Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/312

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

Poetic Edda

king of Svavaland and had plundered and burned his land. King Hjorvarth took Sigrlin, and Atli took Alof.[1]

(II)

Hjorvarth and Sigrlin had a son, mighty and of noble stature; he was a silent man, and no name[2] stuck fast to him. He sat on a hill, and saw nine Valkyries[3] riding; one of them was the fairest of all. She spake:

6.[4] "Late wilt thou, Helgi,  have hoard of rings,Thou battle-tree fierce,  or of shining fields,—The eagle screams soon,—  if never thou speakest,Though, hero, hard  thy heart may cry."
  Helgi spake:7.[5] "What gift shall I have  with Helgi's name,Glorious maid,  for the giving is thine?
  1. ↑ Sigrlin and Alof, protected by the latter's father, Franmar, have fled before the ravaging army of Sigrlin's rejected suitor, Hrothmar. The beginning of a new section (II) is indicated in the manuscript only by the unusually large capital letter with which "Hjorvarth" begins.
  2. ↑ No name, etc.: this probably means that Helgi had always been so silent that he would answer to no name, with the result that he had none.
  3. ↑ Valkyries: cf. Voluspo, 31 and note. The annotator insists here and in the prose after stanza 9 that Svava was a Valkyrie, but there is nothing in the verse to prove it, or, indeed, to identify the Svava of the last section of the poem with the person who gave Helgi his name. In the Volsungasaga Sigmund himself names his son Helgi, and gives him a sword, following Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I.
  4. ↑ Battle-tree: poetic phrase for "warrior." Shining fields: the words in the manuscript may form a proper name, Rothulsvoll, having this meaning.
  5. ↑ Gift: not only was it customary to give gifts with the naming

[276]

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.