Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/120

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Poetic Edda

Geirröth, and taught him wisdom. In the spring the peasant gave him a boat; and when the couple led them to the shore, the peasant spoke secretly with Geirröth. They had a fair wind, and came to their father's landing-place. Geirröth was forward in the boat; he leaped up on land, but pushed out the boat and said, "Go thou now where evil may have thee!" The boat drifted out to sea. Geirröth, however, went up to the house, and was well received, but his father was dead. Then Geirröth was made king, and became a renowned man.

Othin and Frigg[1] sat in Hlithskjolf[2] and looked over all the worlds. Othin said: "Seest thou Agnar, thy fosterling, how he begets children with a giantess in the cave? But Geirröth, my fosterling, is a king, and now rules over his land." Frigg said: "He is so miserly that he tortures his guests if he thinks that too many of them come to him." Othin replied that this was the greatest of lies; and they made a wager about this matter. Frigg sent her maid-servant, Fulla, to Geirröth. She bade the king beware lest a magician who was come thither to his land should bewitch him, and told this sign concerning him, that no dog was so fierce as to leap at him. Now it was a very great slander that King Geirröth was not hospitable; but nevertheless he had them take the man whom the dogs would not attack. He wore a dark-blue mantle and called himself Grimnir[3], but said no more about himself, though

  1. ↑ Frigg: Othin's wife. She and Othin nearly always disagreed in some such way as the one outlined in this story.
  2. ↑ Hlithskjolf ("Gate-Shelf"): Othin's watch-tower in heaven, whence he can overlook all the nine worlds; cf. Skirnismol, introductory prose.
  3. ↑ Grimnir: "the Hooded One."

[86]

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.