’s curst abode.

You do require a spy, methinks, to find out and detect

All that the fraudful Asar brood against your realm project:

Some clever and ingenious wight; and where on earth’s vast round

More proper for this task than Lok can any one be found?

Besides, unknown to ye no doubt, I’ve often proved your friend,

And to some gratitude from ye I may with right pretend:

But howsoe’er with pitying eye my sufferings ye regard,

In my own conscience, in my heart I find my best reward.”

[317]

Then Thrymur answer’d, laughing loud: “What means this canting speech?”

With pious look and honied words thinkst thou to overreach

Us giant champions, as ye catch the larks with berries red

Behind a net of horse-hair fix’d, and ’bout the meadow spread?

Tears canst thou shed, like Dragon foul, when, eager for his food,

He seeketh travelers to entrap within the marshy flood;

But out with it! thy errand quick, O turncoat vile, relate!

Be frank for once, or in thy face, by Hel, I’ll shut my gate.”

“Ah! thou hast reason to be proud and haughty,” answer’d Lok:

“Now may’st thou with contempt on Thor, and all Valhalla look:

Hast thou not found his hammer ’twixt the scales of Jormundgard?

A glorious booty ’tis, forsooth: ’twill all your pains reward:

For though that hammer’s use thyself thou dost not understand,

Immense advantage ’twill afford; thou may’st with right demand,

In ransom for that weapon, all the wealth thou canst conceive;

Whate’er thou chusest to exact, the god will freely give.”

“What ransom?” cried the giant harsh and rough: “doth Thor possess

Gold, silver, copper, as I do within my deep recess?

Such gifts small value have for me; for riches naught I care;

But much of Freya have I heard, and of her beauty rare:

They say, she doth in form and grace all other dames eclipse;

Ivory her limbs, of gold her hair, of coral are her lips:

Her voice sweet music; plump well-rounded arms; a laughing mien;

A mouth that is for kissing made, and loves it too, I ween.

I burn with ardour to embrace a nymph of colour white;

No more the dames of swarthy hue my passion can excite.

[318]

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.”

Thus spake the giant-king: a dwarf, as page, came to the gate,

And oped it; in his master went; the dwarf then closed it strait.

Lok stood without at th’ midnight hour abandon’d and forlorn,

To Asar and to giants both the object of their scorn.

He laugh’d out loudly in the dark: so fearful was the sound,

The owls perch’d on the forest trees fell down upon the ground.

To learn the cause, the scolding Ran rose from the depths of ocean,

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.

[319]

Would I could make them perish all together! ha! what bliss,

Could I the vast Heimkringlas sink i’ th’ bottomless abyss!

Ye’ve exiled me from Valaskialf; asylum ye refuse;

But means of vengeance still I hold, and such I mean to use.

Like tree rubbing ’gainst tree in fell collision shall ye come,

Until a flame arise, and all your hated brood consume:

Then shall ye when too late, I trow, do honour to my skill:”

Thus did the traitor Lok the air with groans and curses fill.

“With force unmanageable works the purblind mountain race;

The Asar boast their virtue pure, combined with strength and grace:

If to an act of treachery I once could Thor incline,

Then cunning overreaches strength; the triumph then were mine;

Thor a mere giant then becomes: when at the midnight hour

Odin of witches dire invokes the soul-appalling power,

Yggdrassil trembles; then grows dry the fount in Urda’s vale:

Then shines the frightful Jormungard with doubly brilliant scale:

Hel’s colour from a livid blue changes from joy to white,

And Heimdal’s horn excites the world to sempiternal fight.”

But since his last expulsion Lok to mount to Valhall’s dome

Without safe conduct ventured not, and houseless still must roam:

Towards evening he reach’d the grove of beech on Sealand’s isle,

As homeward with his plough return’d the peasant from his toil.

There is a spot within that grove, whence fountains with delight

Spring from benignant Hertha’s breast, and through the sand stream bright:

’Twas on the spot where Leire stood, and afterwards king Hro [98]

With many a stone and plank and joist constructed Kongebo.[99]

At morning and at evening’s blush there loved the Alfs to rove,

And scatter Freya’s tears like dew throughout the beechen grove:

[320]

And when she prick’d her finger with her needle, up they took

The drops of blood, and pour’d them on the green plants by the brook:

Lo! by the next revolving sun those plants with flowers were crown’d,

Which spread delightful odours through the grove for miles around.

They took the yellow sparrows grey, who o’er earth’s surface rove,

And kiss’d their beaks and taught them how to pour forth notes of love.

Nightingales they became at once, whose tones so sweetly sound,

And fill each youthful heart with dreams of tenderness profound.

Now ev’ry morning they anoint the locks of Freya fair

With precious unguent, which embalms with fragrancy the air.

Once from the Disa in a shell they stole some drops of oil,

And pour’d them on a weed; a Julian flower repaid their toil:

But far too strong that odour proved; its strength prevails e’en now.

Some drops were left; with water mix’d upon the turf they throw

Those drops, and lo! upon green stems blue violets fragrant grow!

