Vǫluspá (Codex Regius)

1 SPSMA II, 258–59.

2 The speaker of Vsp. is a vǫlva, a staff (vǫlr)-bearing seeress capable of mediumship and sorcery. She sometimes refers to herself (or another seeress) in the third person, in which case she perhaps channels the voice of a prior or future incarnation of herself; cf. the thrice-born nature of Gullveig in Vsp. 21 and the comments on rebirth in the prose following HHv. 43 and HH. II 4, 51. Vsp. H 1 has allar helgar kindir ‘all holy kindreds’, which is usually thought the metrically better reading.

3 The extent and nature of the seeress’s audience is uncertain. It could be all sentient beings, including the gods, but the ‘sons of Heimdallr’ are probably men; cf. Rþ. and Hdl. 43. The name Heimdallr is interpretable as ‘(Burgeoning) Home/World Tree’ or perhaps ‘Home/World Light’, and its divine bearer is probably identifiable on some level with the world-tree. Humans, it appears, are scions or ‘chips off the old block’; cf. Vsp. 17.

4 The form vildu appears equivalent to villtu in Vsp. H 1, which is an unambiguously second-person form. An alternative translation of vildu, as ‘they wished’, seems less likely in context, assuming the seeress’s recitation follows on from the events of Vsp. 28–29.

5 ‘Slaughtered-Corpse Father’, an alias of the god Óðinn. This word is partly illegible in the facsimile; this reading is taken from earlier editions.

6 If Vsp. 28–29 are interpreted correctly below, the following ‘prophecy’ (which includes recollection of past events) was possibly paid for earlier by Óðinn, after the seeress had ‘sat outside’ to communicate with the divine. Some scholars argue, by comparison with BDr. 4, that Óðinn has awakened her from the dead.

7 Or ‘had given birth to me in former days’.

8 The nine worlds are obscure, but Vm. 43 refers to ‘nine worlds beneath Niflhel’; alternatively, they might include those of gods (Æsir and Vanir), humans, giants, dwarves, elves and the dead. Also obscure are the nine women, but íviðjur is probably the pl. of a term for a troll-woman or giantess who, originally at least, perhaps lived ‘in (í) a tree/wood (viðr)’; the sg. íviðja bears this general sense in a list of names in SPSMA III, 727-28 and probably in Hdl. 48. Note, in Hdl. 35, 37, the nine giantess-mothers of Heimdallr. Other possibilities are that íviðjur refers to withies/branches or withy-like roots of the world-tree (cf. viðja ‘withy’, pl. viðjur, though the initial i- would be obscure), or relates to OE inwid/inwit ‘fraud, evil’.

9 Yggdrasill, the tree which, by defining the world, ‘measures’ its limits. Alternatively, ‘well-proportioned tree’ or ‘tree that metes out fate’; cf. Fj. 19–22.

10 Presumably as either a seed or a fully grown (inverted?) subterranean world-tree.

11 Or perhaps ‘It was the beginning of ages’. The same phrase appears in HH. I 1.

12 Ymir ‘Twin’ is a primordial giant; his name might denote a hermaphrodite, one of ‘twin kind’ (cf. Vm. 30, 33) or reflect an ancient Indo-European creation myth in which ‘Man’ sacrificed his ‘Twin’. Cf. SnEGylf (6–8, pp. 11–12), Vm. 21 and Grm. 40; also SnEGylf (4, p. 9), which quotes a version of this stanza that has, in addition to minor variations, ekki var ‘nothing was’ instead of Ymir bygði ‘Ymir lived’.

13 I.e., sandy shore.

14 Literally, ‘up-sky’. The alliterative pairing jǫrð … upphiminn ‘earth … sky above’, also seen in Vm. 20, Þrk. 2, Od. 17 and paralleled in Old English, Old Saxon and Old High German poetry, probably stems from ancient Germanic oral tradition.

15 The meaning of ginnunga is uncertain. The void is now better known, from SnEGylf (e.g., 5, p. 10), as Ginnungagap.

16 I.e., ‘Before, that was, …’

17 SnEGylf (6–8, pp. 11–12) says that Burr (otherwise Borr, as in H) was the son of Búri, the man formed when Auðhumla, the first cow, licked salty stones. Burr married the giantess Bestla (cf. Háv. 140) and they had three sons—Óðinn, Vili and Vé—who killed Ymir and used parts of his corpse to make the world; cf. Vm. 21 and Grm. 40–41. Judging from Vsp. 57, Borr’s sons raised lands from the sea, which, according to Vm. 21 and Grm. 40, was made from Ymir’s blood.

18 ‘Middle Enclosure’, the world of humans or the enclosure surrounding it. SnEGylf (8, p. 12) says that Burr’s sons made it from the eyelashes (or eyelids) of Ymir; cf. Grm. 41.

19 Probably a kenning for the as-yet-unvegetated earth as a home to living things; alternatively, a mythical place-name, Salarsteinar ‘Hall’s Stones’.

20 A plant with magical connotations in early runic inscriptions, possibly in connection with fertility.

21 The sun and moon are here personified as Sól and Máni, respectively. Cf. Vm. 23, where the sun and moon are personified as sister and brother.

22 Literally, ‘the right hand’. That the personified sun has hands is implicit in Vm. 23, where the sun and moon operate the handle which turns the sky each day.

23 Or sg. ‘sky-horse-deer/beast(?)’, a doubtful reading but just possibly a description of the horse(s) that pulled the chariot of the sun, or of the world-tree. If the former, an equivalent solar ‘horse’ that is also a ‘deer’ might feature in the Old English metrical charm Wið dweorh ‘Against a Dwarf’. But for more accessible sense, emend to um himinjódýr to um himinjǫður ‘over the sky-rim/horizon’. H has the metrically deficient of jǫður, emended in this edition to of himinjǫður ‘over the sky-rim’.

24 The last three lines of this stanza might not be original to the poem, but they are also attributed to it, albeit in variant form, in SnEGylf (8, p. 12).

25 Rǫkstólar, in which rǫk indicates ‘judgement’ but also foreshadows the ‘doom’ of the gods at ragna rǫk (Ragnarok), the heathen Norse apocalypse.

26 Cf. Vm. 24–5.

27 Much of Vsp. 7–16 is adapted, with verse quotations, in SnEGylf (14, pp. 15–17).

28 Here Æsir denotes the clan of gods to which Óðinn and Þórr belong, as distinct from the Vanir. The meaning of Iðavǫllr is uncertain: possibilities include ‘Activity Plain’, ‘Eternal Plain’, ‘Eddy Plain [i.e., the sea]’ and, perhaps most attractively, ‘Renewal Plain’; SnEGylf (14, p. 15) places it at the centre of Ásgarðr, the divine city.

29 Or ‘temples high’. The distinction between hǫrgr and hof, here translated ‘altar’ and ‘temple’, is unclear. H has a different line.

