-
Völuspá - The prediction of the prophetess Old Norse and English versions with commentaries
It is also supplemented, after the poem, by historical indications on Verden massacre
and citations of Gautrek’s saga
and
Refutes 19 argument claiming a Christian influences, all due to academic
specialists.
Here is an nth translation of Völuspá, a poem of poetic Edda. It is
essentially different from the others in that it provides information on the
suspicions of Christian influences associated to one or another of its stanzas
... and that it shows that, most often, these so-called suspicions are based on
commonalities of words used in very different contexts in Völuspá and in
the Christians texts supposed to have been inspiring it.
On ‘Christian influences’
It is clear that all the manuscripts of the poetic Edda were written in a social context
where being Christian was compulsory and paganism banned. Their content has thus been
more than less overseen by Church authorities. Looking for ‘Christian influences’ in these
texts is to behave as a supposed civilization carrier sifting the good Christian wheat from the
pagan chaff. Colonizers mistreated ‘prime’ civilizations in good conscience in the name of
the intellectual superiority of European thought. Modern commentators looking for
Christian influences in Eddic texts mistreat them by challenging their authenticity. For
example, the myth of ‘Baldr’s death’ is classically supposed to have received a Christian
influence due to his ‘obvious’ similarity with Christ and Frigg’s cries? Indeed, Frigg cries
for her bloody son. And his father also mourns his son - all this can reflect a Christian
behavior. His father, however, has Baldr's assassin killed by another of his sons. Do you see
there a negligible gory heathenish detail to be carefully forgotten ?
More generally, recall the profusion of texts, mostly medieval ones, dealing with the
problem of human destiny and the end of the world. This topic of thought is called an
“eschatology.” There are therefore many eschatologies, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist
ones etc. each inspired by the worldview of the religion that produced it.
Völuspá describes an ancient Norse eschatology named ‘Ragnarök’, which means ‘the
judgment of the powers’, better known thanks to Wagner under the name of ‘twilight of the
gods’. But it can be noted immediately that the word ‘eschatology’ has just been improperly
used, since an eschatology deals with the destiny of humankind while Ragnarök deals with
the destiny of ‘god-kind’. That is why it is not very logical to speak of a Norse eschatology.
Anyhow, the vast majority of readers of ancient Norse texts live in true Christian eschatology
and use it to understand a Norse ‘non-eschatology’. It is not surprising that they find there a
multitude of what they feel as Christian-likeness they call ‘influence’. Already in Völuspá s.
1 we will meet such a misunderstanding with the word spjall that we translate like everyone
else by ‘knowledge’, whereas its real meaning is closer to ‘incantation’ or ‘saying’.
Another famous example of an ill-treated Norse word is the one of ‘siðr’ that we
translate as ‘religion’ (alternatively, we could also say that the word ‘religion’ does not exist
-
in Old Norse). In fact, ‘siðr’ refers to a custom or a behavior rather than religion, by which
the old religion is called forn siðr and the new one became nýr siðr (Christian ‘religion’).
Old custom describes old behaviors rather than faith. This is why the dates of
Christianization (when words have taken their Christian meaning) of a country are much
later than those of the corresponding conversion (when speaking is still a pagan one). This
also explains why it so easy to misunderstand the content of Völuspá.
This poem is the one that raised the largest suspicion concerning ‘Christian
influences’. Quite often these accusations are uttered as insults, which does not lead to
honest discussion. It turns out that a fairly recent book, The Nordic Apocalypse, edited by
Terry Gunnell and Annette Lassen (2013), took stock of these influences. All the articles in
this book, except the one of Lassen (who exposes a history of the past scholarly reactions to
this poem) and Gunnell (who describes how the poem could be declaimed and 'played'), have
explicitly taken a stand in favor of the existence of these influences. We thus have here a sort
of academic summary of the positions of these supporters of influences, which enables a
calm discussion that has been undertaken in parallel to a personal translation of the poem. To
avoid lengthy references repetition, a special form of quotation is used here: Author name
(GL 2013, pp. Number of the pages cited). For example, Gunnell's poetic contribution would
be presented as: Gunnell (GL 2013, pp. 70-72). In order not to confuse this discussion with
those related to the translation itself, they are framed in a visible way below the
corresponding stanza, as below a particularly complicated argumentation that will be further
detailed:
Ursula Dronke (1997, pp. 99-104) studied the possibility of Christian influences
linked to similarities between Völuspá and the Sibylline Oracles, very popular in the
Middle Ages ...
but Karl G. Johansson (GL 2013, pp. 161-184) disputed some of her points and he
refined Dronke's analysis using the Tiburtine Oracle ...
but Stephen J. Shoemaker (ref: http in bibliography), reports that many
modifications to the known texts of the Oracles of Tibur are in progress.
This ends up having no more interest than a discussions on the gender of angels.
A few words on presentation and translation
A personal presentation of Hávamál (available on Akademia.edu) is done in a similar
spirit, but in a less argumentative way since all the attempts to spot Christian influences in
Hávamál have been ridiculed by several scholars (see the 2nd interlude associated to s. 21).
On the contrary, and relatively recently, Völuspá became for most people a very
Christianized piece of lore, yet another incredible miracle.
In what follows, no Scandinavian name or concept will appear without explanation.
Once explained, I will use some of these names as if they were well-known.
When dealing with Eddic poems, we must remember that they are known by a
remarkably small number of manuscripts which however present different versions. I will
-
use here as reference Codex Regius, in the version published by Hans Kuhn, Carl Winter,
Heidelberg 1962. Kuhn presents a great number of variations which are in the various
manuscripts, but I will not give these details. For reasons of the convenience, I will keep the
letter ö, used to represent an ‘o tailed’ in Kuhn’s edition.
Once that a manuscript is chosen, the Old Norse language of poetry is hard to
understand. For my translation, I used De Vries’ etymological dictionary (noted ‘de Vries’),
Cleasby-Vigfusson’s Icelandic-English dictionary (noted C. -V. ) and very often also,
Sveinbjön Egilsson’s Lexicon poëticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis (noted as LexPoet).
This last provides the meaning of a greater number of words than C. -V. , associated a
variety of quotations illustrating the use of the words, mainly in poetry. I also built a reliable,
readable and cherchable list of irregular verbs, made available at IRREGULAR VERBS .
Some useful preliminary explanations
A prophetess was called a völva that gives völu in the singular genitive: this is the
“völu” in völuspá (‘spá of a völva’). She practised a kind of shamanism which resembles
much that of North American Indians, which became so popular since a few years. This kind
of Scandinavian shamanism is called seiðr or seið – often spelled ‘seidr’. In spite of the
scarcity of available testimony, we know that a völva practised seiðr outside, on a kind of
wooden platform, surrounded by all her helpers and customers, and she required someone
singing a special song. There is also a solitary form of practice, called “útiseta” (outside sat)
to which Völuspa seems to refer.
It seems that seidr was practised primarily by women since it is known that the practice
of the seidr ‘to perfection’ makes the men impotent where this word can also be understood
as ‘homosexual’.
Thus, what had been in the past a highly respected ability, since it was reserved to
women or to effeminate men (or, according to my personal interpretation: reserved to the
female side of men - and women!), became gradually scorned, and is often used as an insult
in texts and runic inscriptions
Note that we will always speak of the mythic Giants and Dwarves in order to single
them out of the tall or short individuals. Likewise the word god will never carry a capital
letter in order to differentiate it from God.
Óðinn (often written: Odin, or Odhin, or Odhinn) is the main of the Scandinavian gods,
the Æsir. There was also another kind of gods, the Vanir who might have been more ancient,
but they will be reconcile with the Æsir, after a war evoked below in stanzas 21-26. Lastly,
the Giants are also supra human beings who seem to be irreducible enemies to the Æsir.
They will cause Ragnarök as described in stanzas 44 to 58
Old Norse civilization was equipped with a spirituality associated to an ancestors’
worship, to which poems and sagas refer. This worship is also firmly proven by the multitude
of offerings found in the howes of the powerful ones and close to the tombs of humble ones,
and by the meetings held around these sites during hundreds of years.
VÖLUSPÁ
(The Seeress Prophecy)
file:///C:/WS_FTP-OLD/MNG/IrregulFinalEng.pdf
-
Old Norse (ON)
from the Codex
Regius
Litteral meaning followed by an
English translation
Comments
Stanza 1
Old Norse
1. Hlióðs bið ec
allar kindir
meiri oc minni,
mögo Heimdalar;
vildo at ec, Valföðr, vel fyrtelia forn spiöll fira, þau er fremst um man.
Literal translation orð eptir orð (word
for word)
followed by an English one
(Your) listening beg I
from all the family high ones and low ones, children of Heimdalr;
you want that I, Killed-ones’ Father,
well to tell
old knowledge of the people,
those the ‘most forward’ (that) I remember
Explanations and comments
The first line is a ritual formula used to ask
silence at the beginning of the Icelandic
general meeting, or before declaming
poetry.