Thus in that grove the little Alfs amuse themselves secure;

They teach the peasant’s cock to crow loud at his master’s door,

To rouse him from his slumber, and make him hie with speed

To earn with plough and harrow for wife and children bread.

At night they show the lover, who through the forest roves,

The way that he should wander, to find the maid he loves:

And when he meets her, when her hand he presses tenderly,

The Alfs their hands together bind with links of flowers, which she,

Now kind become, ne’er seeks to loose.

But while the blithesome crew

Of Alfs were dancing on the grass yet glitt’ring bright with dew,

Lo! from an ash-tree’s hollow trunk Lok started forth to view!

The Erl-king in the full-moon’s glare he much resembled now,

With crown of blackberry, thick beard, and tail like that of cow.

[321]

At first the Alfs were terrified; away they fain would fly;

They fear’d it was their enemies the black Alfs hov’ring nigh:

But when they Loptur recognized, they hail’d him with a shout

Of laughter, and delighted frisk’d their new-come guest about:

He pleased them; in their frolics oft he took an active part;

He was an Asa, well they knew, but knew not his bad heart.

“How now? friend Lok! what dost thou here i th’ forest? art thou sprung

From th’ branches of the tree, to dance our mirthful choir among?”

“Yes! my dear little creatures! Lok, ye know, doth love ye all;

Eager to teach ye novel sports, he comes to join your ball.”

He join’d the dance; a circle now the Alfs around him trace,

But Lok’s tail made a rustling noise, like serpent in the grass:

Sudden the fountain ceased to flow; the once transparent brook

Troubled and dark became, while toads in stagnant marshes croak;

A swarm of crickets hover round a corpse with deaf’ning cry:

But how could innocent white Alfs suspect Lok’s treachery?

Thus on the grass in Autumn late two lovers often sit;

They gaze upon each other’s face with rapture and delight;

They feel not that the fev’rish air announces: “One shall die!”

Grasping their flow’ry garland in their hands, their ecstacy

Makes them incautious; they inhale the pestilential breath

Of the foul Lok, who lurks behind the bushes on the heath.

The placid moon, which cheer’d so oft their love with radiance meek,

But which had not the power to cool the deep blush on their cheek,

A few weeks later on the bier a lifeless corpse doth view

Crown’d with white flowers: from Lok’s black art such bitter fruits ensue!

[322]

“Ye friendly little Alfs!” said Lok in soft cajoling strain,

“D’ye wish to know the reason why I join your sportive train?

Ye’re call’d Valhalla’s children; the Asar hold ye dear;

Poor Lok needs your assistance, and therefore comes he here.

I have been sadly indiscreet; too free hath been my tongue;

But Ægir’s banquet is to blame; his liquor was too strong,

My head too weak: I’ve mock’d the gods; my crime I frankly own:

But if great Odin will once more admit me near his throne,

If Thor for what I’ve said or sung will grant his pardon too,

I promise in return (my word is truth itself, ye know)

To fetch him Miölner back again, which deep in earth now lies;

So that again he may strike home, and win each glorious prize,

Nor fear that a short hammer-shaft his strength might neutralize.”

The friendly Alfer promised all for Lok to intercede:

Like doves so white to Valhall’s dome they flew his cause to plead:

With folded hands in lengthen’d file entering, they knelt before

The Asar, for the culprit Lok forgiveness to implore.

All hearts were moved; first Freya smiled; then Frey: ah! who can say

“No,” to a prayer for mercy, when such lovely children pray?

Now they led forth the criminal, who soft behind them crept,

He flatter’d, play’d the hypocrite, fell on his knees, and wept;

He tried to kiss Thor’s garment: at this demeanour base

The hero blush’d with anger, and struck him on the face.

“Avaunt! thou miserable wretch!” said Thor, with fearful cry;

“Thy abjectness more wrath excites, than did thy treachery.”

“Dear shalt thou pay for this,” thought Lok, “thy pride one day be cool’d;

The bowstring’s pulled so frequently, it snaps at length: but hold.

[323]

I must refrain from menace, be meek and humble here,

And all my schemes of vengeance till fitter time defer.”

So now in haste up springing, he loudly shouted! “Peace;

Good tidings now I bring ye: all strife and hate shall cease:

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.

Her skin the lily’s hue presents, her cheek the peach’s bloom,

Her lips are red as blood, I’m told; the rest all white as foam:

With brightest gold in colour her silken tresses vie,

And three times can she wind them around her forehead high.

They say she’s in affliction, her husband she has lost;

Good sense this doth not argue to be so deeply crost:

But it denotes fidelity; and that, one may surmise,

Supposes that she too upon fidelity relies:

For ah! where would the guerdon be of virtue, if one doubted

Incessantly? for Freya too, whose beauty is undoubted.

The thistle no attention meets, e’en from the butterfly;

But the rose ne’er can rest in peace for th’ homage of the bee.”

“Thy sermon on fidelity, I pray thee, spare us now!”

Said Freya, laughing: “emblem of fidelity, we know,

Is Loptur’s heart: but quickly Thrymur’s demand prefer,

And thy remarks on virtue another time we’ll hear.”