30 I.e., they played board-games, such as hnefatafl. If they did so not just for simple entertainment, their play might have enacted the struggle between gods and giants (cf. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks chapter 9, st. 55) and been a means of controlling the world’s destiny.

31 In medieval Iceland, tún denoted a cultivated meadow near a farmhouse; in Norway, it meant the ‘yard’, the space between farm buildings.

32 SnEGylf (14, p. 15) remarks that the world’s golden age was destroyed by the arrival of women from Jǫtunheimar. Their names are unknown, as are their purpose and actions, though it has been suggested that they stole the gods’ gold, or that they introduced avarice to the world, so that the gods craved more than they already had.

33 ‘Giant Homes/Worlds’, the realm of giants, the gods’ enemies. It is often located in the east, but sometimes (later) in the north.

34 Masc./fem. sg.

35 I.e., create.

36 Or ‘which one of the dwarves should create a lord’; H’s text means ‘which dwarves should create companies’, while some manuscripts of SnEGylf may be translated ‘who (masc./fem. sg.) should create a company of dwarves’ or ‘that a company of dwarves should be created’. Emendation to hvárt skyldi dverga dróttir skepja would produce ‘whether they should create companies of dwarfs’. Dwarves were skilled miners and smiths, so perhaps the gods created them to satisfy a new-found need or craving for gold.

37 Brimir is probably here a giant-name (an alias of Ymir?) and suggestive of the sea (brim ‘surf’), his blood then being its waters; where R has ‘from Brimir’s blood’, H and most manuscripts of SnEGylf have ‘from bloody surf (brim)’. ‘Blue limbs’ or ‘blue legs’ is a kenning for ‘rocks’, but the colour might also suggest necrosis; H instead has ‘Bláinn’s limbs’, another kenning for ‘rocks’, Bláinn ‘Dark-Blue One’ being attested as a dwarf-name, but here perhaps serving as an alias of Ymir.

38 Perhaps ‘Listless/Apathetic One’ or ‘Furious Sucker’. H has Móðsognir.

39 Literally, ‘was become’.

40 Perhaps ‘Sleepy One’ or ‘Door-Keeper’.

41 It is unclear whether the ‘many man-shapes’ are other dwarves—as the subsequent, probably interpolated, lists of names presumably assume—or inert human beings, two of which are discovered and quickened by the gods in Vsp. 17 and 18. Another possibility is ‘those man-shapes, [those] dwarves, made many things, from the earth, as Durinn said’; their creations might then be neither other dwarves nor humans, but items of metalwork. H makes ‘dwarves’ the object (acc. dverga) of creation, and so lacks this uncertainty, but introduces a new doubt about whom þeir ‘they’ refers to, as it could be the gods of the previous stanza, rather than Mótsognir and Durinn. SnEGylf (14, p. 16) has another variant reading: þar mannlíkun mǫrg of gerðusk, / dvergar í jǫrðu ‘there many man-shapes were created, dwarves in the earth’.

42 According to H and several manuscripts of SnEGylf, they were made in (rather than from) the earth, which is where dwarves were thought to live.

43 SnEGylf (14, p. 15) says that dwarves took shape as maggots in Ymir’s flesh and were given intelligence by the gods. The following lists of dwarf-names are sometimes known collectively as Dvergatal ‘The Tally of Dwarves’. The meanings of many of the names are disputed, so those presented below are often tentative. There are many differences between R and H in these lists, some of which are noted below. The names were a prime source for J. R. R. Tolkien’s dwarves in The Hobbit.

44 ‘Full Moon’ and ‘Dark Moon’.

45 ‘North and South’.

46 ‘East and West’.

47 ‘All-Thief’.

48 Most immediately ‘Delayed One’, though an original sense ‘Inflicter of Madness’ has also been proposed.

49 Perhaps ‘Beaver’.

50 ‘Tubby’.

51 ‘Titch’.

52 ‘Noble Friend’.

53 Probably ‘Other/Second’.

54 ‘Great-Grandfather’.

55 ‘Mead-Wolf’.

56 ‘Intoxicating Drink’. H has Veggr ‘Wall’.

57 ‘Staff/Spirit-Elf’, whence J. R. R. Tolkien’s wizard Gandalf.

58 ‘Wind-Elf’.

59 ‘Stubborn’ or ‘Yearner’.

60 ‘Agreeable’.

61 ‘Darer’.

62 ‘Thriver’.

63 ‘Wise’.

64 ‘Colour’. The second half of this line is metrically irregular.

65 ‘Corpse’.

66 ‘New Counsel’.

67 Powerful One’, ‘Ruler’. For apparently the same character, see Rm. and Fm.

68 ‘Counsel-Swift/Wise’.

69 Probably ‘File’.

70 ‘Wedge’.

71 ‘Finder’ or ‘Found One’.

72 Perhaps ‘Needle’.

73 ‘Haft’.

74 These two names are combined as Heptifíli in SnEGylf (14, p. 16). H has Hefti, Fíli.

75 ‘Skilful One’.

76 H has Sviðr ‘Swift’ or ‘Wise’.

77 ‘Swift’. H has Frór.

78 ‘Horn-Bearer/Borer’. H has Fornbogi ‘Ancient Bow’.

79 ‘Famous’.

80 ‘Lazy’.

81 ‘Mud-Plain’.

82 ‘Warrior’ or ‘Muddy’.

83 ‘Oaken-Shield’. This stanza appears to constitute a formerly distinct list.

84 This is evidently the start of a third list of dwarf-names.

85 Or ‘the offspring/kindred/families of peoples’.

86 ‘Praiser’.

87 ‘Hall’s Stone’. Cf. ‘hall’s stones’ in Vsp. 4; also chapter 12 of Ynglinga saga, which tells of a dwarf, a salvǫrðuðr ‘hall guardian’, who went into a huge stone at a farm called Steinn ‘Stone’ in Sweden.

88 Aurvangar ‘Mud Plains’. The meaning of Jǫruvellir—compare Järavall, a Swedish place-name—is uncertain, but ‘Mud Fields’ and ‘Battlefields’ are possibilities. The dwarves’ journey is otherwise unknown, though SnEGylf (14, p. 16) says that the dwarves who lived in stone went from Svarinshaugr ‘Svarinn’s Grave-Mound’ to Aurvangar at Jǫruvellir.

89 ‘Dripper’.

90 ‘Enmity Keen’ or ‘Enemy Eager’.

91 ‘High One’.

92 ‘Gravemound Spur’.

93 ‘Lee/Shelter Plain’. H has Hlévargr ‘Lee Wolf/Outlaw’.

94 ‘Glowing One’.

95 ‘Joiner’.

96 ‘Dyer’.

97 Perhaps ‘Crooked Finn/Sámi’.

98 The repetition of Ái (Vsp. 11) points to interpolation.

99 ‘Elf’.