Valföðr = Killed-ones’ Father = Óðinn
the ‘most forward’ = the oldest? It normally
means ‘most future’, i. e. here: ‘all of them’
English Translation
I beg you to listen ,
you all of the family,
higher and lower ones,
children of Heimdalr;
You want, Valföðr, that
I properly tell
ancient knowledge
remotest that I remember.
Another Eddic poem, Rigsþula, also tells us
that all kinds of human ones are Heimdall’s
sons.
In the first line, the fact of “begging for listening” from her audience instead of
imposing silence to them illustrates a typical Norse behavior that - with all due respect to
the poet and the völva- indicates a form of modesty often absent among the religion
preachers.
Spjall is indeed ‘a knowledge, a saying’ in our civilization, but it also carries the
meaning of magical incantation in Old Norse.
It is a little surprising that, in the second part of this stanza, the völva says that
Óðinn asked her to tell the old incantations, the ‘old ways of speech’ and that this covers
what we call an eschatology. We see that some ways of Norse speaking became foreign to
ours.
Stanza 2
-
Old Norse
2. Ec man iötna
ár um borna,
þá er forðom mic
fœdda höfðo;
nío man ec heima,
nío íviði,
miötvið mœran
fyr mold neðan.
Literal translation
I remember the giants
in old times born,
those who in the past me
nourished to someone adult;
nine remember I countries,
nine Giantesses (or ogresses) the measure-master famous
toward the ground under.
Explanations and comments
The two words ‘giantess’ and ‘ogress’ are more or
less equivalent in the Norse langage.
Here, the master of measurement can only be
Yggdrasill, which is still growing under the
ground.
English I remember the giants
in old times born,
those who in the past
nourished me to become an
adult;
I remember nine countries,
nine Giantesses
and the famous measure-master
still under the ground.
This title has been used in Old English to point at
God. Yggdrasill is certainly no proper ‘god’
though this way of speech attributes to it a
primary role in Norse mythology.
Additional comments
In short, in the second stanza, the völva describes what have been the oldest
times she had known: Nine distinct worlds inhabited by “Giants and Giantesses”
able to raise their children. The gods and the humans did not exist yet and it seems
that the völva was herself of Giant ancestry. This explains that Óðinn had to awaken
a Giantess to learn about the origins of the Norse worlds. The lines “I remember
nine countries and nine giants” underline the fact that the Giants then occupied all
existing territories.
We cannot avoid noticing here the huge difference, relative to the organization
of the living beings, between the Christian tradition and the Norse one. In the Norse
tradition, the first inhabitants were Giants and, equally important in the poem,
Giantesses. This overall equality between males and females opposes the biblical
description of the first earth inhabitants. The same occurs for humankind: As we
shall see in s. 17 and 18, men and women have been both simultaneously gifted with
the same abilities by the Powers, which again opposes the biblical legend of
humankind’s creation.
The last two lines introduce us to a ‘being’ that is so absent from our
consciousness that we tend to somewhat forget the existence of an ancient tree who
gives the good measure to a world-wide orchestra. He/She/It was ‘still under the
-
earth’ as stated by line 8 of this stanza, implying that, during these remote times, the
‘good measure’ was not yet available. This means that these ancient times were
times of wild immoderation.
Stanza 3
Old Norse
3. Ár var alda,
þar er Ymir bygði,
vara sandr né sær
né svalar unnir,
iörð fannz æva
né upphiminn,
gap var ginnunga
enn gras hvergi.
Literal translation
The year was old, there Ymir had settled,
there were sand nor sea
nor fresh waves,
ground was never
nor sky above,
abyss was gigantic
and grass none.
Explanations and comments
This is a way to say “in olden days. ”
Ymir is the name of the primary Giant who has
been the first living being in the universe, (and
thus before the gods).
“the ground could not be found”
“ nothing existed but a huge pit”
English
In these old times
when Ymir had settled there
there were neither sand nor sea
nor chilly waves;
Ground did not exist
nor sky above,
only one immense pit
and no grass at all.
Stanza 4
Old Norse
4. Áðr Burs synir
biöðum um ypþo,
þeir er miðgarð
mœran scópo;
sól scein sunnan
á salar steina,
þá var grund gróin
grœnom lauki.
Literal translation
At first sons of Burr grounds over up-
lifted/exalted,
there is miðgarðr,
magnificently shaped by magic means;
sun shone from the South
on a hall of stone,
then were ground grown
green leeks.
Explanations and comments
ypþo = yppðu is the preterit plural of verb yppa, to
raise, exalt.
Burr is Óðinn’s father. Snorra Edda reports that
Auðumla, the primitive cow, after having licked
the ice surrounding Giant Ymir, licked out also
the first god, Burr; out of the ice.
Miðgarðr is the residence of human beings, our
world.
English
At first Burr’s sons ,
raised and exalted the grounds,
where Miðgarðr stands,
Verb skapa does skópu in the preterit plural
(spelled scópo here). It can simply mean ‘to
make’ but its proper meaning is ‘to shape’, and it
can also mean ‘to use magic for shaping’ which
-
magnificently magic-shaped;
The sun was shining from the South
on a hall of stone,
then were growing on the ground
green leeks.
suits well the present context.
The “green leeks” of the text point at the very first
grass. Thus, in Scandinavian mythology, the leek carries
a mystical importance that is difficult to render
within the modern world.
Earth formation: a process of ‘birth delivery’ or of ‘things reordering’?
Because of her incredible culture, and the respect it inspires, Ursula Dronke had an
incredibly strong influence within the scholarly community specialized in ancient
Scandinavian culture. She takes this opportunity to support a Christian understanding of the
texts. The lines above: “The sons of Burr (Norse gods) have raised the land” obviously
evokes a planet Earth emerging from the waters. It should be noted that the same type of
description takes place in s. 59 that says: “upp koma ... iörð ór ægi (upward comes ... the
land out of the ocean). We thus understand that the Gimle ‘new earth’, following Ragnarok,
will also come out of the waters.
Ursula Dronke states she has looked for another example of such an emergence
of the Earth and modestly confesses that the only allusion to such a phenomenon she
could find is in Genesis 1, 9. Indeed, the lines 9 and 10 of Genesis 1 state:
(9) Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the
dry land appear.’ And it was so.
(10) God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he
called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
It seems quite clear that Genesis does not describe an emergence of Earth out of
the waters but a splitting between the waters and the land and the waters are relocated.
In fact, ‘God’ piles up the waters in one place and calls 'Earth' what is left, while the
sons of Burr have ‘raised’ the earth (the one to be moved) so that it appears in (or out
of?) Ginnungagap. On the whole, Earth actually starts to exist in both cases, but it is as
a result of two different actions, one being to move away the waters and the other to
expose Earth. The image evoked by the Norse myth is that of maternal waters giving
birth to the earth. Genesis 1 evokes Earth establishment since ‘God’ separated the
waters from earth.
Stanza 5
Old Norse
5. Sól varp sunnan
sinni mána
hendi inni hœgri
um himiniöður;
sól þat né vissi
hvar hón sali átti,
stiörnor þat ne visso
Literal translation
(she) Sun threw from the South
(to) her moon
a hand (for) a comfortable home
around the edge of the sky;
sun did not know
which her residence had,
the stars did not know
Explanations and comments
Sun is a feminine word in Old Norse and she
‘throws’ her hand to sinni (dative feminine) the moon.
She obviously acts to help moon so that one can
understand that sun ‘gave moon a hand’.
Eddic poetry does not hesitate to play with the
word ordering in order to comply to poetic
composition rules, such as Snorri granted them to
-
hvar þær staði átto,
máni þat né vissi
hvat hann megins átti.
which housing they had,
(he) moon did not know
which he power had.
us. Here, we could translate “sinni mána” by “her
moon” which would not have much meaning, this
is why we associate “sinni” with “hendi” in next
line which gives “her hand. ”
English
The sun, from the South,
stretched her hand
to the moon (to get) a comfortable
home
all around the sky;
sun did not know
which residence she had,
the stars did not know
which housing they had,
moon did not know
which power he had.
I preserved the sequence of “átti, átto” and of
“þat born vissi, þat born visso” of the original
though it may can appear a little heavy for us. The
reason for that is there exists a style of scaldic
poetry dedicated to magic verses, and this style is
called Galdralag, “poetic incantation. ” It relies
on words repetition, as here.
Stanza 6
Old Norse
6. Þá gengo regin öll á röcstóla, ginnheilög goð, oc um þat gættuz: nótt oc niðium nöfn um gáfo, morgin héto oc miðian dag, undorn og aptan, árom at telia.
Literal translation
Then went powers all
on judgement seats
supreme divinities gods,
and from that obtained:
to night and her offspring
names allotted,
the morning named
and the median (of) day
hours of the day and the evening
with the years to be counted.
Explanations and comments
The word ‘rök’ will be met again in stanzas 9, 23
and 25, always with the significance of a place
where a wise decision is done.
