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Poetic Edda

  Svipdag spake:35.[1] "Now answer me, Fjolsvith,  the question I ask, For now the truth would I know:What call they the hounds,  that before the house So fierce and angry are?"
  Fjolsvith spake:36.[2] "Gif call they one,  and Geri the other, If now the truth thou wouldst know;Great they are,  and their might will grow, Till the gods to death are doomed."
  Svipdag spake:37. "Now answer me, Fjolsvith,  the question I ask, For now the truth would I know:May no man hope  the house to enter, While the hungry hounds are sleeping?"
  Fjolsvith spake:38. "Together they sleep not,  for so was it fixed When the guard to them was given;One sleeps by night,  the next by day, So no man may enter ever."
  Svipdag spake:39. "Now answer me, Fjolsvith,  the question I ask, For now the truth would I know:
  1. ↑ The last two lines have been variously emended.
  2. ↑ Gif and Geri: both names signify "Greedy." The first part of line 3 is conjectural; the manuscripts indicate the word "eleven," which clearly fails to make sense.

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