[324]

“They are not mine, fair lady!” quoth Lok: “I only come,

As messenger from Thrymur, to Valhall’s azure dome.

Freya the Disa fair he loves with manhood’s fervent fire;

His love for her all Jotunheim with softness doth inspire.

His father, Lok of Utgard stern, so wrapp’d up in his son,

Hath for the ardent lover’s vows a tender pity shown.

Brother-in-law of Odin thus should Utgard-Lok become,

A mighty change will then forthwith o’er all Heimkringlas come:

Henceforth twixt good and evil no diff’rence will appear;

All contrasts blend harmonious, when the dark owl shall pair

With the white dove: sunshine shall mix with the volcano’s gleam

And in Valhalla’s fragrant grove unsavoury vapours steam:

Smooth-skinn’d and beardless man become; woman a beard shall wear;

Twilight will all the fashion be; day and night disappear:

Sweet violets on carrion bloom; a blade of straw a knife,

A spit a lily straight become: the warrior and his wife

Will change professions; she the javelin, he the distaff hold:

Such transformations wonderful our eyes will then behold.

But Thrymur is a serious wight, this must not be forgot,

He’s somewhat jealous too, and jokes he understandeth not:

And Freya must, if she consent to share the giant’s reign,

As Thrymur’s spouse, in subterranean gloom for aye remain.

True, love will vanish from the earth; but where, I pray, the loss,

Since hate no longer will exist our hearts to plague and cross?

Heimdaller’s Bifrost then will lose its variegated hue,

No more display its gorgeous rays, red, yellow, green, and blue:

Those colours will together blend, and form a dingy grey;

And toads within their moss-grown pools will sing like thrushes gay.”

At this proposal Freya’s breast with indignation swell’d,

And thus with words of bitter scorn Lok’s project she repell’d:

[325]

“Were Freya to the giant’s land disposed to go with thee,

Must Freya terribly, forsooth, in want of husband be.”

But now the Asar, when the sun its earliest rays display’d,

Assemble all to hold the Ting beneath Yggdrassil’s shade.

There, to avoid temptation, they did not Lok invite:

But Lok to visit Heimdal went towards the rainbow bright:

Soft in his ear he whisper’d, gave counsel, swore that zeal

For Valhall had induced him that mission to fulfil:

“The gods,” said he, “I know, ’gainst me a strong aversion have,

But the whole thing, as thou perceiv’st, is of importance grave.

Thee judgment lacks not; my advice thou’st heard me frankly state;

Follow it, if it seem thee good: if not, reject it strait!

But whatsoever be resolv’d, let it be quickly done,

For execution the design should follow hard upon.

Heimdaller who had heard what past ’tween Lok and Thrymur grim

At th’ entrance of the grot, and knew, Lok did not lie this time,

Approved of the proposal, and took the counsel well:

The worm thus often pierceth the nut with hardest shell.”

Then Asa-Heimdal at the Ting thus spake aloud: “’Tis time

The giants’ pride to tame, methinks, and vanquish Jotunheim.

To raise them to the rank of gods, that oft we’ve done; thereby

Our strength we lost not: doth not Niord fierce Skada mollify?

And Ægir with his potent arm check Rana’s perfidy?

Young Gerda dotes upon her spouse; she’s full of charm and grace;

She gave Skidbladner to the gods; she’s of a better race:

Women with coal-black hair from her descend, within whose blood

The flame of love more ardent glows. Say! were not Lok a god,

[326]

What mischief might he not effect in regions void of light?

And hath not oft the moon bestow’d the power of day on night?

But should light’s ray, deserting heaven, descend into th’ abyss,

Would not for ever disappear our glory, strength, and bliss?

Shall we then Freya cede? ah no! by the great gods, I swear,

Valhall a joyless waste would prove, if Freya were not there.

Iduna’s fruit of health and youth accords, ’tis true, the power,

But Freya ’tis who sows the seed of love’s delightful flower:

We all admire her; when the gods she folds in her embrace,

The ecstacy that fills their soul what tongue hath power to trace?

And shall that lovely Disa depart from us for aye?

Shall mist for ever darken Folkvangur’s vivid ray?

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!

Myself, who on the brink of heaven must watchful stand in arms,

I can but catch a fleeting glimpse of Freya’s matchless charms:

But when, each morning, crown’d with flowers she o’er my bridge doth pass,

With fecundating smile the realm of mother Earth to grace,

With tenfold zeal inspired, in hand my Gialler-horn I take;

Its joyous tones to love of life and strength mankind awake:

Quitting his nest, then soars the lark towards the celestial height;

A thousand carols to the world proclaim with loud delight,

That Freya’s soul-enchanting smile hath bless’d Heimdaller’s sight.”

[327]

Heimdaller’s words find no dissent: the Asars’ hearts they move;

And Freya’s eyes rewarded him with such sweet looks of love,

He blush’d like morn, when through night’s veil the day begins to break:

Tears glisten’d in his radiant eyes, and roll’d adown his cheek.

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.

Odin a lotion too can give of faculty divine

To wash off all callosity and roughness from the skin.

