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Poetic Edda

I would crush to marrow  this croaker of ill,And beat all his body to bits."
  Loki spake:44.[1] "What little creature  goes crawling there,Snuffling and snapping about?At Freyr's ears ever  wilt thou be found,Or muttering hard at the mill."
  Byggvir spake:45.[2] "Byggvir my name,  and nimble am I,As gods and men do grant;And here am I proud  that the children of HroptTogether all drink ale."
  Loki spake:46. "Be silent, Byggvir!  thou never couldst setTheir shares of the meat for men;Hid in straw on the floor,  they found thee notWhen heroes were fain to fight."
  Heimdall spake:47.[3] "Drunk art thou, Loki,  and mad are thy deeds,Why, Loki, leavst thou this not?

  1. Beginning with this stanza, the names of the speakers are lacking in the manuscript. The mill: i.e., at slaves' tasks.
  2. Nothing further is known of either Byggvir's swiftness or his cowardice. Hropt: Othin.
  3. Heimdall: besides being the watchman of the gods (cf. Voluspo, 27), he appears also as the god of light (cf. Thrymskvitha, 14), and possibly also as a complex cultural deity in the

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