100 Elsewhere a name of the god Freyr and of kings associated with him.

101 Eikinskjaldi has already been named in Vsp. 13. This is another indication that this part of Vsp. comprises originally separate lists.

102 Possibly ‘Hider’.

103 ‘Frosty’.

104 ‘Finn’, ‘Sámi’.

105 ‘Deceiver’.

106 Or ‘as long as beings continue to live’, or ‘as long as the age lasts’.

107 There is a hiatus between this line and the preceding list of dwarf-names. Textual corruption is also indicated by the qualification of masc. Æsir by fem. þríar ‘three’ in R (hence the emendation to þrír in the edited text), and suggested by the suspect alliteration which places unexpected emphasis on því ‘that’ in a rather short half-line; cf. Vsp. H 17’s variant reading for the second half-line: þussa brœðr(?) ‘brothers of giants’. That the first line of st. 17 presents difficulties in both R and H may well suggest an underlying textual problem.

108 Perhaps a metaphor for the inhabited earth; cf. Vsp. 4. Alternatively, emend at húsi ‘to a house’ to at húmi ‘to the sea’.

109 Judging from SnEGylf (9, p. 13), á landi, literally ‘on land’, here means ‘on the shore’; cf. the prose before Rþ. 1. Askr ‘Ash’ and Embla ‘Little Elm’, the first man and woman, were apparently washed up as driftwood.

110 It is unclear whether the masc., rather than the expected neut., gender of the adjective ǫrluglausa ‘lacking fate’ is significant. It might indicate that the pair were genderless when discovered, but there are other instances of Old Norse masc. plurals denoting both sexes. Askr’s name implicitly associates him with the world-ash (askr) mentioned in Vsp. 19. The link with trees is explicit in the variant account of SnEGylf (9, p. 13), where the ‘sons of Borr’ created Askr and Embla from two logs (tré) which they picked up while walking along the seashore. Cf. Rþ., in which, after walking along a seashore, the god Heimdallr ‘(Burgeoning) Home/World-Tree’ comes to a house where he starts to father the estates of men.

111 Askr and Embla.

112 Óðr ‘mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘voice’ has connotations of mental acuity, ecstasy, emotional force and poetic inspiration.

113 I.e., ‘locks of hair’, but the meaning of lá is disputed here. Other suggestions are ‘face’, ‘blood’, ‘vital warmth’ and ‘skin’.

114 Læti can also denote a person’s manner or bearing; the sense ‘movement’ has also been proposed. Another possibility, given the word’s omission from the catalogue in the second half of this stanza, is that it is a synonym for lá ‘locks (of hair)’.

115 The good colours or complexions (of the living) were possibly distinguished from the bad colours (grey and black) of the dead, but it has also been suggested that the original sense was ‘genitalia’. Additionally, a pun on litu goða ‘looks of the gods’ is conceivable.

116 The prehistoric Germanic *Wōðanaz (whence ON Óðinn) was arguably ‘Lord of the Wōðu’, the wōðu being a frenzied airborne procession of the dead. Here Óðinn’s role is as the literal inspirer of dead wood.

117 Hœnir is an obscure god who returns to choose lots in the post-Ragnarok age in Vsp. 61. His name perhaps links him with a cockerel (hani).

118 Lóðurr is an obscure figure. His name is possibly an alias of Loki, who is elsewhere called Lodr. Otherwise, Lóðurr might be an obscure fertility god or, if loð- is related to loðinn ‘woolly, hairy’, perhaps Heimdallr, who fathers the estates of men in Rþ. (cf. Vsp. 1) and is associated with sheep. According to Hál. 8, Óðinn is a friend of Lóðurr. Óðinn, Hœnir and Loki also appear together in Haust.

119 For a variant list of gifts conferred by Borr’s sons, see SnEGylf (9, p. 13).

120 A variant version of this stanza, which identifies the tree as heilagr ‘holy’, appears in SnEGylf (16, p. 19).

121 A name for the world-tree (cf. Vsp. 2), the original sense of which is uncertain. It may originally have meant ‘Terrible Colossus’, but subsequently been interpreted as ‘Yggr Steed’—referring either to Óðinn (Yggr ‘Terrible One’) as a horse or to the gallows (metaphorically the steed) on which Óðinn was hanged (‘rode’). The tree is also called askr Yggdrasils ‘Yggr-steed’s ash tree’ (e.g., Vsp. 46, Grm. 29), which perhaps imagines it as the post to which Óðinn’s steed was tethered.

122 SnEGylf (16, p. 19) says that the Nornir take water and mud each day from Urðr’s spring and pour it over the ash-tree, so that its branches do not dry up or rot. It adds that the water is so holy that everything which enters the spring becomes as white as the membrane inside an eggshell. Alternatively, perhaps Vsp.’s ‘white/bright mud’ is fertilizing guano or the ‘milk’ of the Milky Way. Cf. Ls. 48.

123 Honeydew, according to SnEGylf (16, p. 19). Ash trees were traditionally associated with honey, a key ingredient of mead, and it has been suggested that the Indo-European world-tree was originally a mead-tree (cf. note to Vsp. 2); cf. Vm. 14.

124 Ordinary ashes are deciduous; it is debatable whether this mythological instance is evergreen. Urðr is one of the three Nornir, supernatural women who govern fate; cf. Háv. 111, Gðr. II 21.

125 The sær ‘sea’ is alternatively a pool or lake, perhaps identifiable with Urðr’s spring. H and SnEGylf (15, p. 18) have sal ‘hall’ instead. ON þollr originally meant ‘fir’, but came to be used as a synecdoche for ‘tree’, the assumed meaning here.

126 Literally, ‘they called one’.

127 A close relationship seems likely between the inscribed stick which determines each person’s fate, the concept of humans as scions of Heimdallr, the world-tree (Vsp. 1), and the plant-names of the first man and woman (Vsp. 17); in addition, men are often described figuratively as trees elsewhere in Old Norse poetry.

128 The Nornir (perhaps ‘Twiners’ or ‘Secret Communicators’), northern Fates whose names are interpretable as ‘That Which Has Happened’ or ‘Fate’ (cf. ON urðr, OE wyrd, ‘fate’), ‘That Which Is Happening’ and ‘That Which Shall Happen.’ They are comparable to the Roman Parcae and the Greek Moirai. Cf. HH. I 2–4.

129 Here the seeress probably refers to herself in the third person.

130 Gullveig is an obscure female, perhaps identifiable with the seeress Heiðr of the next stanza, or with the speaker of the poem, or with both. Gull means ‘gold’, veig ‘intoxicating drink’ or ‘strength’, so many scholars take Gullveig to mean ‘Gold Power’, ‘Power of Gold’ or ‘Gold Intoxication’; cf. Heiðrún in Grm. 25. Who stuck Gullveig on spears is uncertain, but the location probably implicates Óðinn and his associates; H has studdi ‘he/she/one stuck’.