Thor then, with face as white as meal, and cheek as red as blood,

Will lose his shaggy beard, ’tis true, but not his hardihood.

Let the famed necklace Brising about his neck be wound;

There in exchange for Miölner a bride at once is found!

Before his bosom two round stones we’ll fix within his vest,

And there, in outward form at least, appears a woman’s breast!

And these when wrapp’d in scarlet cloth, at the bare sight will fill

With sulphur all the giant’s veins, and cause his blood to thrill.

A bonnet with a long white veil to grace his brows were meet;

And bunch of keys, tied to his waist, the bridal dress complete.

Lok too, as waiting-maid attired, with Thor shall bend his way

To Utgard’s realm: he’ll not refuse, I guess, this part to play,

[328]

Then, when Thor sits upon the couch in the dark giant’s dome,

When bearing Miölner in their arms the black dwarfs forward come,

When Thrymur, drunk with love, shall place the hammer on Thor’s breast,

What then Thor has to do, methinks, I need not here suggest.

In Heimdal ’twere presumption great, by words or argument,

To teach great Asa-Thor the use of his own instrument.”

With joy the Disar clapp’d their hands, and with each other vied,

Delighted with the stratagem, to dress up Thor as bride.

The gods indulge in hearty laugh; Yggdrassil flouts the sky;

Its branches green wave o’er the roof of Valhall gloriously.

Balder, Forsete, Mimer were absent from the Ting,

And mightily this favour’d Lok’s project. Drupner ring

On Odin’s finger dropp’d, indeed, on the grass others nine,

And fain, to its construction true, would warn its lord divine:

But the Asynior’s laughter gay banish’d from Odin’s breast

All scruples; so that Loptur’s guile he deem’d a harmless jest.

Thor did indeed remonstrate: “How? as female, Thor appear?

Unheard of! ne’er can I consent the female garb to wear.”

But Freya with her lily hand patted his cheek, and lo!

All scruples vanished from his breast, all wrinkles from his brow.

“’Tis true,” said Freya, “mortal man composed of wretched dust

Must by his nature ever be a victim to mistrust;

Must ever guard himself against the influence of hate,

Which ne’er the most illustrious deeds fails to calumniate;

But Thor in Trudvang rules; who dare his acts divine arraign?

Surely to aid a humorous freak his godhead cannot slain.”

Young Fulla, bearing Freya’s robes, now enter’d in the hall;

But Odin’s hand must widen them; for Thor they were too small:

[329]

But to give him a slender waist their utmost efforts fail,

For he was stout, and would not move without his coat of mail.

Now on his breast the two round stones ’twas Hermod’s task to place;

At this the fair Valkyrior blush’d, and laugh’d, and hid their face.

Now they suspend about his neck the necklace, Brising hight,

With many a ruby rich adorn’d, and many a diamond bright.

Now to the face and neck of Thor Odin applied his hand;

All roughness vanish’d at the touch: white, delicate and bland

Became his skin; no hue remain’d, which Thor could designate.

Now round his brazen helm a cap with long white veil they plait;

He don’d his gloves, and Megingard around his girdle laced,

To act with force, when in his hand his Miölner should be placed.

Now red they take to paint his cheek; they cut his nails; when drest,

A sprig of whitethorn in full bloom they fasten to his breast.

Now round the god travestied thus th’ Asynior young and gay,

Like children at a fav’rite game, delighted frisk and play:

“O Thrymur! gallant Thrymur!” in chorus loud they chime,

“Hast thou ne’er been love’s vassal, thou’lt not escape this time.”

To harness now and yoke the goats was Tialf’s peculiar care:

Then Thor and Lok in female garb ascend the golden car.

Thus down o’er Bifrost’s dizzy height, in Freya’s robes array’d,

Drove Asa-Thor; a tinge of rose the vault of heav’n o’erspread.

As the car pass’d, Heimdaller blew his horn in glorious style,

The virgins nine salute the god with fascinating smile.

Seen from the earth, like meteor bright the golden car appear’d;

This time no thunder shook the poles; no forked lightnings glared:

The car athwart the azure sky swift glided like a swan;

Therein sat Tialfe, Asa-Lok, and Thor, the giants’ bane.[100]

CANTO XXIX.
THE HAMMER OF THOR RECOVERED.

CANTO XXX.
THE VALA’S PROPHECY.

NOTES AND ELUCIDATIONS.

NOTES TO THE FIRST CANTO.

The eight first Cantos, in the original, are written in the same metre. In my translation, as will be seen, I have indulged in greater variety.

NOTES TO THE SECOND CANTO.

NOTES TO THE THIRD CANTO.

NOTES TO THE FOURTH CANTO.

For this Canto, I have adopted a metre something similar to that used in Bürger’s Leonora.

NOTES TO THE FIFTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE SIXTH CANTO.

The Author has adhered closely to the prosaic Edda in his narration of Thor’s adventure in Utgard.

