Baldr's Death

From the east there pours through poisoned vales With swords and daggers the river Slith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Northward a hall in Nithavellir Of gold there rose for Sindri's race; And in Okolnir another stood, Where the giant Brimir his beer-hall had. [36. Stanzas 36-39 describe the homes of the enemies of the gods: the giants (36), the dwarfs (37), and the dead in the land of the goddess Hel (38-39). The Hauksbok version omits stanzas 36 and 37. Regius unites 36 with 37, but most editors have assumed a lacuna. Slith ("the Fearful"): a river in the giants' home. The "swords and daggers" may represent the icy cold.

A hall I saw, far from the sun, On Nastrond it stands, and the doors face north, Venom drops through the smoke-vent down, For around the walls do serpents wind.

I saw there wading through rivers wild Treacherous men and murderers too, And workers of ill with the wives of men; There Nithhogg sucked the blood of the slain, And the wolf tore men; would you know yet more? [38. Stanzas 38 and 39 follow stanza 43 in the Hauksbok version. Snorri quotes stanzas 39, 39, 40 and 41, though not consecutively. Nastrond ("Corpse-Strand"): the land of the dead, ruled by the goddess Hel. Here the wicked undergo tortures. Smoke vent: the phrase gives a picture of the Icelandic house, with its opening in the roof serving instead of a chimney.

The giantess old in Ironwood sat, file:///C|/WINDOWS/Desktop/sacred-texts/neu/poe/poe03.htm (10 of 16) [4/8/2002 10:06:41 PM] Voluspo In the east, and bore the brood of Fenrir; Among these one in monster's guise Was soon to steal the sun from the sky.

There feeds he full on the flesh of the dead, And the home of the gods he reddens with gore; Dark grows the sun, and in summer soon Come mighty storms: would you know yet more?

On a hill there sat, and smote on his harp, Eggther the joyous, the giants' warder; Above him the cock in the bird-wood crowed, Fair and red did Fjalar stand. [40. The Hauksbok version inserts after stanza 39 the refrain stanza (44), and puts stanzas 40 and 41 between 27 and 21. With this stanza begins the account of the final struggle itself. The giantess: her name is nowhere stated, and the only other reference to Ironwood is in Grimnismol, 39, in this same connection. The children of this giantess and the wolf Fenrir are the wolves Skoll and Hati, the first of whom steals the sun, the second the moon. Some scholars naturally see here an eclipse myth.

Then to the gods crowed Gollinkambi, He wakes the heroes in Othin's hall; And beneath the earth does another crow, The rust-red bird at the bars of Hel.

Now Garm howls loud before Gnipahellir, The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free; Much do I know, and more can see Of the fate of the gods, the mighty in fight.

Brothers shall fight and fell each other, And sisters' sons shall kinship stain; [43. Gollinkambi ("Gold-Comb"): the cock who wakes the gods and heroes, as Fjalar does the giants. The rust-red bird: the name of this bird, who wakes the people of Hel's domain, is nowhere stated.

Fast move the sons of Mim, and fate Is heard in the note of the Gjallarhorn; Loud blows Heimdall, the horn is aloft, In fear quake all who on Hel-roads are.