131 ‘Her’ probably refers to Gullveig. Hárr ‘High One’ or ‘One-Eyed One’ is an alias of Óðinn, whose hall is Valhǫll ‘Hall of the Slain’. An earlier, disyllabic form, *Háars, is metrically desirable. A reference to Óðinn’s lack of vision might be appropriate here, as his burning of Gullveig not only failed but might have led to the Æsir-Vanir war.

132 Gullveig. Cf., in Greek myth, Pallas Athena’s epithet Tritogeneia ‘Thrice-Born(?)’ and Dimetor ‘Twice-Born’ Dionysus. Alternatively, translate ‘thrice they burned her, thrice [she was] born’. For reincarnation in Eddic poems, see the concluding prose to HH. II 51 and Sg. 45.

133 Heiðr frequently appears in Old Norse prose works as a common noun for a type of sorceress, but here it is often taken to be a proper noun (as in Hdl. 32 and several prose texts). Possible meanings include ‘Bright One’ (cf. heiðr ‘bright’ and the burning of Gullveig) and ‘Honoured One’ (cf. heið ‘honour’ or ‘fee’); heiðr ‘heath’ and heiðinn ‘heathen’ may be relevant, too. It is unclear whether Heiðr should be identified with Gullveig, with the speaker of Vsp., or with both. Altogether, this stanza raises a bewildering number of questions, to which there are few undisputed answers. Presumably ‘they’ refers to the people whose houses Heiðr visited.

134 In Old Norse texts seeresses called Heiðr are typically peripatetic and asked to prophesy at feasts.

135 The meaning of velspá is disputed: either ‘accurate in prophecy’ or ‘of favourable prophecies’. Another possibility is vélspá ‘of deceitful prophecies’.

136 The precise sense of vitti hon ganda is unclear, but the phrase might refer to the beating, or other use, of a vitt/vítt ‘drum(?)’ or ‘magical charm(?)’ in order to communicate with gandir ‘spirits’ who could reveal hidden information; cf. Ls. 24. Alternatively, gandir might denote wolves or broomsticks, which Heiðr ‘gave power to’ (vitti), and which witches flew upon in a gandreið ‘gand-ride’.

137 Another problematic passage. This edition takes the manuscript reading leikiN to represent leikin, a fem. nom. sg. form; cf. the compound hugleikin of Vsp. H 27.

138 The interpretation of the second half of this stanza is uncertain. But however we interpret it, the next stanza makes it clear that Óðinn, leader of the Æsir, goes on the attack.

139 The type of projectile Óðinn let fly is not stated, but his typical weapon is the spear. The army is that of the Æsir’s divine opponents, the Vanir.

140 Borðvegr ‘board-way’ may be a scribal error for borðveggr ‘board-wall’, ‘wall made of wooden boards’, the reading of H.

141 Or ‘could bestride’.

142 Vsp. 21–4 appear to describe a war between the Æsir and Vanir. Possibly the Vanir’s vígspá ‘battle-spell’ (or ‘holy spell’) had the power to resurrect the dead, which would explain why they were not defeated; ON spá may also suggest ‘prophecy’, intimating that these events were fated to occur.

143 Variants of Vsp. 25 and 26 appear in SnEGylf (42, pp. 35–6).

144 From now on in Vsp., ‘gods’ presumably refers to the Æsir-Vanir collective which, to judge from other sources, was formed to resolve their conflict. In the last line of this stanza the concern about the goddess Freyja (‘Óðr’s wife’), one of the Vanir, indicates that the tribal war is over.

145 Pl. H has sg. hverr.

146 Perhaps just a poetic way of saying ‘there’s treachery in the air’, but more likely an ominous allusion to a contract, described in SnEGylf (42, p. 34), which stipulated that the gods were to give Freyja, the sun and the moon to a giant as payment for his construction work. The use of læ ‘guile, treachery, mischief, harm’ might suggest that, as in SnEGylf, Loki (alias Loptr ‘Airy (One)’) is implicated; cf. Vsp. 34 and Hym. 37.

147 Or ‘Óðr’s girl’. Either way, the woman is Freyja. Little is known of her husband, the god Óðr ‘Inspired Mental Activity’, though his name suggests that he might once have been a double, or an aspect, of Óðinn. SnEUpp (26, p. 62) has óskmey ‘beloved maiden’ instead.

148 I.e., perhaps, to the giants in general. SnEGylf (42, pp. 34–36) quotes versions of this stanza and the next, and tells a story to illuminate them. It records how, in violation of oaths, Þórr slew a giant whom the gods had hired to build them a fortification. In Vsp., it might be that the giant was hired to repair the wall which the Vanir had broken during their war with the Æsir.

149 H’s reading appears better: Þórr einn þar vá ‘Þórr alone struck there’. The name Þórr identifies this strong and violent god as originally a personification of thunder, though this aspect of his nature faded in the literature of Iceland, a country where thunder is uncommon.

150 Possibly hljóð ‘hearing’ actually describes Heimdallr’s ear; if he sacrificed this, his action would parallel Óðinn’s surrender of an eye. But the word can also mean ‘sound’, so another possibility is a reference to Heimdallr’s resounding horn.

151 Yggdrasill. The element heið in heiðvanr—an adjective probably meaning ‘used to light/brightness’, rather than ‘lacking light’—is richly polysemous; it suggests at once the bright sky above the tree, the shining mead below it, the honour conferred upon it, and perhaps the payment of sacrificial offerings. Cf. the name Heiðr.

152 Cf. the mud sprinkled on the world-tree in Vsp. 19. Alternatively, instead of aurgum ‘muddy’, possibly ǫrðgum ‘flowing’ was intended.

153 ‘Valfǫðr’s pledge’ must originally have described Óðinn’s eye, which he placed in Mímir’s spring (see the next stanza), but here it apparently describes the spring in which the eye was placed.

154 ‘You’ is pl. The question may also be translated ‘Do you know [enough] yet, or what?’ or ‘Would you know still more, and [if so] what [would you seek to know]?’ Cf. the giantess Hyndla’s questions to Freyja in Hdl.

155 The seeress seems again to refer to herself in the third person, and to describe an encounter with Óðinn (‘the old one’) that arguably lies behind the recitation of this poem. In Old Norse texts, seeresses are said to ‘sit outside’ at night by crossroads, or in caves or mounds, to gain information from supernatural beings, a practice forbidden in medieval Norwegian law. Here the seeress’s ritual sitting brought forth Óðinn himself.

156 An Óðinn-alias related to Yggr ‘Terrible One’.

157 Or ‘and she looked into his eyes’, though Óðinn has only one left. Cf. Hym. 2.

158 It is uncertain whether these questions are addressed by the seeress to Óðinn or vice versa. The present punctuation assumes the former.

