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Poetic Edda

unusual difficulties, particularly as many of the Norse words can be properly rendered in English only by more or less extended phrases. I have kept to the original meanings as closely as I could without utterly destroying the metrical structure.

  Alvis spake:1.[1] "Now shall the bride  my benches adorn, And homeward haste forthwith;Eager for wedlock  to all shall I seem, Nor at home shall they rob me of rest."
  Thor spake:2.[2] "What, pray, art thou?  Why so pale round the nose? By the dead hast thou lain of late?To a giant like  dost thou look, methinks; Thou wast not born for the bride."
  Alvis spake:3.[3] "Alvis am I,  and under the earth My home 'neath the rocks I have;
  1. ↑ Alvis ("All-Knowing"): a dwarf, not elsewhere mentioned. The manuscript nowhere indicates the speakers' names. The bride in question is Thor's daughter; Thruth ("Might") is the only daughter of his whose name is recorded, and she does not appear elsewhere in the poems. Her mother was Sif, Thor's wife, whereas the god's sons were born of a giantess. Benches: cf. Lokasenna, 15 and note.
  2. ↑ The dwarfs, living beyond the reach of the sun, which was fatal to them (cf. stanzas 16 and 35), were necessarily pale. Line 3 is, of course, ironical.
  3. ↑ Wagon-guider: Thor, who travels habitually on his goat-drawn wagon. Bugge changes "Vagna vers" to "Vapna verþs,"

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