With respect to the two Loks, and the difference between them, it is not a little curious to find that in the gospel of Nicodemus (one of those rejected by the council of Nice, chap. xx, verses 2 and following), Satan and the prince of hell are described as two distinct persons; and when Satan informs the latter, that he has achieved for him a great conquest, by bringing captive to his realm no less a personage than Jesus Christ, the prince of hell, instead of thanking Satan for that service, loads him with reproaches for his unpardonable thoughtlessness, in bringing into his dominions a person by whom he (the prince of hell) had sustained a serious detriment, in the loss of sundry souls, whom Jesus Christ, in escaping from hell, had carried off with him, and who, but for that visit, would still have remained there.

It is singular that this comparison should have escaped the notice, not only of Finn Magnussen, but that of all the other commentators of the Edda, when discussing the subject of the two Loks. I stumbled by mere chance three years ago on a copy of the apocryphal New Testament in German, and on reading the chapter above quoted, the idea of this analogy immediately and forcibly struck me.

NOTES TO THE SEVENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE EIGHTH CANTO.

By way of variety, I have adopted a trochaic metre for my translation of this Canto.

NOTES TO THE NINTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TENTH CANTO.

and so on in tercets and couplets. I have adopted a free but rhymed metre for my translation.

NOTES TO THE ELEVENTH CANTO.

I have given two translations of this Canto, one of which is an attempt to imitate the metre of the original, in which Œhlenschläger has successfully imitated the alliterative metre of the Icelandic poetry.

NOTES TO THE TWELFTH CANTO.

I have adopted a similar metre to the original in my translation of this Canto, but with greater prodigality of rhyme, the middle rhymes being only used by the author in the nine last stanzas.

NOTES TO THE THIRTEENTH CANTO.

In my translation of this Canto, I have adopted as a metre a stanza of eight lines, generally of ten syllables each, but admitting occasionally lines of eight or twelve syllables; the arrangement of the rhymes is varied. It is in fact exactly the same metre as that adopted by Schiller, in his translation of the second and fourth Books of the Æneid, and by Wieland, in his poem of Idris and Zenide.

NOTES TO THE FOURTEENTH CANTO.

I much wished to adopt, as a metre for the translation of this Canto, the Spenserian stanza, but I found it too difficult. I therefore adopted a metre of my own invention, viz., a stanza of nine lines, eight of which have ten syllables, and the ninth, which rhymes with the sixth and eighth, has twelve. The arrangement of the rhyme is regular throughout, and it appears to me that this metre has something of the march and harmony of the Spenserian stanza.

NOTES TO THE FIFTEENTH CANTO.

The metre I have adopted for my translation of this Canto is of my own invention; it may be thought fantastic, but in its trochaic form it has something of the march of the original. I leave the first, third, and fifth line unrhymed, with a double close.

It seems to me that the appellation Goth was not known in Scandinavia previous to the invasion of the Asar, and that these last assumed the name of Goths (good and brave men), when they introduced their religion into that country. This idea leads me also to surmise, that as long as the Asar remained in Asia, the name Hrimthusser (frost-giant), and not Jetter or Jotun, was applied to the evil spirits of their mythology; and that it was not until after their grand immigration into Scandinavia, under the command of the historical Odin, that the term Jetter or Jotun (which was the national appellation of the aborigines of Scandinavia) was, in consequence of the long and bitter wars between the Asar and Jetter, and of the national hatred arising therefrom, applied by the Asar to those malevolent spirits, who, as they supposed, assisted their enemies, the Jetter. The self-love of all nations leads them to assume, that they are the favourites of the good gods, and that the evil spirits are the abettors, instigators, and coadjutors of their enemies; and even in our time, as has been wittily remarked by Washington Irving, a number of the good sort of people in England, during the war against revolutionary France, thought that somehow or other God Almighty was on the side of the English government. As a further confirmation of my conjecture that the word Goth was unknown to the Scandinavian peninsula, until introduced there by the Asar, I cite the following passage from a Saga, written in the Icelandic or ancient Scandinavian tongue:

En dha voru dhessi lönd er Asia menn bygdu köllud Godlönd, en fólkid Godjod. Odin ok hans synir voru slórum vitrir ok fjölkunnigir, fagrir at[353] álitum, og sterkir át afli. Margir adrir i dheirra ætt voru miklir afburdbarmenn, medh ymisligum algerleik, og nokkura af dheim tóku menn til at blóta og trúa á, ok kölludhu godh sin.

Then this land, which Asia’s people took possession of, was called Godland, and the people Godjod. Odin and his sons were very wise and skilled in many things, fair in aspect, and strong limbed. Many of their race were men of great strength and of divers perfections, and the people began to worship some of them, and call them their gods.

NOTES TO THE SIXTEENTH CANTO.

The metre I have adopted for the translation of this Canto is somewhat more regular than that of the original: mine is in lines of thirteen syllables each: a slight pause after the seventh syllable will give the rhythm required.

NOTES TO THE SEVENTEENTH CANTO.

In my translation of this and of the two next Cantos, I have adopted, as a metre, the line of fourteen syllables.

NOTES TO THE EIGHTEENTH CANTO.

The nature and attributes of all the gods and goddesses seated at the banquet of Valhalla, are so fully detailed in the text, that notes to this Canto are almost superfluous.