159 Or ‘well of Mímir’. Mímir (cf. Latin memor ‘mindful’) is a puzzling figure whose decapitation is described in chapters 4 and 7 of Ynglinga saga. It is unclear whether he is one of the giants, as in SnESkáld (I, 75, p. 110), or one of the Æsir, as Ynglinga saga might suggest. SnEGylf (15, p. 17), which quotes a version of this stanza, says that Mímir’s spring contains wisdom and intelligence and that it lies beneath one of Yggdrasill’s roots, the one which extends toward the frost-giants; it goes on to say that Mímir is very wise because he drinks from the spring using the Gjallarhorn, and that Óðinn left one of his eyes in the well as payment for a drink from it. Mímir’s relationship to Mímr (‘Mímr’s head’ in Vsp. 45 and Sd. 14) is also unclear; judging from their names, they may once have been separate figures, but they seem to have been conflated by the time the myths were written down. Cf. the world-tree Mímameiðr in Fj. 20.

160 Perhaps this revelation proved the profundity of the seeress’s knowledge, after which she received payment from Óðinn for a fuller demonstration.

161 Herfǫðr ‘Army Father’ is an Óðinn-alias.

162 Many editors emend fé ‘treasure’ to fekk ‘he/she got’.

163 Valkyries (valkyrjur, literally ‘choosers of the slain’), as imagined in various Eddic poems, are female riders in the service of Óðinn. Their main duties are to enact Óðinn’s will in deciding the course of battles between noblemen and to bring those chosen from among the fallen to Óðinn’s hall. There the newcomers join the einherjar, the ‘unique/only champions’ who will fight beside the gods at Ragnarok.

164 Or til Goðþjóðar ‘to the God Realm’. However, some editors emend goðþjóðar to Gotþjóðar ‘Gothic people/nation’, which they consider representative of humankind in general.

165 Skuld is also the name of one of the Nornir in Vsp. 20. SnEGylf (36, p. 30) appears to identify them as one and the same.

166 Perhaps ‘Outstanding One’. She is named earlier, beside Gǫndul, in Hák. 1.

167 ‘Battle’.

168 ‘Battle’.

169 Possibly ‘Staff-Wielder’.

170 Possibly ‘Outstanding One with a Spear’ or ‘One with Spear Raised High’. This word also appears in Hák. 12, but as an honorific for Skǫgul, not as a name for a separate valkyrie.

171 Herjann ‘Army Leader’ is an Óðinn-alias. Norse texts record widely differing numbers of valkyries. Many scholars doubt that the last two lines of this stanza are original to the poem.

172 Probably ‘Shining One’; a god, son of Óðinn and Frigg. SnEGylf (49, pp. 45–6) calls him Baldr inn góða ‘Baldr the good’ and tells how Loki instigated his death. Loki learnt that the mistletoe was the only thing in the world that Frigg had exempted from swearing not to harm Baldr. One day, Loki noticed that the blind god Hǫðr ‘Warrior’, Baldr’s brother, was not participating in the gods’ sport of throwing things at the seemingly invulnerable god. He gave Hǫðr some mistletoe and guided his aim. As Hǫðr shot, the harmless sprig turned into a deadly spear, which killed Baldr instantly; see also BDr. Book 3 of GD tells a different version of Baldr’s death.

173 ON tívurr, a word found only here, probably means ‘sacrifice’, ‘offering’ (cf. OE tíber; Gothic *tibr); cf. ON tafn ‘holy offering’, a term apparently describing either Baldr’s corpse or an aspect of his funeral in Húsdr. 10. Another, perhaps less likely, possibility is ‘god’ (cf. ON tívar ‘gods’, usual sg. týr).

174 The hidden fates of Baldr—that is, fates hidden from those other than the seeress—may be both his shocking death and his marvellous resurrection in the post-Ragnarok age.

175 SnEGylf (49, p. 45) places the mistletoe fyrir vestan Valhǫll ‘west of Valhǫll’.

176 Much superstition surrounds the mistletoe in European culture, but many scholars have struggled to reconcile the image of the slender meiðr ‘tree/branch’ with the bushy parasite that now bears this name (Viscum album). An attractive possibility is that the poet here refers to the plant as it was imagined before a curse, imposed because of the slaying of Baldr, transformed it into a meagre parasite, one condemned to re-enact its crime by piercing upstanding host-plants. Or maybe the poet refers to the mistletoe and the tree on which it lives as a single entity, just as people still talk of ‘mistletoe-trees’. Then again, the poet, or his or her source, may have misdescribed an unfamiliar plant or substituted mistelteinn for another plant-name altogether. ON mistilteinn ‘mistletoe’ may well be a calque of OE misteltan.

177 Or ‘branch’, ‘outgrowth’.

178 ON mær is probably a variant of mjór ‘slender’, a word used in the previous stanza.

179 More literally, ‘Hǫðr began to shoot’.

180 This brother is unnamed in Vsp., but probably called Váli ‘Little Warrior’ or ‘Little Van (i.e., one of the Vanir)’ elsewhere.

181 More literally, ‘began to strike’. As Hǫðr killed his brother Baldr, so it appears Váli kills his brother Hǫðr; cf. Hdl. 29. The boy avenger’s birth is also mentioned in BDr. 11, but the only full version of the story to survive appears in the third book of GD.

182 Perhaps just an indication of extreme youth and single-mindedness, but this behaviour may also reflect an ancient Germanic tribal custom whereby a man who had yet to kill in battle went about unkempt.

183 Baldr’s funeral is described in SnEGylf (49, pp. 46–7).

184 Frigg ‘Beloved One’ is Óðinn’s wife and Baldr’s mother.

185 ‘Fen Halls’, presumably Frigg’s abode.

186 ‘Hall of the Slain (valr)’, more familiar now as ‘Valhalla’. This is Óðinn’s hall, to which are brought the slaughtered warriors whom he chooses to fight beside him at Ragnarok. See earlier Eirm. 1 and Hák. 1, 9. Here in Vsp. the ‘woe of Valhǫll’ is presumably Baldr’s death and its ramifications.

187 ‘Grove of Kettle-Like Hollows’ or ‘Grove of Hot Springs’; this is not necessarily a proper name.

188 Áþekkjan ‘like’, ‘similar to’ may pun on Þǫkk ‘Thanks’, the ironic name of a giantess who, alone of all created things, refused to weep for the dead Baldr and thereby condemned him to remain in Hel; SnEGylf (49, p. 48) says she was thought to be Loki in disguise. The word may also play ironically on þekkr ‘agreeable, liked, tractable, obedient’.

189 The captive is, in fact, Loki himself (whose name, which probably means essentially ‘Blamer’, ‘Mocker’ or ‘Resolver’, is pronounced ‘locky’, not ‘low-key’). The expression ‘like to ... in form’ perhaps indicates that punishment has disfigured him. He is also associated with læ ‘craft, guile, treachery, harm’ in other texts; cf. Vsp. 25 too.