“regin” is a plural word meaning “the powers,”
with the original meaning of “the advisers. ”
The feminine word nótt does also nótt in the
dative singular. It is thus ‘to the night’ that the
gods gave her name. We have no clear
information relative to Night’s offspring. It might
be a poetical way of speech to evoke all the
‘nightly beings’.
English
Then all the powers went
sitting on their judgement seats
supreme divinities gods,
and from that they obtained:
to night and her offspring
they allotted their names,
named the morning
and the median of the day
the hours of the day and the
evening
and how to count the years.
The redundancy of the vocabulary designating the
primitive gods and their sacred features shows
that the poet who wrote Völuspá made a point of
stressing the gods’ importance at the beginning
times. The poem tells their ending times, with no
hint that they might have demeaned themselves.
-
Stanza 7
Old Norse
7. Hittuz æsir
á Iðavelli,
þeir er hörg oc
hof
há timbroðo;
afla lögðo,
auð smíðoðo,
tangir scópo,
oc tól gorðo.
literal translation AND English
Met the Æsir
on Iðavöllr, ‘Fulfillments Plain’,
there are their sanctuary and homes
high ‘timbered’ ones;
forging hearths laid,
richness forged
blacksmith clenches shaped,
and tools made.
Explanations and comments
The word ‘ið ’ indicates a work, an achievement. It does
its plural genitive in ‘a’: iða. This describes gods’ housing
as a place where they perform serious work.
Dronke did another choice by reading iða-völlr, iða =
eddy. In this case, eddy has to be understood as a modifier
of völlr, she accordingly translates by “eddying plain. ”
This describes god’s housing as a moving unsafe place.
"hörg oc hof ” is better understood by considering
archaeological discoveries. It was noted that certain
particularly majestic buildings (hof) were also places of
worship (hörgr), either inside them, or in the near vicinity.
Stanza 8
Old Norse
8. Teflðo í túni,
teitir vóro,
var þeim vættergis
vant ór gulli,
unz þriár qvómo
þursa meyiar
ámátcar miöc
ór iötunheimom.
literal translation
Plaid tafl in the hedged meadow,
merry they were,
were they nothing
in want from gold.
until three came ,
of giants’ maidens,
detestable and over powerful,
from giant-homes.
Comments and explanations
Tafl is a game similar to checkers. To learn the
rules of this game, consult
http://www. irminsul. org/arc/002sg. html
or
http://www. vikinganswerlady. com/games. shtml .
It is usually understood that these three giant
girls, “þursa meyiar ”, coming from giants’
country, “iötunheimr, ” are the three Norns.
English
They plaid tafl in the hedged meadow,
merry they were,
in noway they were
in want from gold.
until three came,
from giant-dwellings.
giant born maidens,
quite detestable and over-powerful ones.
The end of the stanza seems to say that the gods
were merry until (!) Norns arrival.
A short vocabulary note about “ámátcar” (hateful and over powerful)
It is necessary to go through LexPoet in order to
understand the kind of play word associated to ámátcar.
This dictionary presents two similar words, amátligr (=
monstrous, hateful) and ámáttigr (= over-powerful – ‘á’ –
can be an intensifier). You see that ámátcar lacks the ‘a’
beginning amátligr and ‘tt’ in ámáttigr. The translators
http://www.irminsul.org/arc/002sg.htmlhttp://www.vikinganswerlady.com/games.shtml
-
often select ‘over-powerful’ but the context of “merry
…until” casts a negative aspect upon these three women,
hence the present translation.
Stanza 9
Old Norse
9. Þá gengo regin öll
á röcstóla,
ginnheilog goð,
oc um þat gættuz,
hverr scyldi dverga
dróttin scepia
ór Brimis blóði
oc ór Bláins leggiom.
literal translation
Then went divinities all
on judgement-stools,
sacred saint gods,
and from this got,
that shall dwarves
a (noble) household to (magically) shape
from Brimir blood
and from Bláinn legs
Comments and explanations
In “ginnheilog” what ‘ginn’ exactly means is in
fact unknown. This word applies only to the gods.
Brimir and Bláinn are two other names given to
the primitive Giant, Ymir, which was killed by
the “sons of Burr” (thus, in particular by Óðinn),
and whose body was used to create the world.
English
Then all divinities went
on their judgement-stools,
sacred saint gods,
and from this they got
that shall a (noble) household
of dwarves (magically) shape…
(OR
that they shall (magically) shape
the (noble) household of Dwarves)
from Brimir blood
and from Bláinn legs.
The Dwarves are thus created from elements that
come from Ymir’s body. Ymir is called Brimir
(brim = surf, sea) when his body created the seas.
We expect that his legs are used to create the
earth but name Bláinn is ambiguous. The radical
‘‘blá’ may mean ’blue’ and it again evokes a
marine element. It is also often used to mean
‘dark blue, black’ which evokes then a terrestrial
element.
Comment: A serious vocabulary problem and a secondary grammar problem
Vocabulary problem
The verb skepja (written scepia above) is an old form of the verb skapa which means:
to work, make, form, assign a destiny, to fix. When a meaning as ‘to make’ is not utterly
ridiculous, the translators objectively use it since it is the most neutral meaning. In the
context of the creation of a new ‘race’ of living beings, we cannot not honestly avoid evoking
magic. That the gods created Dwarves by using their magic is exactly what scepia indicates.
Grammar problem
I also want to clarify an interesting grammatical ambiguity that changes this stanza
comprehension.
The word for ‘a noble household’, dróttin, is obviously feminine nominative, subject of
skepja, it is thus ‘a noble household’ (here the gods) that will skepja.
-
The word for ‘Dwarf’ is a masculine, dvergr, and it does dverga in the plural genitive
and accusative. Similarly, the singular and plural preterit subjunctive of skulu are identical. If
dverga is a plural accusative, then “the noble household created the Dwarves. ” If it is a
plural genitive, we can then read that ‘they’ (the gods) created “a household of Dwarves. ”
Both say the same significant thing, namely that the Dwarves were created by the gods.
**************************************************
Follow the famous and ‘boring’ lists of Dwarves names. Experts
have been looking for their meaning by using the Norse words they
evoke, and their etymology. I believe firmly that these lists were
intended to help memorizing this large number of names, by the
music of their words and the measure of poetry. This is why, when I
have been able to, I give a name that is phonetically obvious by
association to a familiar word even if etymology suggests something
else.
Stanza 10
Old Norse
10. Þar Mótsognir
mæztr um orðinn
dverga allra
en Durinn annarr;
þeir manlícon
mörg um gorðo,
dvergar, ór iörðo,
sem Durinn sagði.
literal translation
There Mótsognir
most famous ‘spoken of’
Dwarves all
and Durinn the other one;
they human-shapes
many made,
Dwarves, out of ground,
as Durinn had said.
Comments and explanations
Mótsognir, or Móðsognir = Meeting Sucker
(‘sucker’ in the way an ebbing tide ‘sucks’
sand)
Durinn = Drowsing The context leads us to believe that these shapes will
be used to create the Dwarves since the lists that
follows in s. 11-13 provides lists of the Dwarves.
Inversely, the way of speech “human-shapes”
suggests that these shapes might have been also used
English
There Mótsognir
most famous mentioned
of all Dwarves
and Durinn after him;
Dwarves made many
human shapes,
out of ground,
as Durinn had said.
for creating the two first human beings: That Ask and
Embla are shaped from pieces of wood is suggested
by other texts, not by Völuspá.
It is also quite possible that Völuspá simply stresses
the similarity between the Dwarves and mankind.
Stanza 11
Old Norse
11. Nýi oc Niði,
Norðri oc Suðri,
‘translation’
Nýi and Niði,
Meaning of names
Nýi = New Moon, Niði = No Moon,
-
Austri oc Vestri,
Alþiófr, Dvalinn,
Bívorr, Bávorr,
Bömburr, Nóri,
Án oc Ánarr,
Ái, Miöðvitnir.
Norðri and Suðri,
Austr and Vestri,
Alþiófr, Dvalinn,
Bívörr, Bávörr,
Bömburr, Nóri,
Án and Ánarr,
Ái, Miöðvitnir.
Nordri = Northern, Sudri = Southern,
Austri = Eastern, Vestri = Western,
Alþiófr = Allthief, Dvalinn = Plodder,
Bívörr = Shiverly, Bávörr = Tumbler
Bömburr = Druming or Noisy, Nóri = Tiny,
Án = ‘without’ = Lacking, Ánarr = ‘Lack-producer’,
Ái = Ancestor, Miöðvitnir = Mead-bewitched-wolf
Stanza 12
Old Norse
12. Veigr oc Gandálfr,
Vindálfr, Þráinn,
Þeccr oc Þorinn,
Þrór, Vitr oc Litr,
Nár oc Nýráðr -
nú hefi ec dverga
- Reginn oc Ráðsviðr -
rétt um talða.
‘translation’
12. Veigr and Gandálfr,
Vindálfr, Þráinn,
Þekkr and Þorinn (or Þroinn),
Þrór, Vitr and Litr,
Nár and Nýráðr -
Here are the Dwarves
- Reginn et Ráðsviðr -
properly reckoned.