NOTES TO THE NINETEENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTIETH CANTO.

The mythologic formation of the island of Sealand (of which Copenhagen is the present capital), and which forms the subject of this Canto, is thus given in the poetic Edda:

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CANTO.

In the original, this Canto is written in the classic hexameter, which seems to suit wonderfully well the Danish and Swedish languages.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SECOND CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-THIRD CANTO.

In the metre I have adopted for this Canto, I have introduced occasionally anapests, for the sake of greater variety.

In this Canto the poet has diverged considerably from either Edda, and has boldly and felicitously sketched a plan of his own, into which, however, he has interwoven ideas taken from three different Cantos of the poetic Edda: viz Harbard’s song; Alvismal (discourse of Alvis); Skirnisfor (journey of Skirnir). In the first, Harbard’s song, it is Thor, and not Skirnir, who enters into a dialogue with Harbard, whom he meets at the fiord. In the second, Alvismal, the subject of the Canto is a dialogue between Thor and the dwarf Alvis (all-wise), wherein the latter makes a pompous display of his learning, by giving definitions and synonymes of earth, heaven, wind, fire, nearly in the same manner that Skirnir does in this Canto. In the third, Skirnir’s journey, wherein Skirnir is sent by Frey to propose marriage to Gerda, are mentioned the ferocious dogs which guard the dwelling of giant Gymer, the father of Gerda.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FOURTH CANTO.

In this Canto the poet has diverged considerably from the chapter in the poetic Edda, called the Skirnisfor, which treats of the same subject. In Œhlenschläger’s poem, as has been seen, Skirnir makes use of the most gentle and insinuating means of persuasion to induce Gerda to give ear to his proposal; and the stratagem of Frey’s likeness conveyed from the brook into Gerda’s basin is entirely the poet’s own concetto, and it is, I think, a very ingenious one: whereas, in the Edda, Skirnir makes use of the most terrible threats and sinister predictions, in order to force Gerda to accede to his master’s wishes; and at length he succeeds in terrifying her into submission: among other threats, which are not of the most decent nature, he tells her that she shall either be wedded to a frightful three-headed Goblin of the Hrimthussar race, or pine a maid, tormented with the most violent desires, which cannot be gratified.

NOTE TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH CANTO.

In the original, the metre of this Canto is written in imitation of one much used in the ancient Danish ballads, which, admitting a refrain that seems to have little or no connection with the substance of the ballad, continue it in every stanza throughout the piece. Here are three different refrains used in succession throughout the whole Canto, except in the two last stanzas.

NOTE TO THE TWENTY-SIXTH CANTO.

This Canto in the original is written in the octosyllabic couplet. I have adopted the same metre for the translation.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CANTO.

The subject of this Canto is taken from the celebrated chapter in the poetic Edda, called “Ægir’s feast” or “Lok’s scurrility,” to account for the origin, object and meaning of which, has puzzled all the commentators of the Edda. The most simple éclaircissement thereof seems to be that of Finn Magnussen, who thinks that the author of it may have been a sort of Scandinavian Lucian, who wished to throw a sly ridicule on the gods of his country. Œhlenschläger has varied, augmented, and embellished the subject with imagery and embroidery of his own, and has omitted certain parts of somewhat too obscene a nature.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CANTO.

The metre I have adopted for the translation of this Canto is the couplet of lines of fourteen syllables occasionally interspersed with couplets of thirteen syllables. In reading the latter, a pause should be made after the seventh syllable. This metre resembles that of the original, and has much of its prosaic and familiar march. This Canto and the next are based on the chapter of the poetic Edda, called Thrymsqvida.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-NINTH CANTO.

I have adopted for the translation of this Canto a metre, alternatively trochaic and anapestic.

The following explanation of the foregoing mythe is given by the Swedish poet Ling:

The loss of Thor’s hammer, and its remaining eight miles under ground in the hands of Thrymur the frost giant, denotes the impotence or inactivity of the electrical fluid during the eight months’ winter of the northern regions. The invitation of Thrymur to Freya typifies the struggle of nature at the approach of spring, to renew its vitality.

Stuhr’s opinion of this mythe is much the same as that of Ling. He thinks it to be a hymn in honour of spring, typified by Freya. Thor borrows Freya’s attire, i.e. in spring the electrical heat resumes its force. Thor travels with Loptur (the air) to Thrymur. They are furnished with a copious repast; i.e. at the approach of and by the influence of spring, the unfruitfulness of the earth ceases. When Asa-Lok speaks of the eight nights of longing passed by the pretended Freya, it means the progressive changes undergone by the polar atmosphere during the eight winter months, before the heat finally obtains the mastery. The immense appetite and quantity of mead drank by Thor denote the absorption of the earth’s vapours by the electrical fire of summer, and the death of Thrymur denotes the total disappearance of winter. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader, that Miölner, the hammer of Thor, typifies, almost everywhere, thunder, or the electrical fire and its effects.

