Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/189
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Lokasenna
At your feast a place and a seat prepare me, Or bid me forth to fare."
Bragi spake:8.[1] "A place and a seat will the gods prepare No more in their midst for thee;For the gods know well what men they wish To find at their mighty feasts."
Loki spake:9.[2] "Remember, Othin, in olden days That we both our blood have mixed;Then didst thou promise no ale to pour, Unless it were brought for us both."
- ↑ Bragi: cf. note on introductory prose. Why Loki taunts him with cowardice (stanzas 11-13-15) is not clear, for poetry, of which Bragi was the patron, was generally associated in the Norse mind with peculiar valor, and most of the skaldic poets were likewise noted fighters.
- ↑ There exists no account of any incident in which Othin and Loki thus swore blood-brotherhood, but they were so often allied in enterprises that the idea is wholly reasonable. The common process of "mingling blood" was carried out quite literally, and the promise of which Loki speaks is characteristic of those which, in the sagas, often accompanied the ceremony; cf. Brot af Sigurtharkvithu, 18 and note.
- ↑ In stanzas 10-31 the manuscript has nothing to indicate the identity of the several speakers, but these are uniformly clear
[155]