Meaning of names
Veigr : IF Veggr = Wall, IF veig = Strong drink or
‘Magic Potion’, Gandálfr = Magic-stick Elf,
Vindálfr = Wind Elf, Þráinn = Stubborn or Needy
Þekkr = Pleasing, Þorinn = He-dares,
Þrór =Tough, Healthy , Vitr = Wise, Litr = Hued,
Nár = Corpse, Nýráðr = New adviser,
Obviously, Reginn is here a name meaning ‘the gods’
as word regin. It carries also the meaning of being
powerful.
Reginn = gods or Powers, Ráðsviðr = Advice-Wise .
Stanza 13
Old Norse
13. Fíli, Kíli,
Fundinn, Náli,
Hepti, Víli,
Hanarr, Svíurr,
Frár, Hornbori,
Frægr oc Lóni,
Aurvangr, Iari,
Eikinscjaldi.
Meaning of names
Fíli = Fat Flesh, Kíli = Inlet, Canal,
Fundinn = Found, Náli = Needle
Hepti =Hefti = Chained, Víli = Miserable,
Hanarr = Skilful, Svíurr = Pain Releaser
Frár = Fast, Hornbori = Pierced Horn,
Frægr = Famous, Lóni = Islet,
Aurvangr = Pebbly Wetland or Wetground Meadow, Iari = Fighter
Eikinskjaldi = Oakenshield.
Stanza 14
Old Norse
litteral translation
Meaning of names
-
14. Mál er dverga
í Dvalins liði
lióna kindom
til Lofars telia,
þeir er sótto
frá salar steini
Aurvanga siöt
til Iörovalla.
Time (or measure) of Dwarves
in Dvalinn’s ‘joint’ (kindred)
of mankind’s (for the) kin
until Lofarr enumerate,
they who looked for
from the hall in stone
of Aurvangar the dwelling
until Iörovellir.
Dvalinn = Plodder (s. 11)
‘arbitrator’s progeny ’: liónar =
arbitrator or simply people (de
Vries).
Aurvangr = Pebbly Wetlands or
Wetground Meadow (s. 13)
Iörovalla = Fightvalley (cf. Iari,
s. 13)
English
It is time that Dwarves,
Dvalinn’s kindred,
be listed until Lofarr
for mankind’s kin,
they who moved (looked for’)
from the dwellings
of Aurvangar’s stone hall
until Jörovellir.
Comments and explanations
This stanza tells us that all Dwarves’ kindred goes up to
Lofarr and that it has to be taught to mankind, and s. 16 will
confirm it. The need for mankind’s survival to receive this
kind of inheritance, hence to memorize this list of Dwarves, is
hinted at in this stanza. S. 16 will explicitly state that
mankind’s survival depends on performing this memorial
duty.
That must thus be very significant in the old Scandinavian
tradition, but we lost why this is so important for us.
Note on the Dwarves’ move
The choice of names Aurvangar and Jörovellir can help us guessing why they moved.
Aurvangar has two possible meanings: Pebbly Wetlands or Wetground Meadow and, for
Jörovellir I only proposed Fightvalley. The text describes Aurvangar as “the residences of
the stony rooms” i. e. a rock environment which suits well ‘Pebbly Wetlands’. The Dwarves
leave this place to join Fightvalley. In the context of a near Ragnarök, this points at them as
fighter joining combat, certainly on the gods’ side, as the myth of their creation suggests it.
Dronke gives two different names and an almost opposite conclusion to ours “… the
dwarf material preserved in Völuspá are allusions to… their migration from rocky regions to
fertile plains, so it would seem; 14)” p. 122. She translate Aurvangr “Loam Lee” and reads
Jörovellir as Jörðvellir ‘Earth Plains’ since Jörð means Earth. This explains her conclusion.
Gaining better ground is certainly a good motive for people moves but I find it somewhat
trifling in the context of Völuspá.
Stanza 15
Old Norse
15. Þar var Draupnir
oc Dólgþrasir,
Hár, Haugspori,
Hlévangr, Glói,
‘translation’ There were Draupnir
and Dólgþrasir,
Hár, Haugspori,
Hlévangr, Glói,
Skirvir, Virvir,
Meaning of names
Draupnir = Dripping (from drjúpa, pret. draup)
Dólgþrasir = Monster Fighter,
Hár = High, Haugspori : If : Haug-spori = Burial-mound-spur
else: Haugs-por(r)i = Burial-mound-one-eyed-person
Hlévangr =-Garden Shelter, Glói = Shiny
Skirvir = Skirpir = from skyrpa, Spitting ? Virvir,Virfir, Virfill
-
Scirvir, Virvir,
Scáfiðr, Ái,
Skáfiðr, Ái,
= Penis ? [Dronke gives ‘Groiner’… a modest way of saying penis. ]
Skáfiðr = Skáviðr = Twisted-tree, Ái = Ancestor (as in s. 11)
Stanza 16
Old Norse
16. Álfr oc Yngvi
Eikinscialdi,
Fialarr oc Frosti,
Finnr oc Ginnarr;
þat mun uppi,
meðan öld lifir,
langniðia tal
Lofars hafat.
litteral translation
Álfr and Yngvi
Eikinskjaldi,
Fialarr and Frosti,
Finnr andGinnarr;
this remembered up,
as long as humankind lives
of offsprings list descendants
of Lofarr had.
Meaning of names
Álfr = Elf, Yngvi = King, Eikinskjaldi =
Oak-shield,
Fialarr = He-of-the-cliff OR (fjöl) He-of-
the-skis, Frosti = Frost, Finnr = Hunter or
Saami, Ginnarr = Cheater or Powerful.
Lofarr = Praiser
English
The record of Lofarr’s offsprings
is rembered at the top (as highly
important),
as long as humnakind lives.
Comments and explanations
Lofarr’s progeny will be remembered
“as long as mankind lives. ”
This implies implies that forgetting these
names is one of the conditions for
mankind extinction.
A commentary on the four last lines translation
Here are three other versions of s. 16 last four lines
Dronke
Uplifted in memory
as long as the world
lives
will be this list
of Praiser’s lineage.
Orchard
there will remain in
memory
while the world lasts,
the lineage of Praiser,
properly listed.
Boyer
Always will come back
As long as mankind lives
These generations
Up to Lofarr.
These three translations come from the same Old Norse version and probably share the
same literal meaning, similar to the one just above given. Note that American people forget
to specifically refer to humans (they speak of the ‘world’) so that the burden of maintaining
this list is not attributed to humankind. Boyer forgets the memorization, well emphasized by
Americans, so that the concomitance of the memory of Lotarr’s line and humankind survival
appears as a mere coincidence, while the poem implies that they are each other related.
******************
Fate related stanzas: 17-20 and 31
-
Stanza 17
The völva’s account stops at stanza 9 and is followed by a string of 9 stanzas giving the
list of dwarf names. Thus, this account begins again at s 17: Everything happened as
described in s. 1-8, until…
17.
Unz þrír kvámu 1. Until three came
ór því liði 2. out of their people (family place)
öflgir ok ástkir 3. strong-always and loving-always
æsir at húsi, 4. æsir to (mankind’s) house,
fundu á landi 5. they found on the ground
lítt megandi 6. little having might
Ask ok Emblu 7. Ask(r) and Embla
örlöglausa 8. örlög-less (deprived of örlög).
Comment on the vocabulary
Line 2. lið means a host/people. The ‘three’, in the first line left their ‘people’, i. e. the
Æsir.
Line 3. afl-gir is an adjective derivation of afl-gi = force-always. The same for ást = a
lover.
Line 5. The word land describes the ground as opposite to the sea, “where the sea
stops,” wherefrom comes the traditional image of the beach where Ask and Embla were
found.
Line 7. The names of the first two human persons are here in the accusative (direct
object complement of verb ‘found’). We can read the name of the man as Ask or Askr which
are identical in the accusative. Askr means ash-tree but the experts vainly sought a name of
tree (or anything else), which could be linked to the name Embla. Some translators claim to
have found a solution, which reflects nothing but their personal beliefs. A traditional example
is that of a shoot of vine, which is supposed to find its support on the solid ash, image of the
fragile woman being carried by her strong man. All this is ridiculous also from the point of
view of the name ‘Embla’.
Comment on the meaning of the stanza
Honesty however leads to point out that line of 17 speaks of an ‘askr’ who is a man and
that 19 begins by saying that Yggdrasill is also an ‘askr’, which gives to it/him a kind of
status of a pillar. In fact, if we closely examine the structure of the Icelandic married couple,
it seems that indeed the man is an (often disputed) pillar in the outer world whereas the
woman is the (uncontested) pillar of an inner world represented by the family dwelling.
This stanza gives us also three invaluable indications on what defines a ‘true’ human
being.
Firstly, Ask and Embla are found together and we will see that, moreover, all the
features given to them by the gods in stanza 18 are given to both, without reference to their
-
genre. This unrelentingly separates us from all the cultures where the gods or god allot
qualities to the male, and afterwards to the female. This stanza thus describes, without
reference to sex, what Ask and Embla both miss to be true human beings.
