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Hyndluljoth
We must guard, for the hero young to have,His father's wealth, the fruits of his race.
10.[1] "For me a shrine of stones he made,—And now to glass the rock has grown;—Oft with the blood of beasts was it red;In the goddesses ever did Ottar trust.
11.[2] "Tell to me now the ancient names,And the races of all that were born of old:Who are of the Skjoldungs, who of the Skilfings,Who of the Othlings, who of the Ylfings,Who are the free-born, who are the high-born,The noblest of men that in Mithgarth dwell?"
- ↑ To glass: i.e., the constant fires on the altar have fused the stone into glass. Glass beads, etc., were of very early use, though the use of glass for windows probably did not begin in Iceland much before 1200.
- ↑ Possibly two stanzas, or perhaps one with interpolations. The manuscript omits the first half of line 4, here filled out from stanza 16, line 2. Skjoldungs: the descendants of Skjold, a mythical king who was Othin's son and the ancestor of the Danish kings; cf. Snorri's Edda, Skaldskaparmal, 43. Skilfings: mentioned by Snorri as descendants of King Skelfir, a mythical ruler in "the East." In Grimnismol, 54, the name Skilfing appears as one of Othin's many appellations. Othlings: Snorri derives this race from Authi, the son of Halfdan the Old (cf. stanza 14). Ylfings: some editors have changed this to "Ynglings," as in stanza 16, referring to the descendants of Yng or Yngvi, another son of Halfdan, but the reference may be to the same mythical family to which Helgi Hundingsbane belonged (cf. Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I, 5).
and akin to "Welsh," is interesting in this connection, and some editors interpret it frankly as "Celtic," i.e., Irish.
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