190 Or ‘there sits Sigyn, above her man, though not at all well-pleased’.

191 Or ‘husband’. Sigyn ‘Victory Friend’ is the wife of Loki. His punishment for thwarting Baldr’s resurrection is severe. According to SnEGylf (50, p. 49), the gods bind him across three stones and the giantess Skaði suspends a snake above him. Sigyn stands by with a basin to catch the venom dripping from the snake’s fangs, but when she goes to empty the basin, the venom falls on Loki’s face. He then writhes in agony, causing earthquakes. This scene is depicted on the west face of the tenth-century Gosforth Cross from Anglo-Norse Cumbria, but with Sigyn kneeling. It is probably also illustrated on the eighth-century Ardre VIII stone from Gotland.

192 ‘Dire’ or ‘Scabbard’; cf. Slíð in Grm. 28 and Geirvimul in Grm. 27; additionally, GD (1.8.14) mentions a river swirling with weapons. If this stanza once had a second half, it is now lost.

193 Probably ‘Dark Moons’ Plains’ or ‘Niði’s Plain’s’, Niði being a dwarf in Vsp. 11; another possibility is ‘Kinsmen’s Plains’. Cf. Niðafjǫll in Vsp. 63.

194 Sindri ‘Cindery’ is probably a dwarf, in which case his kindred are dwarves. In SnEGylf (52, p. 53), however, Sindri is a hall for virtuous folk.

195 Ostensibly ‘Uncold One’, but an original *Ofkolnir ‘Exceedingly Cold One’ might be entertained.

196 Or ‘and it’s called Brimir’. SnEGylf (52, p. 53) ascribes the name Brimir to a heavenly hall for virtuous people at Gimlé. Cf. Vsp. 9 and 62.

197 Variant versions of Vsp. 37–38 appear in SnEGylf (52, p. 53).

198 The seeress again speaks of herself in the third person, or refers to a spirit she mediates.

199 ‘Corpse Shore’. In Vsp. H 34 the noun is pl.

200 Or translate as sg.: ‘the door faces’.

201 Literally ‘heavy currents’. Cf. Grm. 21, Rm. 3–4.

202 I.e., murderous criminals, murderers, who are likened to wolves. Cf. the wolf (vargr) which preys on them later in this stanza; cannibalism is not uncommon among wolves.

203 Cf. Háv. 115. All those suffering in this stanza are probably dead.

204 A dragon who reappears in Vsp. 63. Niðhǫggr probably means ‘Waning/Dark-Moon Striker’, appropriately as the hall in which it sucks the dead is ‘far from the sun’; alternatively, Níðhǫggr ‘Malicious Striker’—there may be deliberate ambiguity. SnEGylf (52, p. 53) says that this monster torments the bodies of the dead in the spring called Hvergelmir. According to Grm. 32 and 35, the creature lies beneath the world-tree and gnaws its roots. Cf. the niðdraca ‘waning/dark-moon(?) dragon’ of the Old English poem Beowulf.

205 Alternatively, ‘a wolf’ or ‘a/the thief/criminal’. Whether this vargr is distinct from the dragon Niðhǫggr is uncertain; the Gosforth Cross shows a wolf-headed snake.

206 Variant versions of Vsp. 39 and 40 appear in SnEGylf (12, pp. 14–15).

207 Járnviðr ‘Iron Wood’, which SnEGylf (12, p. 14) places east of Miðgarðr. It may be a wooded Dano-German bog, from which bog-ore and iron-hardened bog-wood were extracted. The ‘old one’ is female; SnEGylf (12, p. 14) calls her a gýgr ‘giantess’ dwelling east of Miðgarðr in the forest called Járnviðr where troll-women called Járnviðjur live; SnEGylf (34, p. 27) perhaps identifies her as the giantess Angrboða ‘Grief-Announcer’.

208 Or ‘fed’, ‘reared’.

209 The reference is to wolves, Fenrir being the most famous wolf of Norse myth; see Vsp. 43 and earlier Hák. 20 and Eirm. 7.

210 Or ‘will become’. SnEUpp (12, p. 22) has verðr af þeim ǫllum / íma nǫkkur ‘from them all comes a certain she-wolf’.

211 Or, less likely, another heavenly body.

212 A literal translation of tjúgari, a user of a tjúga ‘pitchfork’. In chapter 10 of The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in ‘Beowulf’ (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2020), pp. 235–86, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0190.10, I suggest that the trollish wielder might be allied to the moon, for which it uses a long fork to take ‘beams’ of light from the sun. Etymologically, though, a tjúgari is a ‘drawer’, so here one might alternatively translate ‘drawer (to destruction)’. SnEUpp (12, p. 22) has a different word: tregari ‘causer of grief’.

213 Trolls/giants and wolves are closely associated in Norse myth and folklore. SnEGylf (12, p. 14) calls this particular monster Mánagarmr ‘Moon’s Dog’, and says this mightiest of creatures will swallow tungl (i.e., one or more heavenly bodies) and bespatter the sky with blood; it adds that þaðan týnir sól skíni sínu ‘as a result the sun will lose its shine’. In Vsp. it might be that this creature attacks the sun on behalf of the moon (cf. the lupine attacks on the sun in Vm. 46–47 and Grm. 39). But the possibility that it is rather the moon that is attacked, and forked from the sky, cannot be discounted; as often in Vsp., there may be deliberate ambiguity. In chapter 10 of The Waning Sword, I argue that this stanza’s lupine troll and aged mother might be analogous to Grendel and his mother in Beowulf.

214 Alternatively, ‘she fills [or ‘will fill’] herself’ or ‘it fills [or ‘will fill’] itself’.

215 Probably humans.

216 At least some of these may be in the sky.

217 H’s verða gives slightly different sense from R’s var ða: ‘sunshine (literally, pl.) becomes dark’.

218 This detail may reflect the sight of volcanic ash falling from a clear Icelandic sky. Alternatively (or additionally), the reference may be to solar eclipses or simply to the vanishing of the sun.

219 According to SnEGylf (51, p. 49), Ragnarok is preceded by a mighty winter (fimbulvetr); see also Vm. 44.

220 Identity uncertain, but perhaps ‘the old one’ of Vsp. 39, in which case translate ‘The giantess’s’.

221 Eggþér (a giant?) is obscure. His name, which means ‘Edge Servant’, corresponds to OE Ecgþeow, the name of the father of the hero of Beowulf.

222 Or ‘gosling-wood’ (perhaps a proper noun). Possibly gagl- ‘gosling’ denotes no more than ‘bird’ here. Other possibilities are that gagl is here a plant-name (‘gale’) or a word meaning ‘towering’, and that gaglviði is a scribal error for gálgviði ‘gallows tree/wood’, the reading of Vsp. H 32. This last possibility is attractive as a reference to the world-tree as Óðinn’s gallows or to a sacrificial grove.

