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Harbarthsljoth

And all my race;  I am Othin's son,Meili's brother,  and Magni's father,The strong one of the gods;  with Thor now speech canst thou get.And now would I know  what name thou hast."
  The ferryman spake:10. "Harbarth am I,  and seldom I hide my name."
  Thor spake:11. "Why shouldst thou hide thy name,  if quarrel thou hast not?"
  Harbarth spake:12.[1] "And though I had a quarrel,  from such as thou artYet none the less  my life would I guard,Unless I be doomed to die."

    giants. Meili: a practically unknown son of Othin, mentioned here only in the Edda. Magni: son of Thor and the giantess Jarnsaxa; after Thor's fight with Hrungir (cf. stanza 14, note) Magni, though but three days old, was the only one of the gods strong enough to lift the dead giant's foot from Thor's neck. After rescuing his father, Magni said to him: "There would have been little trouble, father, had I but come sooner; I think I should have sent this giant to hell with my fist if I had met him first." Magni and his brother, Mothi, inherit Thor's hammer.

  1. ↑ This stanza is hopelessly confused as to form, but none of the editorial rearrangements have materially altered the meaning. Doomed to die: the word "feigr" occurs constantly in the Old Norse poems and sagas; the idea of an inevitable but unknown fate seems to have been practically universal throughout the pre-Christian period. On the concealment of names from enemies, cf. Fafnismol, prose after stanza 1.

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