Secondly, they are both ‘lítt megandi’ i. e. ‘having little might’, unable of action.
Thus, a fundamental quality of human is to be able to act on the world.
Thirdly, they are both ‘örlöglauss’, without destiny. Thus, the second fundamental
character defining a human being is to have a destiny. In Anglo-Saxon literature, the wyrd,
fate or destiny, is presented as an unbearable constraint imposed on us (see http://www.
nordic-life. org/nmh/WyrdEng. htm , whereas here, constraint or not, it is one of the two
paramount characters of human beings. To rebel against our destiny is to some extent to leave
our human status. However, the first human capacity, the one of acting, moderates the fate’s
inexorability. Our human destiny is to be wedged between an inexorable outer destiny and
our capacity to act and we have to manage it.
*********************************
Stanza 18
18.
Önd þau né átto, 1. Breath they did not own,
óð þau né höfðo, 2. intelligence they did not have
lá né læti 3. ‘the sea’ [internal waters] does not flow
né lito góða; 4. nor (shows) a hue good (beautiful);
önd gaf Óðinn, 5. breath gave Óðinn
óð gaf Hœnir, 6. intelligence gave Hœnir
lá gaf Lóðurr 7. ‘sea’ gave Lóðurr
oc lito góða. 8. and beautiful hue.
Hœnir: the word hœnir comes from an Indo-European root meaning ‘the high one, the
inflamed one’ to which also one of Óðinn’s names is related, Hár (the High one). De Vries
suggests also that it may be related to word hœna (hen). In stanza 63 (below) Hœnir is one of
the gods surviving Ragnarök and he seems to collect Óðinn magical inheritance. In addition,
he seems to be a silent god of whom we know little.
Lóðurr (and Loki): The word ló means ‘light’ and etymology connects the name
Lóðurr to the one of ‘distributor of fire’ [Note 1]. Theoften met assumption that Lóðurr is
another name of Loki runs up against the fact that ‘wicked’ Loki cannot have given ‘the ‘sea’
and beautiful hue’ to humankind. It should however be remembered that, for a long time,
Loki is nothing but a god embarrassing to the Æsir by its often ambiguous role with respect to
the Giants. Only after Baldr’s murder and his insulting attitude in Lokasenna, he becomes the
‘wicked one’, described by Snorri with such an amount of aggressiveness. In addition to
being a Giant-god, he may have been also an ‘evolving god’ though this hypothesis cannot be
verified.
[Note 1] Loki is very often associated to fire through a pun on his name and the one of a Giant called Logi. As a matter of fact log is a flame and loga means ‘to burn with a flame’. Logi is certainly a representative
of the flames. A paltry pun: Loki/Logi makes them identical. However, the only precise knowledge we have
http://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/WyrdEng.htmhttp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/WyrdEng.htm
-
about Logi is an eating competition opposing Loki and Logi, and Logi wins because: “Who eats faster than
Loki? – wild-fire,” as goes a riddle. All this hints at Loki having a power different from the one of fire.
Two triples of gods
We just met a triple of gods, Óðinn, Hœnir and Lóðurr. There is another one : Óðinn,
Vili and Vé. The last is named in Lokasenna where Loki accuses Frigg to marry Vili and Vé
while Óðinn was traveling away.
Vili is undoubtedly related to vil, ‘a wish, a desire’. The word even took the pejorative
meaning of ‘satisfaction of our own yearnings’. Vili is certainly very close to Óðinn since
skaldic poetry created the kenning ‘Vili’s brother’ to indicate Óðinn.
The word vé means sanctuary what gives to Vé a status of a god of consecrated places.
It is associated the verb vígja, to hallow, and as such Vé is linked to Thórr’s hallowing
hammer.
It is tempting to draw relationships between two of Óðinn’s companions in these two
triples, namely between Vili and Hœnir, and between Vé and Lóðurr. However, if these
relations exist, the myths describing them have been lost.
Comment on the vocabulary
The verbs eiga and hafa, to own and to have, are here in their preterit subjunctive case.
The verb láta, like English ‘to let’, has several meanings. I use one meaning in line 3.
(“to let run/flow”) and I consider that another meaning is implied in line 4. (“to let
appear/show”). It is a subjunctive present: the preterit of the two first lines is not kept.
Lá is the sea water near the seashore. I suppose that this word is used to evoke the
internal liquids that any living being carries inside itself, as opposed to the land (see s. 17) on
which the putative human beings are lying.
Comment on the meaning of the stanza
This comment cannot be done wihtout taking into account other stanzas associated to
humankind creation and its fate. You will find these commentaries at http://www.nordic-
life.org/nmh/WyrdEng.htm and the 3 files
örlög in Völuspá örlög in Hávamál örlög and sköp in other eddic
poetry .
*********************************
Stanza 19
19.
Ask veit ek standa, An askr know-I stands,
heitir Yggdrasill, it is called Yggdrasill,
http://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/WyrdEng.htmhttp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/WyrdEng.htmhttp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/OrlogEng.htmhttp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/OrlogEng.htmhttp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/OrlogHavaEng.htmhttp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/OrlogHavaEng.htmhttp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/OrlogEddaEng.htmhttp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/OrlogEddaEng.htm
-
hár baðmr, ausinn high tree, sprinkled
hvíta auri; with white mud;
þaðan koma döggvar wherefrom come the dews
þærs í dala falla, that fall in the vale,
stendur æ yfir grænn it stands up always green above
Urðar brunni. Urðr’s source.
Comment on the vocabulary
Askr, here in the accusative, ask, means an ash-tree. The saying ‘askr Yggdr]asill’
appears several times in Norse literature. This is why almost everyone claims that the tree of
the world is an ash-tree… with the modern meaning of the word, Fraxinus excelsior. This is a
typical anachronism and I have the feeling that the only goal of the ‘ash-tree-fanatics’ is to
introduce yet another contradiction in our mythology: Everyone knows that an “always green
ash-tree” does not exist. In skaldic poetry, a classical technique is the one of using heiti, i. e.
replacing the name of an object by another of close meaning. For example, stating ‘ash-tree’
instead of ‘tree’. There even exist lists of heiti which indicate which replacements were
successfully used by the old poets. For example the heiti for a tree (“viðar heiti”) contain the
word askr. It means that a traditional way to speak uses the word ‘ash’ to speak of a ‘tree’. In
this list of heiti, we fin also the words sverða, skipa, hesta (sword, boat, horse) which could
express the word tree, according to the context. (Source:Jónsson, Skjaldedigtning B1,
downloadable at http://www. septentrionalia. net/etexts/skjald_b1. pdf ). Here, the word
baðmr of the third line us provides a context pointing at a tree.
Yggdrasill breaks up into yggr = fear and drasill (or drösull) = horse (exclusively in
poetry).
- On yggr. The word yggr does not appear in Cleasby-Vigfusson that gives onlyt
ýgr = wild. It is found in de Vries who associates it to uggr = fear. It is also given by Lexicon
Poeticum which identifies it with ýgr. The last two dictionaries announce that Yggr is one of
the traditional names of Óðinn, which does also C-V but not at the word yggr.
- On drasill. The three dictionaries we use here give the words drasill and drösull
with this spelling. The spelling ‘Yggdrasil’ is how translators write it, reduced to its root and
avoiding to write the letter marking the nominative, here the second ‘l’. Baðmr means tree. In
the manuscript, it is written batmr. Ausinn:The verb ausa = to sprinkle, here in the past
participle, ausinn. Döggvar = old nominative and plural genitive of dögg, dew.
Comment on the meaning of the stanza
Lines 3-6 describe a way of explaining why dew can settle on grass even from an
uncloudy sky.
By its roots, Yggdrasill is the support of all the Chtonian forces, including Niðhöggr. I
call it the ‘bottom snake’ because I do not put an accent the ‘i’ (níð, slandering, and niðr, the
son or ‘at the bottom’, have very different meanings).
By its trunk, its higher roots and its lower branches, it is the support of the nine
inhabited worlds.
By its high branches and its leaves, it is the carrier of all heavenly forces. The
atmosphere, with or without clouds, contains some amount of moisture that settles in dew.
http://www.septentrionalia.net/etexts/skjald_b1.pdf
-
The allegory contained in lines 3-6 is thus explained. It nevertheless could also bear a more
mystical meaning, namely that the trees pour down a life source that flows upon our world.
*********************************
Stanza 20
20.
Þaðan koma meyjar
margs vitandi
þrjár ór þeim sæ/sal,
er und þolli stendr;
Urð hétu eina,
aðra Verðandi,
- skáru á skíði, - (örlög seggja, line 12)
Skuld ina þriðju.
Þær lög lögðu,
þær líf kuru
alda börnum, örlög seggja [or
segja?]