In the Greek poem of Nonnus, called the Dionysiacs, or Actions of Bacchus, we find a mythe having no doubt the same signification as that of the Thrymsqvida. Jupiter at the approach of winter loses his thunderbolts, which fall into the hands of the giant Typhon. He recovers them in spring, by means of a stratagem of Cadmus, and soon after makes use of them to discomfit and slay the giant Typhon.

NOTE TO THE THIRTIETH CANTO.

Besides the difficulty of the terza rima, it is a metre not very well suited to the genius of the English language. I have, therefore, given my translation of this Canto in blank verse, following the example of Carey in his version of Dante.

The subject of this Canto seems taken partly from some strophes in the Voluspâ, and partly from the Vaftrudnismal, which are the names of two of the most important chapters of the poetic Edda.

This Canto does not require notes, but as it may amuse the reader to compare the history of the destruction and reproduction of the world with the account thereof given in the Edda, I here subjoin some extracts from the two chapters above mentioned, following Finn Magnussen’s translation. I think the reader will remark some resemblance between certain parts of this Canto and certain parts of the Apocalypse. The battle between Thor and the Serpent Jormundgard is not unlike the combat between the Archangel Michael and the great dragon; and the palace of Gimle, the future abode of the blessed, presents an image of the new Jerusalem.

EXTRACTS FROM THE VAFTRUDNISMAL
(Discourse of Vaftrudner).

EXTRACTS FROM THE VOLUSPA
(Vala’s Prophecy).

ETYMOLOGIES OMITTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Hofvarpur, name of the steed of Gna, from hof (hoof), hvarpa (to throw out).

CONTENTS.

The reader, before he begins the work, is respectfully requested to correct the following

Heiman ék fór,	From home I went,
Heiman ék ferdadist;	From home I travelled,
Sá ék á veg vega:	Saw I on way ways:
Vegr var undir;	The way was under,
Vegr var yfir,	The way was over,
Ok ver gá alla:	And the way over all;
Heidrekr kongr!	Heidrek king!
Hyggtu at gatu?	Guessest thou the riddle?
Gód er gáta dhin,	Good is riddle thine,
Gestr blindi!	Gestur blind!
Gétit er dheirrar:	Guessed is it:
Fugl dhar yfir fló;	Bird there over flew;
Fiskr dhar undir svam	Fish there under swam
Fórtu á brú.	Thyself went on bridge.

Canto.		Page.
1	Thor sets out on an adventure with Lok	1
2	Spells upon the heath	16
3	Thor arrives in Helheim	35
4	Thor arrives in Utgard	45
5	Magic spells in Utgard	57
6	The spells unravelled	81
7	The return home	92
8	Thor visits the giant Hymir	102
9	Thor’s fishing adventure	117
10	Lok becomes enamoured of Sif	122
11	Conversation between Lok and Sif	128
12	Lok procures things of value from the dwarfs	138
13	The rape of Iduna	147
14	The deliverance of Iduna	166
15	The Vaner	180
16	The nuptials of Skada	190
17	The amour of Frey	196
18	Joy in Valhalla	204
19	The Einherier	213
20	Bragur’s song in honour of Gefion	221
21	Conversation between Skirnir and Frey	227
22	Frey’s plaint at the fountain	242
23	The journey of Skirnir	244
24	Gerda’s love	262
25	Skirnir fulfills his errand	273
26	The wolf Fenris and Tyr	279
27	The banquet of Ægir	289
28	Lok’s treachery	313
29	The hammer of Thor recovered	330
30	The Vala’s prophecy	341

Page.	Line.
XXXVIII	4 from bottom, for he read the.
XLVI	12 from top, for threwherself read threw herself.
LXIII	12 from top, for incolour read in colour.
25	4 from top, for hem read them.
36	5 from top, for t oads read toads.
110	2 from top, for ofthe read of the.
129	4 from bottom, for careerpursues read career pursues.
142	11 from top, for owesubmission read owe submission.
194	5 from bottom, for ts read Its.
206	6 from bottom, after bloom insert all.
259	11 from top, for while read white.
326	2 from bottom, for At housand read A thousand.

To his Majesty Christian VIII, King of Denmark, &c. &c. &c.

PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE PROPER NAMES OCCURRING IN OR CONNECTED WITH THE POEM ENTITLED “THE GODS OF THE NORTH.”

Additional remarks respecting Valhalla.—The origin of its conception and meaning.

Opinion of the Swedish poet Ling respecting Valhalla.

THE GODS OF THE NORTH. ARGUMENT OF THE POEM.

THE GODS OF THE NORTH.

CANTO I. THOR SETS OUT ON AN ADVENTURE WITH LOK.

CANTO II. SPELLS UPON THE HEATH.

CANTO III. THOR IN HELHEIM.

CANTO IV. THOR ARRIVES AT UTGARD.

CANTO V. MAGIC SPELLS IN UTGARD.

CANTO VI. THE SPELLS UNRAVELLED.

CANTO VII. THE RETURN HOME.

CANTO VIII. THOR VISITS THE GIANT HYMIR.

CANTO IX. THOR’S FISHING ADVENTURE.

CANTO X. LOK BECOMES ENAMOURED OF SIF.