223 Perhaps ‘Hider’. The name is otherwise that of a giant and, earlier in Vsp., a dwarf.

224 ‘Golden Comb’, a cockerel. Cf. HH. II 49.

225 The hall of the ‘Father of Armies’, i.e., of Óðinn. His hall is Valhǫll.

226 Hel ‘Hidden Place’ is here either the goddess of the subterranean land of the dead or that land itself.

227 Garmr, ostensibly ‘Tatter/Rag’ but probably really ‘Howler’, is a mighty dog (Grm. 44) or perhaps an alias of the wolf Fenrir; the common noun garmr is translatable as ‘dog’ or ‘damager’, ‘enemy’ in a skaldic verse in SnESkáld (I, 60, p. 91). SnEGylf (51, p. 50) says that Garmr breaks loose at Ragnarok and dies killing the god Týr. Cf. Mánagarmr in SnEGylf (12, p. 14). Gnipahellir (and its variant Gnúpahellir in H) means ‘Cave with Overhangings’, a name unrecorded elsewhere.

228 The ‘ravener’ is Fenrir or Garmr (if different). The gods bound Fenrir with a magical fetter, from which he will escape at Ragnarok; see the prologue to Ls. and SnEGylf (34, pp. 27–29; 51, p. 50).

229 Or ‘of the battle-gods’.

230 A variant of this stanza appears in SnEGylf (51, p. 49); it lacks the final line and has með hǫlðum ‘among men’, rather than í heimi ‘in the world’.

231 Or ‘outlaw-age’.

232 Mímr is possibly identical to Mímir (see Vsp. 28). The identity of his sons is also uncertain (perhaps giants or men).

233 ‘Horn of (the river) Gjǫll’. Instead of galla ‘resonant’, H calls the horn gamla ‘ancient’.

234 Heimdallr, the gods’ sentinel, watches and listens for the advance of the giants at Ragnarok, when he blows his horn.

235 The last two lines of this stanza and the first two lines of the next find parallel in a single stanza in a quotation from a version of Vsp. in SnEGylf (51, p. 51). Chapter 4 of Ynglinga saga records that the very wise Mímir was sent, along with Hœnir, by the Æsir to the Vanir as a hostage at the end of their war. Dissatisfied with Hœnir, the Vanir decapitated Mímir and returned his head to the Æsir, whereupon Óðinn embalmed it and recited spells so that it would tell him secret knowledge; cf. Sd. 14.

236 The ‘giant’ is probably Loki, whom the gods bound after his instigation of the killing of Baldr (SnEGylf 50, p. 49; cf. Vsp. R 34, Vsp. H 30); otherwise, perhaps Hrymr, Surtr, Fenrir, Garmr or Miðgarðsormr.

237 These lines might belong to the preceding stanza, but in H, where they appear in reverse order, they are followed by two lines absent from R to form a separate stanza of standard length.

238 A variant of this stanza appears in SnEGylf (51, p. 51).

239 Hrymr, who is probably driving a chariot, is a giant; his name might mean ‘Feeble (from Age)’. SnEGylf (51, p. 50) says he steers the ship Naglfar at Ragnarok, whereas it may be Loki who does that in Vsp. 49.

240 Jǫrmungandr ‘Mighty Monstrous-Spirit’ or ‘Enormous Magic-Staff’ is an alias of the Miðgarðsormr, the ‘Snake of Miðgarðr’, the world-serpent which, like the wolf Fenrir and the goddess Hel, was the offspring of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. For another jǫtunn ‘(devouring) giant’-snake, see Fm. 29.

241 ‘Fallow/pale-nosed’ (H has a different reading) might allude to the eagle, as some eagles’ beaks are lighter than their plumage. Cf. Hræsvelgr ‘Corpse Swallower’, the eagle-shaped giant whose wings create the winds in Vm. 36-7.

242 SnEGylf (51, pp. 50-1) identifies Naglfar (also Naglfal) as a ship. It also identifies Naglfari as the biggest ship and says it belongs to Muspell (43, p. 36). Naglfar(i) ostensibly means ‘Nail(ed) Farer’, though the first element was perhaps originally nár ‘corpse’. The possibility that the referent is rather a person, not a ship, is raised by a reference to a character called Naglfari, husband of Nótt ‘Night’, in SnEGylf (10, p. 13).

243 A variant of this stanza appears in SnEGylf (51, p. 51).

244 Or ‘The’.

245 Possibly Naglfar(i).

246 Giants or other evil beings; cf. Ls. 42. The name Muspell (or Múspell) is perhaps that of a fire-giant. Other forms of the word, which scholars have interpreted as meaning roughly ‘end of the world’, occur in Christian apocalyptic contexts in Old High German and Old Saxon texts.

247 The ostensible literal sense is ‘the fool’s’, but fífl might here rather denote the name of, or a term for, a sea-monster.

248 Fenrir or Garmr.

249 Býleiptr’s brother is Loki. Býleiptr, possibly ‘Farmstead Lightning’, might well be an alias of Óðinn, Loki’s blood-brother; Vsp. H 43 has Býleists; cf. Hdl. 40.

250 A variant of this stanza appears in SnEGylf (51, p. 51).

251 Cf. Þrk. 7. The alliterative pairing ‘Æsir and elves’ is common in Eddic verse, and finds parallel in an Old English metrical charm, but ‘elves’ play no obvious part in any other Eddic poem except Vkv., in which the smith Vǫlundr is a ‘prince of elves’. Possibly álfar ‘elves’ describes, or once described, the Vanir.

252 Alternatively, ‘wise ones of the way-rock’, as Vsp. H 40 has it, rock being the dwarves’ highway. R’s veggberg ‘wall-rock’ may be a poetic term for ‘cliffs’, which collapse in the next stanza.

253 SnEGylf (4, p. 9) quotes this stanza, as does SnEGylf (51, p. 51).

254 Surtr ‘Black One’ is a fire-giant; cf. Vm. 50–51. ‘Destruction of twigs’ is a kenning for ‘fire’, here perhaps stemming from a fiery sword.

255 Or ‘the sun of the gods of the slain shines from (his) sword’. The identity of this sword is uncertain, but its implicitly fiery (because solar) nature suggests that it might be wielded by the fire-bearing Surtr. Potentially relevant mythical swords include Lævateinn ‘Twig of Treacheries’ (cf. sviga lævi in the preceding line), this being a probably radiant weapon plucked from the branches of the world-tree by Loki, who took it to the Underworld, where it was guarded by a giantess, Sinmara, closely related to Surtr (see Fj.); the lost sword of the sun-controlling Freyr; and the fiery sword of God on Doomsday in early medieval Christian tradition.