1. From there come maids
2. much knowing
3. three out of their sea/hall
4. which below a pine stands;
5. Urðr is called one,
6. the other Verðandi,
7. - they scraped on a wooden tablet - (12) (“the örlög of humankind” as in 12 with seggja=humankind’s)
8. Skuld the third one.
9. They fixed the laws
10. lives they chose
11. of the children of humanity,
12. örlög of_human_ones [or örlög they said].
Norns’ names
The Norns’s names are given in a special order which is certainly significant since the
poem specifies that Urðr “is the one” and Skuld “is the third. ”
The word urðr is one of the Norse words meaning ‘fate’, as örlög and sköp among
others. It is linked to the verb verða, the plural preterit of which is urðu, thus meaning “they
became. ” Due to the high frequency of “spinning of the wyrd” on the worldweb, we should
be weary of possible Greek influences through the Parcae’s roles. This kind of
misunderstanding should be deemed unavoidable since all translators are cultivated persons
whose culture has been influenced by the Greek and Latin civilizations – as I am, though a
feeble instance. Because of the meaning of urðu, we can suppose that Urðr is somewhat
linked to something that happened in the past. Since the Norns do not deal only with
individual destinies, we must understand that this ‘past’ actually is the sum of what happened
to humankind, including our genetic inheritance, and even more generally the result of the
whole evolution of our universe.
Verðandi is also linked to verb verða, now in its present participle tense, thus meaning
‘becoming’. Here, there exists really no link with the Parcae since ‘becoming’ is an action
that takes some time to occur and I feel cheated by people who claim she is the Norn of
present time. Present time is a nice grammatical category but its semantics are almost empty
since it has, so to say, a foot in our past and the other foot in our future. Verðandi is the Norn
of what is presently under transformation and I see her as the Norn of evolution and action.
-
The word skuld means a debt, i. e. , a commitment that cannot be avoided. When the
saga or poetry characters complain of the unavoidable fate decided by the Norns, they
essentially refer to Skuld. This name is also associated to a verb, skulu (shall and they shall).
Its preterit is skyldi. It thus seems that Skuld is a sort of mix of a present and a past sense. It
very clearly does not refer to any period of time, which confirms the doubts that Greek
categorizations would apply at all to the Norns.
As announced, the ordering of the three Norns in s. 20 should be significant and as
already stated, thus be very weary of an order based on time, namely past, present and future.
We propose instead an ordering such that each Norn plays a specific role, while each is active
in all three segments of time, but based on logical relationships.
The above analysis of name Urðr suggests someone who, as a conscientious doctor
provides a complete check-up, or as an auditor provides an audit on the state of affairs. We
could thus qualify her as being a controlling authority, who builds up a statement of
accounts describing how humankind, and also individuals, have been, and are expected to
manage their existence.
The role of Verðandi is easier to grasp, she is the active authority who decides on the
way the all actors of our universe have behaved and will behave in view of the account
provided by Urðr.
For Skuld also, her name tells of her role: she is who evaluates the debts, and, with
Verðandi’s help sees that the debts are repaid. We could thus call her a repaying authority
(more dignified than a simple collector).
It is understood that these three activities cooperate among them along the line of time.
The order met in s. 20 can be understood as a measure of the amount of direct constraint their
decisions wield on people, even though all three are not easy to stand. Controlling asks for no
more action than being aware of what has been happening. Acting with efficiency implies a
kind of common agreement between the leading authority and the many actors who are
involved. When mistakes have been done, the repaying authority is in charge of forcing on
the actors what and how they should (skuld) repay, they like it or not.
This analysis has been reflected in our view of örlög, ‘produced’ by the Norns, in a text
relative to Örlög in general, with more details in the book Chap I and II of ‘The Magic of
Yggdrasill’.
Commentary on the vocabulary and the stanza structure
Dronke chooses to read sær (an accusative singular) that translates as ‘lake’. She
argues in favor of this translation using mythological reasons of the magic power of female
water beings. Cleasby-Vigfusson, however, insists on the fact that this word is never used for
a lake and always for the sea or the ocean. He provides a long list of compound words that
illustrates that sær always indicates the ocean or the sea. Dronke’s argument still applies to
female marine beings. For example, Anglo-Saxon mythology tells that Beowulf’s only really
dangerous adversary has been Grendel’s mother who dwells under the sea. Similarly,
Scandinavian mythology says that dead sailors do not join the dwellings of the sea god Ægir,
but those of the sea goddess, Rán.
http://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/OrlogEng.htm
-
Note also that salr does sal in its accusative singular and it stays a possible candidate,
even if its mythological power is lower. A standing hall, besides, is more obvious than a
standing lake or sea. We should keep in mind these two meanings.
A þollr is a pine-tree. As already pointed out, skaldic poetry often replaces the more
general, as here ‘tree’ by the more particular, as here ‘pine-tree’. Due to the context, this is an
obvious allusion to the world tree, Yggdrasill.
In stanza 60, we find again this way of speech where the word used, þinurr, has the
same meaning as þollr.
The verb skára, points at the action of mowing, which is not at all adapted to the
context. The experts read skara, which means to scrape/poke and skaru gives ‘they scraped’.
The ON grammatical use of verb skara is similar to the one of English language, someone
‘skarar’ an inscription (direct object - called here ‘accusative’) on a support (indirect object -
called here ‘dative’). You see that in line 7 the verb is followed with a dative and it carries no
accusative, it thus does not specify what the Norns skara.
We must also note that line 7 cuts the list of the names of Norns in an almost ‘rude’
way, where from comes the pair of - - added by the editors of the poem. A detailed
explanation is provided below.
The preposition á followed by a dative means on/upon. Since most translators do not
read line 12 just after line 7, they tend also to forget to translate this slightly useless ‘upon’,
in their understanding of these lines. They thus render the unambiguous dative skíði as an
accusative: “they scrape wooden tablets. ”
Skíð (here in the dative singular) means a piece of wood or a wooden tablet
(incidentally: in another context, it also means ‘ski’). To scrape or incise or carve a tablet or a
twig are typical ways to express the action of writing runes.
The verb leggja does lögðu in its preterit plural; it means
place/lay/take_care/build/settle.
The verb kjósa does kuru in its preterit plural; it means ‘to choose’.
Lastly, the last line has always given serious trouble to the translators.
This ‘seggja’ can be read as the verb segja (to say). With this last choice, örlög is an
accusative related to this verb. It can also be read, as chosen here, as seggja, which makes of
it the genitive plural of seggr, a messenger (who indeed says ‘something’) and, in poetry, a
human person. The choice between the two understandings is complicated because we know
that the Middle Ages copyists themselves hesitated: There are two manuscripts (Codex
Regius and Hauksbók) the first of which gives ‘seggja' and the second one ‘at segja’. I think
that this dilemma has been definitively solved by Elizabeth Jackson in a downloadable paper
available at http://userpage. fu-berlin. de/~alvismal/9scaro. pdf . She proposes an elegant
solution as follows: “The present article will argue, first, that the verb for line 12 is provided
in line 7…)”. This solution consists in keeping seggja and reading line 12 just after line 7:
“skáru á skíði/örlög seggja (they scraped on a wooden tablet/the örlög of the humans). Note
a significant difference between the two versions. If Norns segja (state) the örlög, any logical
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~alvismal/9scaro.pdf
-
person will conclude: “they only state, therefore someone else allots these örlög. ” Jackson’s
interpretation makes it clear that the Norns are these who allot humankind’s örlög.
**********
Jackson’s argumentation is based on an analysis of the structure of the lists met in both
writings, Anglo-Saxon and Norse. Before presenting (in a simplified form!) her
argumentation, let us notice that modern writings also show list structures and I just gave you
one example of it.
The comments above are a list of eight items each member of which is separated from
the other by a blank line. I announced the last item list by beginning it with “Lastly, the last
line…” and adding a separating line of ‘*’ before the present paragraph. It thus is apart from
the list above, which is completely implicit but can be easily guessed due to the ‘markers’ I
used.
Mrs. Jackson does not do anything odder, even if I supose she has been looked upon as
one of her kind, than seeking the list markers of a beginning or an ending that provide a
specific list structure, according to the topic of the list. I do not know if she refers to Lévi-
Strauss’s structuralism but I see in her work as being a brillant illustration of the hidden
structures defining relationships in between the lines of a stanza in Skaldic poetry.
She reckons, in the two lists of s. 20, the structural characters similar to the ones of as
in other lists, particularly those of lists describing two joined topics, here a list of Norns
names and a list of Norns’ actions. In particular, line 7, seemingly oddly inserted in the list of
Norns names is an end_of_list marker used elsewhere in much longer lists. The use of ‘at
segja’ in line 12 does not respect this structure and imposes upon us to feel line 7 as not fully
complete.
A small practical conclusion
When a site talks about Germanic mythology and asserts or implies that Norns spin
örlög or wyrd, know that this site confuses Germanic and Greco-Latin mythologies.
In the crowd of allusions to destiny, a single poem, called Darraðarljóð and contained
in Njáll’s saga, describes the Valkyries (then called 'valfreyur'), and speaks of destiny in the
form of a braiding. Moreover, in this poem, the braided ‘threads’ are the entrails of the dead
warriors, which does not exclude a Latin influence on Darraðarljóð.