CANTO XI. CONVERSATION BETWEEN LOK AND SIF.

CANTO XI. LOK’S CONVERSATION WITH SIF.

CANTO XII. LOK PROCURES THINGS OF VALUE FROM THE DWARFS.

CANTO XIII. THE RAPE OF IDUNA.

CANTO XIV. THE DELIVERANCE OF IDUNA.

CANTO XV. THE VANER.[55]

CANTO XVI. THE NUPTIALS OF SKADA.

CANTO XVII. THE AMOUR OF FREY.

CANTO XVIII. JOY IN VALHALLA.

CANTO XIX. THE EINHERIER.

CANTO XX. BRAGUR’S SONG IN HONOUR OF GEFION.

CANTO XXI. CONVERSATION BETWEEN SKIRNIR AND FREY.

CANTO XXII. FREY’S PLAINT AT THE FOUNTAIN.

CANTO XXIII. THE JOURNEY OF SKIRNIR.

CANTO XXIV. GERDA’S LOVE.

CANTO XXV. SKIRNIR FULFILS HIS ERRAND.

CANTO XXVI. THE WOLF FENRIS AND TYR.

CANTO XXVII. THE BANQUET OF ÆGIR.

CANTO XXVIII. LOK’S TREACHERY.

CANTO XXIX. THE HAMMER OF THOR RECOVERED.

CANTO XXX. THE VALA’S PROPHECY.

NOTES AND ELUCIDATIONS.

NOTES TO THE FIRST CANTO.

NOTES TO THE SECOND CANTO.

NOTES TO THE THIRD CANTO.

NOTES TO THE FOURTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE FIFTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE SIXTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE SEVENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE EIGHTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE NINTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE ELEVENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWELFTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE THIRTEENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE FOURTEENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE FIFTEENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE SIXTEENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE SEVENTEENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE EIGHTEENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE NINETEENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTIETH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SECOND CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-THIRD CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FOURTH CANTO.

NOTE TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH CANTO.

NOTE TO THE TWENTY-SIXTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CANTO.

NOTES TO THE TWENTY-NINTH CANTO.

NOTE TO THE THIRTIETH CANTO.

EXTRACTS FROM THE VAFTRUDNISMAL (Discourse of Vaftrudner).

EXTRACTS FROM THE VOLUSPA (Vala’s Prophecy).

ETYMOLOGIES OMITTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

CONTENTS.

ERRATA.

To his Majesty Christian VIII,
King of Denmark,
&c. &c. &c.

PREFACE
BY THE TRANSLATOR.

ALPHABETICAL LIST
OF THE PROPER NAMES OCCURRING IN OR CONNECTED WITH THE POEM ENTITLED “THE GODS OF THE NORTH.”

THE GODS OF THE NORTH.
ARGUMENT OF THE POEM.

CANTO I.
THOR SETS OUT ON AN ADVENTURE WITH LOK.

CANTO II.
SPELLS UPON THE HEATH.

CANTO III.
THOR IN HELHEIM.

CANTO IV.
THOR ARRIVES AT UTGARD.

CANTO V.
MAGIC SPELLS IN UTGARD.

CANTO VI.
THE SPELLS UNRAVELLED.

CANTO VII.
THE RETURN HOME.

CANTO VIII.
THOR VISITS THE GIANT HYMIR.

CANTO IX.
THOR’S FISHING ADVENTURE.

CANTO X.
LOK BECOMES ENAMOURED OF SIF.

CANTO XI.
CONVERSATION BETWEEN LOK AND SIF.

CANTO XI.
LOK’S CONVERSATION WITH SIF.

CANTO XII.
LOK PROCURES THINGS OF VALUE FROM THE DWARFS.

CANTO XIII.
THE RAPE OF IDUNA.

CANTO XIV.
THE DELIVERANCE OF IDUNA.

CANTO XV.
THE VANER.[55]

CANTO XVI.
THE NUPTIALS OF SKADA.

CANTO XVII.
THE AMOUR OF FREY.

CANTO XVIII.
JOY IN VALHALLA.

CANTO XIX.
THE EINHERIER.

CANTO XX.
BRAGUR’S SONG IN HONOUR OF GEFION.

CANTO XXI.
CONVERSATION BETWEEN SKIRNIR AND FREY.

CANTO XXII.
FREY’S PLAINT AT THE FOUNTAIN.

CANTO XXIII.
THE JOURNEY OF SKIRNIR.

CANTO XXIV.
GERDA’S LOVE.

CANTO XXV.
SKIRNIR FULFILS HIS ERRAND.

CANTO XXVI.
THE WOLF FENRIS AND TYR.

CANTO XXVII.
THE BANQUET OF ÆGIR.

CANTO XXVIII.
LOK’S TREACHERY.

CANTO XXIX.
THE HAMMER OF THOR RECOVERED.

CANTO XXX.
THE VALA’S PROPHECY.

EXTRACTS FROM THE VAFTRUDNISMAL
(Discourse of Vaftrudner).

EXTRACTS FROM THE VOLUSPA
(Vala’s Prophecy).