Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/254

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

Poetic Edda

On the way of the slain  thy lover goes with thee,Ottar the young,  the son of Instein."
  Freyja spake:7.[1] "Wild dreams, methinks,  are thine when thou sayestMy lover is with me  on the way of the slain;There shines the boar  with bristles of gold,Hildisvini,  he who was madeBy Dain and Nabbi,  the cunning dwarfs.
8.[2] "Now let us down  from our saddles leap,And talk of the race  of the heroes twain;The men who were born  of the gods above,..............................
9.[3] "A wager have made  in the foreign metalOttar the young  and Angantyr;

    lover with her. Unless Ottar is identical with Oth (cf. Voluspo, 25 and note), which seems most unlikely, there is no other reference to this love affair. The way of the slain: the road to Valhall.

  1. ↑ Various experiments have been made in condensing the stanza into four lines, or in combining it with stanza 8. Hildisvini ("Battle-Swine"): perhaps Freyja refers to the boar with golden bristles given, according to Snorri, to her brother Freyr by the dwarfs. Dain: a dwarf; cf. Voluspo, 11. Nabbi: a dwarf nowhere else mentioned.
  2. ↑ The first line is obviously corrupt in the manuscript, and has been variously emended. The general assumption is that in the interval between stanzas 7 and 8 Freyja and Hyndla have arrived at Valhall. No lacuna is indicated in the manuscript.
  3. ↑ Foreign metal: gold. The word valr, meaning "foreign,"

[220]

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.