Stanza 21
Old Norse 21.
Þat man hón fólcvíg
fyrst í heimi,
er Gullveigo
geirom studdo
oc í höll Hárs
hána brendo;
þrysvar brendo,
þrysvar borna,
opt, ósialdan;
litteral translation
That remember she a war of peoples
first in the world,
is Gullveig
by spears steadied
and in the hall of Hár (High, Óðinn)
she was burned;
three times burned
three times born,
often, non seldom;
Comments and explanations
‘She’ is here the völva who seems to allude to her
being Gullveig.
Gullveig means “gold power. ” She causes the
war between Æsir and Vanir. She is of Vanr
‘race’, and she visits the Æsir. They burn her
three times, but it is three times born again. The
war probably starts because of these ill treatments
inflicted to Gullveig
-
þó hón enn lifir. nevertheless she still lives. Hár = the high one, Óðinn
English
She remembers a war of peoples
the first one in the world,
Gullveig is
‘steadied’ (transfixed) by spears
and in High’s hall
she has been burned;
three times burned,
three times born (again),
often, not seldom;
nevertheless she still lives.
Stanza 22
Old Norse
22. Heiði hana héto,
hvars er til húsa kom,
völo velspá,
vitti hon ganda;
seið hon, hvars hon kunni,
seið hon hug leikinn,
æ var hón angan
illrar brúðar.
litteral translation
Heiðr her they called
when toward homes (she) came
völva well--prophecising
wise she about sorcery;
seið she, that she knew,
bewiched she a spirit played with
always was she sweet-smelling
to bad wives.
Comments and explanations
I suppose that the völva still speaks about herself.
Combined with s. 21 this would mean that Gullveig
and Heiðr are the same person. In regard of Old
Norse spirituality, that of an ancestor cult, this
statement can be rationalized by saying that they
belong to the same family line.
Noun seið means ‘witchcraft’. siða does seið in the preterit, and leika does leikinn in
the past participle.
English
They called her Heiðr,
when she travelled to a dwelling,
as a völva (she was able to) well
prophesize,
she was wise in witchcraft;
Seið, she knew well
she bewitched deluded minds,
her smell always was sweet
to bad wives.
The word heidr has three principal meanings:
shining, heather and honor. This name is often the
one of a witch or a völva
1. A völva who always prophecies that “all will be
well” be really honest.
2. Her magic was intended to delude naive minds.
3. She is a friend to bad wives who deal with magic.
Lines 5 and 6 contain a pun that contains repetitions somewhat characteristic of magic
incantations.
In line 5, seiðr is a direct object complement of the verb kunna (to know) and thus
gives seið.
In line 6, seið is the singular past of verb siða (to magically enchant): ‘she bewitched’.
-
This repetition is not simple and is extremely prestigious since hard to imagine. It
magically emphasizes the völva’s magic.
Note also its ‘non-rhymed’ alliterative wealth:
seið hon, hvars hon kunni,
-->
seið hon hug leikinn
-
þat var enn fólcvíg
fyrst í heimi;
brotinn var borðveggr
borgar ása,
knátto vanir vígspá
völlo sporna.
enemy army)
that was a people-war
first in the world ;
broken was the enclosure
of castle of Æsir,
were-able-of Vanir of victory-magic
the field they trod.
who launches his spear above his enemies first
rank, which announces the beginning of the
battle. When Óðinn acts in this way, the army
flown over by his lance is supposed to perish at
once. Here, obviously, that did not happen this
way and Vanir won the war, as said the last four
lines, and confirmed by Snorri’s Edda.
English
Óðinn let fly his spear
beyond the army area,
that was a people-war
the first in the world;
broken was the enclosure
of Æsir’s castle,
Vanir were able of victory-magic
and the field they trod.
This stanza provides a summary of the war
between the Vanir and the Æsir,. The reader is
supposed to know the feature of the following
peace: fusion of the two families, hostage
exchange etc. See HERE a version of this myth.
“They trod the field” is a way of saying that,
instead of being a pack of corpses, as they
‘should’ have been after Óðinn threw his spear,
the Vanir were still living and they were proudly
walking upon the field.
Stanza 25
Old Norse
25. Þá gengo regin öll
á röcstóla,
ginnheilog goð,
oc um þat gættuz,
hverir hefði lopt alt
lævi blandit
eða ætt iötuns
Óðs mey gefna.
Literal translation
Then went the gods all
on judgement-stools
‘sacred’ saints gods
and from that obtained,
who had air all
with evilness blended
and (to) family Giants
of Óðr the maid offered
Comments and explanations
This stanza refers to the myth of building a wall
protecting Ásgarðr. The reader is supposed to
know the whole story that you will find find
HERE,
The rest of the myth shows that here also, Freyja
is Óðr’s wife.
English
Then all the gods went
to their judgement-stools,
‘sacred’ saints gods,
and from that obtained
who had blended
the whole atmosphere with evilness
and to Giant family
had offered Óðr’s maid.
The last four lines are relative to Ásgarðr’s
ambiance when the Æsir realize that the ‘worker’
will fill up his contract terms, and that they will
have to deliver to him Freyja (Óðr’s wife), Sun
and Moon.
Stanza 26
Old Norse Literal translation Comments and explanations
file:///C:/WS_FTP-OLD/nmh/WarAsirVanir.htmfile:///C:/WS_FTP-OLD/nmh/FortAsgard&SleipnirEng.htm
-
26. Þórr einn þar vá,
þrunginn móði
hann sialdan sitr
er hann slíct um fregn;
á genguz eiðar,
orð oc sœri,
mál öl meginlig,
er á meðal fóro.
Þórr alone there fought,
full of anger
he seldom sits
when he such be informed.
gone oaths,
words and swearings,
words/measures all powerful
which between (them) travelled.
This stanza describes the end of the myth when
Þórr has killed the Giant.
The first half of the stanza alludes to Þórr’s arrival
when the Æsir realize that their ‘worker’ actually is a
Giant. This why Þórr, who has been away, is
‘informed’ of the situation and he will kill this Giant.
English
Full of anger, Þórr
alone there fought
he seldom stays sitting
when he is informed of such news.
Full gone were oaths,
words and swearings,
all powerful measures
that they had shared.
The Æsir had a deal with this ‘worker-Giant’ that had
been made explicit by a contract. Since he hid that he
was a Giant, this contract does not hold anymore and
the oaths they shared (upon which they ‘travelled’)
are gone away.
A broken oath is nevertheless always a shame and the
Æsir have been shamed on this occasion.
Stanza 27
Old Norse
27. Veit hón Heimdalar
hlióð um fólgit
undir heiðvönom
helgom baðmi;
á sér hón ausaz
aurgom forsi
af veði Valföðrs -
vitoð ér enn, eða hvat?
Literal translation
Knows she (that) Heimdall’s the noise (the
noisy horn) entrusted
under ‘needing- serenity’
sacred tree;
on looks she self-gushing
‘in a’ muddy torrent
off guarantee of Killedfather
You know still, and what?
Comments and explanations
The four first lines of 27 describe a myth related
to Heimdall and the last four lines refer to various
myths relating to Óðinn, together with stanzas 28,
29, 30.
Heimdall’s horn is hidden in the roots of
Yggdrasill, near to or under Urðr’s well.
The world tree is “in need for serenity” because
of the multiple constraints and hits it undergoes.
English
She knows (that) Heimdall’s noisy
horn has been entrusted
to the ‘in lack of serenity’
sacred tree;
she looks on a muddy torrent
that self-gushes
off Óðinn’s pledge
You still want to know, and what ?
Óðinn entrusted an eye to the source of Urðr
which is the ‘pledge’ he had to provide in order to
be allowed to drink wisdom from this spring.
It is interesting to note that Urðr’s spring, always
presented as a pure and clear water, is here
qualified as muddy. Our stereotypes may need
some revision.
Stanza 28
-
Old Norse
28. Ein sat hon úti,
þá er inn aldni kom,
Yggiungr ása,oc í augo
leit:
'Hvers fregnit mic,
Hví freistið mín?
alt veit ec, Óðinn,
Hvar þú auga falt:
í inom mæra
Mímis brunni. '
Dreccr miöð,”
morgin hverian
af veði Valföðrs –
Vitoð ér enn, eða hvat? ”
Literal translation
One was sitting she outside,
then him old came,
Dreadful-young of Æsir, and in the eye
looked :
“What ask you to me
why do you try me?
All know I, Óðinn,
where thou (you) eye hid
in it the famous
Mímir’s spring.
Drinks mead Mímir,
morning each one
off the pledge of Valföðr -
You know still, and what?
Comments and explanations
A way of practicing seið is called ‘útiseta’, that is:
“seta úti = to sit down outside.” The völva
certainly says that she was practicing this form of
seiðr when Óðinn arrived. This is a solitary
practice, in opposition to the public one carried
out on a wooden platform.