256 Or ‘and troll-women stumble’; the translation ‘witches’ for gífr, literally ‘greedy ones’, is approximate. These are perhaps allies of Surtr. Alternatively, they might be land-spirits made homeless by the turmoil. SnEUpp (7, p. 14) has a different reading: en guðar hrata ‘and gods tumble’.

257 The road to Hel, land of the dead. See also Hlr.

258 Variants of Vsp. 52–55 appear in SnEGylf (51, p. 52).

259 Hlín ‘Defending/Protecting One’ is perhaps an alias of Óðinn’s wife, Frigg, whose first sorrow would have been Baldr’s death. But SnEGylf (35, p. 30) identifies Hlín as a goddess who guards people whom Frigg wants to protect from danger. The name often appears in skaldic kennings for ‘woman’.

260 Beli was a giant whose name probably means ‘Bellower’. Freyr, who was without his sword, slew him with a stag’s antler, according to SnEGylf (37, p. 31). Earlier, Freyr is similarly ‘Beli’s enemy’ in Hál. 3. For Freyr’s death against Surtr at Ragnarok, see SnEGylf (51, p. 50).

261 Here Angantýr ‘Fragrant God’, elsewhere a hero-name (cf. Hdl. 9), might be an alias of Óðinn, who is devoured by the wolf at Ragnarok; see SnEGylf (51, p. 50) and Vm. 53. Another possibility is Freyr. H has simply angan ‘fragrant one’.

262 Sigfaðir ‘Victory Father’ is an alias of Óðinn.

263 Possibly ‘Spear Lord’ or ‘Wide Ruler’.

264 The wolf.

265 Or mundum ‘with his hands’.

266 Hveðrungr, perhaps ‘Descendant of Hveðra [a giantess]’ or ‘Roarer’, is a name of Loki; his son is the wolf Fenrir.

267 Hlóðyn, a word of uncertain etymology (it perhaps corresponds to Hludana, an ancient Germanic goddess of the Rhineland), is a name of Þórr’s mother. She is called Fjǫrgyn ‘Earth’ later in this stanza.

268 Þórr.

269 Here úlf ‘wolf’ could well be a mistake for orm ‘snake’, the scribe having repeated við úlf vega ‘to fight against the wolf’ from two stanzas earlier. But it is not certainly an error (or at least not definitely a purely mechanical one), as the tenth-century depiction of Ragnarok on the Gosforth Cross includes a wolf-headed snake.

270 Or ‘slays’.

271 This line is ambiguous. It could mean either ‘he [Þórr] strikes Miðgarðr’s guardian [or ‘encircler’; i.e., the world-serpent] in anger’ or ‘he/it [the wolf or world-serpent] strikes Miðgarðr’s guardian [i.e., Þórr] in anger’; the latter sense is perhaps more immediate, as Þórr is called Véurr in Hym. Some editors emend acc. sg. véur to nom. sg. véurr (found in SnEGylf), in which case the sense is ‘Miðgarðr’s guardian strikes him/it in rage’.

272 The ‘homestead’ is presumably the world.

273 Þórr. His mother’s name, Fjǫrgyn, means ‘Earth’ or ‘Mountain’.

274 The meaning of this line is disputed, but a dark (i.e., new) moon might be eclipsing the sun, which turns black in the next stanza. Alternatively, the snake might be ‘unapprehensive of hostility (níðs)’; deliberate ambiguity is possible.

275 This line might be echoed at the start of st. 24 of Þorfinnsdrápa ‘Þorfinnr’s Poem’ by the Icelander Arnórr Þórðarson jarlaskáld (b. after 1012, d. after 1073); SPSMA II, 258–59.

276 ‘Life-nourisher’ (aldrnari) is attested elsewhere as a poetic term for ‘fire’. Alternatively, here it might describe the life-sustaining world-tree, which is engulfed in smoke and flame. Again, more than one meaning might be intended.

277 Presumably from flames.

278 ‘Fell’ in the old sense of ‘mountain’, here presumably one with stretches of water on its lower slopes.

279 Possibly a kenning for the earth-encircling Miðgarðsormr; it might be a proper noun. Vsp. H 52 follows this line with one that, probably due to textual corruption, is missing from R: ok minnask þar á megindóma ‘and there remember great dooms’.

280 Or ‘ancient secrets’. Fimbultýr ‘Mighty God’ is probably an alias of Óðinn; cf. Fimbulþulr in Háv. 80, 142.

281 Cf. Vsp. 8.

282 Hroptr is an Óðinn-alias of uncertain meaning, perhaps ‘Cryptic/Hidden One’ or ‘Invoker’.

283 The text makes sense as it stands, but some editors emend vel valtívar ‘well, (as) gods of the slain’ to vé valtíva ‘sanctuaries of the gods of the slain’; other possible emendations are vés valtívar ‘gods of the sanctuary’ and vel veltívar ‘well, (as) benign gods’; cf. Vsp. H 54.

284 Or ‘sacrificial blood twig’; hlaut- (hlut- in Vsp. H 55) denotes primarily a lot used in augury, secondarily the sacrificial blood used. Either way, Hœnir divines the future. Cf. Hym. 1.

285 The identity of the two brothers (or ‘the brothers of Tveggi [=Óðinn]’?) is unclear, but they could well be Hǫðr and Baldr. Their sons (a new generation of gods or men?) are also obscure.

286 Presumably a description of the expansive new world.

287 A variant of this stanza appears in SnEGylf (17, p. 20); it describes the hall as gulli betra ‘better than gold’, rather than gulli þakðan ‘thatched with gold’.

288 SnEGylf (52, p. 53) says that, after Ragnarok, Gimlé ‘Fire/Gem Lee’ will be the best place in heaven, where there will be fine drink for those in the hall called Brimir. Righteous people will dwell in it and in a hall called Sindri; cf. Vsp. 36.

289 I.e., groups of people.

290 I.e., dimly shining.

291 ‘Waning/Dark Moons’ Mountains’ or ‘Niði’s Mountains’, Niði being a dwarf in Vsp. 11, or ‘Kinsmen’s Mountains’. More than one sense might apply. Cf. Niðavellir in Vsp. 36.

292 Or ‘in his feathers’.

293 If, at the start of this stanza, þar ‘there’ (absent from Vsp. H 58) refers to Gimlé, it is uncertain why the dragon should carry corpses, presumably from Nástrǫnd (Vsp. 37–38), to this happy hall; but perhaps, following their torture, implicitly in the depths, the dead are now deemed fit for resurrection and to join the virtuous in a new life of bliss.

294 Norse seeresses reportedly sat on high-seats or platforms while performing, but this one’s sinking at the end of her recitation might also (or alternatively) indicate a mental collapse as she withdraws from a trance-like state. Another possibility, entertained by scholars who believe that Óðinn had wakened the seeress from the dead, is that she sinks back into her grave. Cf. Vsp. 2, Ls. 24, Grp. 22.