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Poetic Edda

So do I write  and color the runes That forth he fares, And to me talks.
159.[1] A thirteenth I know,  if a thane full young With water I sprinkle well;He shall not fall,  though he fares mid the host, Nor sink beneath the swords.
160. A fourteenth I know,  if fain I would name To men the mighty gods;All know I well  of the gods and elves,— Few be the fools know this.
161.[2] A fifteenth I know,  that before the doors Of Delling sang Thjothrörir the dwarf;Might he sang for the gods,  and glory for elves, And wisdom for Hroptatyr wise.
162. A sixteenth I know,  if I seek delight To win from a maiden wise;The mind I turn  of the white-armed maid, And thus change all her thoughts.
  1. ↑ The sprinkling of a child with water was an established custom long before Christianity brought its conception of baptism.
  2. ↑ This stanza, according to Müllenhoff, was the original conclusion of the poem, the phrase "a fifteenth" being inserted only after stanzas 162-165 had crept in. Delling: a seldom mentioned god who married Not (Night). Their son was Dag (Day). Thjothrörir: not mentioned elsewhere. Hroptatyr: Othin.

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