The ‘old one’ and the ‘young one’ are two faces
of Óðinn.
Dronke acknowledges ignoring what exactly
means the suffix ‘jungr’. A young one is currently
called úngr but júngr is also possible. The völva
calls Óðinn ‘Old one’ as everyone else, but she
may wish to underline that Óðinn, and all Æsir
with him, are much younger
English
She alone was sitting outside,
then came he, the old one,
Æsir’s dreadful young one, and he
looked at me in the eyes:
“What do you asked me
why do you try me?
I know all of it, Óðinn,
where thou hid your eye
in this famous
Mímir’s spring.
Mímir drinks mead,
each morning
off Valföðr’s pledge -
You still want to know, and what ?
than she is. This is indeed plausible if she is a
Giantess born at the origins of the world.
That would also explain why she allows herself to
sometimes treat Óðinn as a young one.
This ‘you’ is in ON an explicit plural. This
suggests that Óðinn is acting as a representative
of the other Æsir.
That Mímir drinks a “morning mead” may hint at
the fact that a sacred drink flows from Mímir’s
spring. Anyhow, this means that, each morning,
Mímir holds a ritual consecrating the new day.
The way of speech “Valföðr’s pledge” is
explained in s. 27 just above.
Stanza 29
Old Norse
29. Valdi henni Herföðr
hringa oc men,
fécc spjöll spaclig
og spáganda,
sá hon vítt oc um vítt
of verold hveria.
Literal translation
Chose for her Her-föðr (Army-father, Óðinn )
rings and necklaces,
he collected spells wise
and vision-sticks,
saw she far and wide
over world all.
Comments and explanations
The völva tells that Óðinn offered her many
precious jewels in order to learn from her to
‘send’ curses and to foresee the future.
And this teaching enriched her (hon) world-
view, not Óðinn’s.
It seems that he claims that he also enriched
-
his world-view through a similar process, in
Hávamál 141: “I then became fertile / and
was full of knowledge / and grew and well
throve, / a word, out of my speech, /
English
Óðinn selected for her
rings and necklaces,
he collected wise spells
and ways for magic seeing,
all over the world
she saw wide and far.
looked for another word, / a word, out of my
speech, looked for help / a deed, out of my
deeds, / looked for another deed. ”
Óðinn and this völva therefore are old
acquaintances, another fact that explains her
casualness with Óðinn.
Stanza 30
Old Norse
30. Sá hon valkyrior,
vítt um komnar,
gorvar at ríða
til goðþióðar;
Sculd helt scildi,
enn Scögul önnor,
Gunnr, Hildr, Göndul
oc Geirscögul;
nú ero talðar
nönnor Herians,
gorvar at ríða
grund, valkyrior.
Literal translation – ‘English’
She saw valkyries
from far they came
greedy for riding
towards goth-people (OR god-people) ;
Skuld held a shield,
and Skögul another one,
Gunnr, Hildr, Göndul
and Geirskögul ;
now are counted
the maiden of the War Leader (Óðinn),
greedy for riding
(across) earth, Valkyries.
Commentaries on s. 30
"Goðþióð” is usually translated by “ people of Goths” where goð means a ‘goth’. This
meaning refers to the usual role of a Valkyrie who selects the heroes who will join Valhöll.
In the context of Ragnarök, however, we can understand that the völva speaks of the “people
of the gods” (goð or guð means ‘god '). This version suggests that the Valkyries are ‘eager’ to
get rid of Óðinn’s supervision, as will happen after Ragnarök. The two meanings are then
both possible.
Skuld is also the name of a Norn, and this word means ‘debt’. This role of “who
demands the debts to be paid” can also be the one of a Valkyrie who is not necessarily
confused with Norn Skuld.
Skögul is undoubtedly related to the verb skaga (De Vries) to project, to exceed = ‘who
holds up’ (before launching axe or lance).
-
Gunnr = Battle, Hildr = Combat, Göndul = “who handles magic, wizard. ” These
names evoke the witches who participated to combat, the ‘alrunæ’.
Geirskögul = “Who holds up a lance. ”
As in the case of Dwarves, the völva simply provides a list of names. The reader is
again supposed to understand the hidden meaning of these names.
This ends the description of Óðinn’s majesty by the völva. The
following stanzas 31, 32 and 33 deal with the myth of Baldr’s death.
They contain the first magic throbbing that will lead the gods
towards Ragnarök.
Stanza 31
31.
Ek sá Baldri, I looked at Baldr
blóðgum tívur, blood-covered divine being,
Óðins barni, Óðinn’s son,
örlög fólgin; (his) örlög hidden;
stóð of vaxinn was standing (fully) grown
völlum hæri in the fields taller
mjór ok mjög fagr slender and very beautiful
mistilteinn. mistletoe.
Comment on the vocabulary
The verb sjá, to see, gives sá in its preterit first person. The name of god Baldr is in the
dative case so that we must read verb sá á (to ‘see on’ = to look at). This meaning will
expands to the two following lines. On the other hand, örlög in line 4 is in the accusative
case, one must thus understand ‘sá’ alone and the völva says that she saw his hidden örlög.
The declension of tívi as tívur is somewhat irregular. This word is used in general in the
plural and its dative is ‘normally’ tívum. Dronke tries to find an explanation to this variation
and she fails finding a convincing one… I’ll certainly not do better than her!
The verb fela, to hide, confuse/entrust, its past participle is folginn.
The adjective hár, high, does hæri in the comparative. Mistletoe is ‘higher’ that the
other trees or plants.
Comment on the meaning of the stanza
After being run through by Höðr’s arrow, Baldr’s corpse has certainly been covered
with blood. If we try to see an allusion here, we can reasonably think of no one else than
Óðinn, wounded by a spear while hanging at the world tree. He had also to be blood-covered,
as described in Hávamál stanza 138. In addition, it seems that the warriors who did not die in
combat could nevertheless join Óðinn in Valhöll by being ‘marked’ with “Óðinn’s sign” by a
spear, another bloody process related to Óðinn.
-
Baldr’s örlög is hidden as everyone’s else. It however seems that Frigg and Óðinn were
informed of anyone’s örlög, as that is noted several times in Eddic poems. Since this stanza
underlines this topic, it must mean that neither Frigg nor Óðinn were able to forsee their
son’s fate, which should surprise us. We already spoke of the gods’ panic when they were
aware of Baldr’s imminent death. Note 3 of the text on “Örlög” http://www. nordic-life.
org/nmh/OrlogEng. htm even says that Óðinn believed that the Hamingjur - certainly those
of the gods’ clan - had left as long as such a disaster could occur. Baldr is the first to die
within the gods’ family and we can easily imagine that his death announces that other Æsir
could die as well. Baldr’s death can thus be looked upon as the first signal of Ragnarök’s
arrival.
The last four last lines further increase the feeling of ‘end of a world’ for the Æsir. One
of the three ‘actors’ in their son’s murder, mistletoe, is proudly standing on the fields, as if
pointing out their ultimate mortality, even if a long-term one. It may seem that the universal
chaos forces have been defeated by the Æsir, but they strikingly, though poetically, force the
Æsir to remember them, through a vigorous mistletoe branch.
We can assume that the name ‘mistletoe’ points at a mythical plant the botanical name
of which is unknown, since it cannot “proudly stand in the fields. ” Celtic religions gave a
mythical status to botanical mistletoe, it quite possible that Norse people chose this name to
point at a magical tree.
A short comment: How happens that Mistletoe appears in Völuspá ?
We will comment later, and more thoroughly, the presence in this stanza of an
aggressively triumphant mistletoe. However, it is also interesting to point out an
interpretation inspired by C. G. Jung’s comments on the links between an ambiguous
maternal archetype and the Frigg-Baldr couple as reported in
https://www.academia.edu/35169010/An_unconscious_mother-
sons_relation_between_Frigg_and_Baldr
This text highlights the possibility for mistletoe to be an unconscious part of Baldr's
psyche, called his ‘shadow’ by Jung. Here this ‘shadow’ grew up and is visibly embodied in
a beautiful tree. We tried to identify this beautiful mistletoe to the person of Christ but it
leads to so many contradictions that this track has been stopped. It is perhaps more necessary
to considerably refine the maternal archetype and probably to link it to Loki to give meaning
to all these myths. This can not be done quickly but it will (hopefully) happen.
Stanza 32
Old Norse
32. Varð af þeim meiði,
er mær (mjór) sýndiz,
harmflaug hættlig,
Höðr nam scióta.
Baldurs bróðir var
of borinn snemma,
sá nam, Óðins sonr,
einnættr vega.
Literal translation
Was of this stick
that slim self-appeared as
harm-elk dangerous
Höðr learned to fling.
Baldur’s brother was
born soon
this one learned, Óðinn’s son,
(in) one night (to) smite.
Comments and explanations
This stanza appears meaningless if it is not
connected to well-known myths.
The four first lines say that mistletoe, slim and
very beautiful (s. 31) was in fact a “fated missile
of harm. ”
The last four lines directly pass to Höðr’s
punishment.